Kevin Doyle
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Kevin Edward Doyle | ||
Height | 1.82 m (5 ft 11+1⁄2 in) | ||
Position(s) | Forward | ||
Team information | |||
Current team | Wolverhampton Wanderers | ||
Number | 29 | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
2002–2003 | St Patrick's Athletic | 10 | (0) |
2003–2005 | Cork City | 76 | (25) |
2005–2009 | Reading | 155 | (55) |
2009– | Wolverhampton Wanderers | 58 | (14) |
International career‡ | |||
2002–2005 | Republic of Ireland U21 | 11 | (6) |
2006– | Republic of Ireland | 41 | (9) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 6 March 2011 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 9 February 2011 |
Kevin Edward Doyle (born 18 September 1983) is an Irish international footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers.
He played for St Patrick's Athletic, and Cork City in his homeland before he moved to English side Reading. He was part of Reading's record-breaking promotion to the Premier League in 2006. In June 2009, he moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers for a club record £6.5 million.
Club career
Early career
Doyle signed for his first professional club St Patrick's Athletic in September 2001 on a free agent. Doyle initially played for the club's under 18 side but within months had made his League of Ireland début.
Cork City
He then had a successful spell with Cork City, who he joined in February 2003, linking up with his former St. Patrick's Athletic manager Pat Dolan, who had recently taken over at Turner's Cross. Doyle scored 25 goals for Cork City where he began playing on the right-wing but soon reverted to his natural position of striker. He also scored two goals from six appearances in the 2004 UEFA Intertoto Cup, including the winner against Dutch side NEC Nijmegen.[1] [2]
Reading
On 7 June 2005, Doyle signed for Reading on a two year deal from Cork City Ireland [1] for €117,000[2] (about £78,000).[3] Despite having left Cork City, Doyle received a championship medal when they won the League of Ireland Premier Division in November 2005. Originally, he was signed as a back-up, but an injury to Dave Kitson gave him an opportunity in the first team which he retained thanks to a number of important goals along the way to 19 in total including the equalising goal at Leicester City that got the Royals promoted to the Premier League for the first time in their history on 25 March 2006. He became an intrinsic part of Reading's Championship-winning 2005–06 squad, and according to the Actim Index was one of the top players in the Championship.[4] He was named the official Reading FC player of the season for 2005–06.[5] In April 2006, he was also named as Championship Fans' Player Of The Year[6] and one of the Championship Team of the Year[7] by the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA).
Doyle played an important role for Reading in the 2006–07 Premier League season. His first Premiership goal came in the Royals' 2–1 defeat at Aston Villa, when he headed Reading in to a third-minute lead. Doyle began to show a great threat in the air, during the year 2007 he scored more headers than any other player in England's leagues.He was nominated for the young pfa player of the year but lost out to Cesc Fabregas. He finished the season with 13 premier league goals after being curtailed with a torn hamstring for two months.Reading were relegated in the 2007–08 season, but they decided to hold onto Doyle and many of their top players.
On 1 September 2008, he was linked with a move to Aston Villa but in the end the striker remained at Reading.
Doyle remained at Reading to try and help them bounce back to the top flight in the 2008–09 season.He scored 18 league goals but the club failed to achieve promotion after finishing fourth and losing in the play-offs to Burnley.
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Doyle joined newly-promoted Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers for an undisclosed fee, reported to be a club record £6.5 million, in a four-year deal on 30 June 2009.[8][9] Almost immediately he underwent an operation to remove a hernia which hindered his pre season.[10] A further minor injury picked up whilst playing for the Republic of Ireland meant Doyle was forced to sit out the start of the 2009–10 Premier League campaign before making his Wolves debut as a half-time substitute at Manchester City on 22 August.[11] He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–1 home win against Fulham a month later, the first of nine goals to date. As the season has progressed, Doyle has been employed as the spearhead in a 4–5–1 formation as the club battled and avoided relegation, helping the club finish 15th and picking up the Players' Player of the Season Award. On 5 February 2011, Doyle scored the winning goal against Manchester United at Molineux to win the game 2-1, and to end United's 29 match unbeaten run.
International career
Doyle has played for the Republic of Ireland U21 team, making his debut on 2 February 2004 against Portugal. With 11 caps, and scoring six goals making him joint top scorer at that grade, he was also a member of the Irish FIFA World Youth Championship squad in 2003.[12] Scored against Colombia [3]
He was called up to the senior Republic of Ireland squad in October 2005,[13] making his full international debut against Sweden at Lansdowne Road on 1 March 2006.[14] His first start in a competitive international was against Germany on 2 September 2006 in a Euro 2008 qualifier.[15] With this appearance, his family also won a €100 bet at 100/1 they had placed two years earlier on Doyle playing competitively for Ireland.[16]
Doyle scored his first goal for Ireland against San Marino in November 2006.[17] He was then named the official Football Association of Ireland Young Player of 2006 on 4 February 2007, also receiving a nomination for the senior award.[18]
His second goal came in a 1–0 victory over Slovakia at Croke Park in March 2007.[19] He also scored against Ecuador on 23 May 2007 securing a valiant 1–1 draw against the South Americans,[20] and he scored his best goal for Ireland, with a long-range left-foot shot into the top corner to the keeper's right, in a 2–2 draw against Slovakia on 9 September 2007 in the 2008 European Championships qualifying game in Bratislava.[21] His fifth international goal and fourth in the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign came away to Wales as Ireland drew 2–2.
During 2010 World Cup qualifying, Doyle established himself as Robbie Keane's ideal strike partner in the national team's attacking quartet that included Damien Duff and Aiden McGeady.[22] He played in 8 of the 10 games, scoring two goals, including the first in a 2–1 win in the opening game against Georgia. He also scored against Cyprus, his seventh international goal, in a 2–1 win in Nicosia. In the absence of Robbie Keane, Shay Given and other players who had been allowed to return to their clubs, Doyle captained Ireland for the first time in a friendly against South Africa on the 8 September 2009.[23]
Doyle has been nominated as the Football Association of Ireland Player of the Year for 2007 and won the award in 2009,[24][25] as well as for Goal of the Year for his goal against Slovakia in September 2007.[24] Doyle scored his ninth international goal, and first in 2012 European Championships qualification, against Andorra at the Aviva Stadium on 7 September 2010. On 6 February 2011, Doyle was named Republic Of Ireland Player of the Year for 2010, while he also earned the Goal of the Year award for Ireland, for his superb strike in last September's Euro 2012 qualifier against Andorra.[26]
International goals
- Scores and results list Ireland's goal tally first.
Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | (Tally) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2006-11-15 | Lansdowne Road, Dublin | San Marino | 2-0 | 5–0 | Euro 2008 qualifying | 1 |
2007-03-28 | Croke Park, Dublin | Slovakia | 1-0 | 1–0 | Euro 2008 qualifying | 2 |
2007-05-23 | Giants Stadium, New York | Ecuador | 1-1 | 1–1 | Friendly match | 3 |
2007-09-09 | Tehelné Pole, Bratislava | Slovakia | 1-2 | 2–2 | Euro 2008 qualifying | 4 |
2007-11-17 | Millennium Stadium, Cardiff | Wales | 1-2 | 2–2 | Euro 2008 qualifying | 5 |
2008-09-06 | Stadion am Bruchweg, Mainz | Georgia | 0-1 | 1-2 | 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying | 6 |
2009-09-05 | Neo GSP Stadium, Nicosia | Cyprus | 0-1 | 2–1 | 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying | 7 |
2010-05-25 | RDS Arena, Dublin | Paraguay | 1-0 | 2–1 | Friendly match | 8 |
2010-09-07 | Aviva Stadium, Dublin | Andorra | 2-0 | 3–1 | Euro 2012 qualifying | 9 |
Career statistics
Club | Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | ||
Wolves | 2010–11 | 24 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 9 |
2009–10 | 34 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 9 | |
Wolves Total | 54 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 63 | 16 | |
Reading | 2008–09 | 42 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 42 | 18 |
2007–08 | 36 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 36 | 6 | |
2006–07 | 32 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 13 | |
2005–06 | 45 | 18 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 56 | 19 | |
Reading Total | 155 | 55 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 163 | 56 | |
Career Total | 209 | 67 | 7 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 226 | 72 | |
Last updated 6 November 2010 |
Honours
Cork City
Reading
- Football League Championship: 1
- First Division PFA Team of the Year: 1
- 2005–06 Player of the Year
References
- ^ "Reading complete double Cork deal". BBC Sport. 7 June 2005. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
- ^ "Own Goal – The Slow Death of Irish Soccer". The Dubliner. 2006. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
{{cite web}}
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ignored (help) - ^ Doyle, Paul (16 August 2006). "Bargain buy set to hit the heights". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 28 March 2008.
- ^ "Coca-Cola Championship Top 10 players". PA Sport. 4 May 2006. Archived from the original on 23 April 2006. Retrieved 16 May 2006.
- ^ "Doyle wins player of the season after his superb first campaign for the Royals". readingfc.co.uk. 2 May 2006. Retrieved 2 February 2008.
- ^ "Rooney's top dog in the Prem – and there are divisional awards for Doyle, Flahavan and Hawley too". Professional Footballers' Association. 26 April 2006. Archived from the original on 3 September 2006. Retrieved 16 May 2006.
- ^ "The PFA Team of the Year: Coca-Cola Championship". Professional Footballers' Association. 23 April 2006. Archived from the original on 20 October 2006. Retrieved 16 May 2006.
- ^ "Wolves make Doyle record signing". BBC Sport. 30 June 2009.
- ^ "Doyle – No Wolves doubts". Sky Sports. 30 June 2009. Retrieved 30 June 2009.
- ^ "Doyle has hernia operation". Sky Sports. 22 July 2009.
- ^ "Man City 1–0 Wolverhampton". BBC Sport. 22 August 2010.
- ^ "FIFA World Youth Championship 2003 – Ireland Squad". FIFA. 23 April 2006. Archived from the original on 28 August 2006. Retrieved 16 May 2006.
- ^ "Doyle called up to Republic squad". BBC Sport. 27 September 2005. Retrieved 29 March 2007.
- ^ "Rep of Ireland 3–0 Sweden". BBC Sport. 1 March 2006. Retrieved 29 March 2007.
- ^ "Germany 1–0 Republic of Ireland". BBC Sport. 2 September 2006. Retrieved 29 March 2007.
- ^ "Father to collect on Doyle bet". The Times. London. 2 September 2006. Retrieved 8 January 2008. [dead link]
- ^ "Rep of Ireland 5–0 San Marino". BBC Sport. 15 November 2006. Retrieved 29 March 2007.
- ^ "Doyle receives top Irish young player award". ReadingFC.co.uk. 5 February 2007. Retrieved 5 February 2007.
- ^ "Republic of Ireland 1–0 Slovakia". BBC Sport. 28 March 2007. Retrieved 29 March 2007.
- ^ "Ecuador 1–1 Ireland". ESPNsoccernet. 23 May 2007. Retrieved 27 August 2007.
- ^ "Slovakia 2–2 Rep of Ireland". BBC Sport. 8 September 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
- ^ Quartet key to Irish formula
- ^ Kevin Doyle's fast-track to the top
- ^ a b "FAI and eircom announce nominations for eircom International Awards". Football Association of Ireland. 20 December 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2007.
- ^ "Duo up for player of the year". ReadingFC.co.uk. 20 December 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2007.
- ^ "Doyle lands top award". Irish Independent. 2011-2-7. Retrieved 2011-2-7.
{{cite web}}
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External links
- Official club profile
- Kevin Doyle at Soccerbase
- Use dmy dates from November 2010
- 1983 births
- Living people
- People from County Wexford
- Republic of Ireland association footballers
- Association football forwards
- Gaelic footballers who switched code
- St Patrick's Athletic F.C. players
- Cork City F.C. players
- Reading F.C. players
- Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players
- Republic of Ireland international footballers
- Republic of Ireland under-21 international footballers
- Premier League players
- League of Ireland players