Martin Keown

Martin Keown

Personal information
Full name	Martin Raymond Keown
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Position(s)	Defender

Martin Raymond Keown (born 24 July 1966 in Oxford, England) is a former English footballer, who spent much of his career at Arsenal, with stints at Aston Villa and Everton as well. He is now a part-time scout for Arsenal and part time coach of the Oxford University Blues.

Club career

A tough and uncompromising centre back from Oxford, Keown played for local sides as a boy, before joining Arsenal on a schoolboy contract in 1980, though he made his professional debut on loan at Brighton & Hove Albion in 1984. Keown returned to Arsenal to make 22 appearances, before being sold by new Arsenal boss George Graham to Aston Villa in 1986. Keown played for Villa for three seasons, before moving to Everton in the summer of 1989.

In February 1993, Keown was re-signed by his old club, Arsenal, for £2 million. Keown competed with Steve Bould for the second central defence place alongside Tony Adams. Keown didn't feature in Arsenal's FA Cup and League Cup double of 1993 due to being cup-tied, and was only a substitute in Arsenal's Cup Winners' Cup win over Parma the following year. However, he became an integral part of Arsène Wenger's double Double winning sides of 1998 and 2002.

In the 2003-2004 season, during Arsenal and Manchester United's match at Old Trafford, Manchester United were awarded a late penalty, with the score at 0-0. Ruud van Nistelrooy stepped up to take the penalty, and hit the bar with it. After the penalty, Keown and Ray Parlour confronted van Nistelrooy because of the manner in which he had earlier attempted to get their team mate Patrick Vieira sent off.

Keown remained at Arsenal until 2004, winning another Premier League title, before being released on a free transfer. He signed for Leicester City, but left after less than six months (it was rumoured he had fallen out with Leicester boss Micky Adams), and signed for Reading in January 2005 until the end of the season, whereupon he retired from the game.

Keown joined the coaching staff of Newbury in August 2005, but is now coaching back at former club Arsenal where he is taking his coaching badges. He has been identified by former Arsenal manager Terry Neill as a key figure behind the success of Arsenal's inexperienced "new-look" defence (which the team resorted to after ongoing injury problems in the 2005/06 season, notably setting a record for minutes played without conceding in the Champions League). Martin is also a coach for the Oxford University Blues Football team on a part time basis.

International career

Martin played U16 and U18 for England. When it was learnt that both his parents were Irish, Jack Charlton enquired about his availability to play for the Republic of Ireland but found that he was not eligible due to his underage games. He made his England debut in 1992 against France. With an injury to Mark Wright he was called up into England's squad for Euro '92, and played in all three of England's matches.

Keown's early ascension to the England team under Graham Taylor did not continue under Terry Venables, who ignored him completely. Keown earned a recall from Glenn Hoddle in 1997, and went to the 1998 World Cup, but did not play. Keown became a regular under Kevin Keegan (captaining the side against Finland) and played in two of England's Euro 2000 matches. By the time Sven-Göran Eriksson became manager, Keown's age was starting to count against him, though he went to the 2002 World Cup, again as a non-playing squad member. In all he played 43 times for England, scoring two goals.

Management

In November 2008, Martin Keown agreed to discuss joining Portsmouth's coaching staff with manager, and former Arsenal central defensive partner, Tony Adams.

Honours

• Premiership Championship Winner 1998, 2002 & 2004
• FA Cup Winner 1998, 2002 & 2003
• UEFA Cup Runner-Up 2000
• FA Cup Runner-up 2001
• 43 England caps

External links

• Martin Keown at Soccerbase