Richard Dunne

For other people named Richard Dunne or Dunn, see Richard Dunn (disambiguation).

Richard Dunne

With Ireland in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Richard Patrick Dunne
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Centre back
Team information
Current team	Aston Villa
Number	5
Youth career
1995–1996	Home Farm
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1996–2000	Everton	60	(0)
2000–2009	Manchester City	296	(7)
2009–	Aston Villa	70	(3)
International career‡
2000–	Republic of Ireland	67	(7)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 15:22, 04 September 2011 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 15:22, 04 September 2011 (UTC)

Richard Patrick Dunne (born 21 September 1979 in Tallaght) is an Irish footballer who plays as a defender for Aston Villa and the Irish national football team. He is known for holding the unfortunate record of scoring the most Premier League own goals, with a current tally of nine.

Club career

Everton

Having played schoolboy football in Dublin for Home Farm, Dunne joined Everton as a 15-year-old schoolboy in the 1994–95 season. The next season, he started to play for Everton reserves and in early 1997, Dunne signed a 5-year professional contract. He was part of the successful 1996 FA Youth Cup squad along with Tony Hibbert and Leon Osman.

Dunne made his debut under then manager Joe Royle in 1997, at the age of seventeen.

Manchester City

In the autumn of 2000, he was signed by Manchester City for a fee of £3 million. City had signed both Dunne and Laurent Charvet as replacements for right back Richard Edghill who had suffered from a dip in form.

It was in the centre of defence where Dunne made his biggest impact on the team. Dunne had various partners in the centre of defence in his first season at the club and for a few games he played in a three man defence with Andy Morrison and Steve Howey. His first season saw City relegated into the first division and acquire the services of a new manager, Kevin Keegan. Disciplinary problems in 2003 resulted in a club suspension, and his time at Manchester City looked to be over. However, Dunne returned to the first team following an intensive fitness programme, and within a few months gained an international recall.

A number of consistent performances resulted in Dunne receiving Manchester City's Player of the Year award for 2004–05, which he also won in the 2005–06, 2006–07 and 2007–08 seasons, becoming the first person to win City's PotY award four times. In the 2006 close season, at the age of 26, Dunne was appointed club captain, taking over from Sylvain Distin, amidst rumours of Distin leaving City.

On 18 January 2007, Manchester City teammate Micah Richards said: “Ever since I’ve come to this club Richard has just been quality. I play with him week in, week out and I think he’s one of the best players I’ve played with. I’ve played with John Terry and Rio Ferdinand in the England squad but Richard is right up there with them.”

On 4 July 2008, Dunne signed a new four-year contract with Manchester City to keep him at the club until 2012.

In August 2008, Garry Cook, Chief Executive of City, said "China and India are gagging for football content to watch and we’re going to tell them that City is their content. We need a superstar to get through that door. Richard Dunne doesn’t roll off the tongue in Beijing."

Dunne continued to play throughout 2008/09 making 47 starts in all competitions despite three red cards. He marked his 29th Birthday with a goal in the 6–0 win against Portsmouth on 21 September 2008, while his eighth Premier League red card against Wigan Athletic in January 2009 equalled a record set by Patrick Vieira and Duncan Ferguson.

Aston Villa

Following the signings of Kolo Touré and Joleon Lescott, it was reported that Dunne could leave the City of Manchester Stadium with Aston Villa the most likely destination. Villa confirmed on 27 August 2009, that they had agreed a fee with Manchester City for the defender. Aston Villa filed the paperwork for the deal before the close of the transfer window but the Premier League announced that the deal could not be "ratified" until 2 September 2009, when the deal was completed. Martin O'Neill later stated the fee paid for Dunne was £5 million and that the player had signed a four-year deal.

Dunne made his debut in a 1–0 win over Birmingham City at St. Andrews, courtesy of an 85th minute strike from Gabriel Agbonlahor. Following the game, Dunne heaped praise on new teammates James Collins, Carlos Cuéllar and Stephen Warnock, claiming that their partnership in defence "seems to have worked reasonably well". On 26 September 2010, Dunne played the full 90 minutes alongside James Collins against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park in a 2-1 defeat.

On 5 October 2009, Dunne scored his first goal for Villa, coincidently against his former club Manchester City, in a 1–1 draw. He was applauded by Manchester City fans for his respect in refusing to celebrate his goal. He netted his second goal later that month in the team's 2–1 home victory over Chelsea. He was named in the PFA team of the year for the 2009–2010 season. On 21 November 2010, he started and played the full 90 minutes alongside Ciaran Clark against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park in a disappointing 2-0 defeat. On 11 December 2010, Richard Dunne was dropped from the team and replaced by Carlos Cuellar. Dunne was recalled to the starting line up in the away game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge which villa ended up drawing 3-3. On 1 February 2011, he started and completed the full 90 minutes alongside James Collins in the Barclays Premier League game with Manchester United at Old Trafford in a 3-1 defeat. At the end of the 2010-11 season, Dunne made 35 appearances in all competitions for Villa. Ahead of the new 2011-2012 campaign, new manager Alex McLeish has said because of his aerial ability and such good awareness on the ball he will be an automatic first choice at the back. On 27 July 2011, he started and played the full 90 minutes in the 1-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers in the 2011 Barclays Asia Trophy held in Hong Kong. On 30 July 2011, he started the final with Chelsea and also completed the full 90 minutes in a disappointing 2-0 defeat.

International career

Dunne made his debut for the Republic of Ireland on 26 April 2000 in a 1–0 loss against Greece in a friendly match. His first international goal came just two months later in only his third cap as he scored on June 4 against Mexico helping his team come from 2–0 down to drawing 2–2. He was selected by Mick McCarthy to play against the likes of The Netherlands and Portugal during their successful qualification for the World Cup. His first competitive goal for Ireland came against Estonia in a 2–0 win. He was part of the Irish squad that played at the World Cup but the centre half pairing of Steve Staunton, who was made captain following Roy Keanes departure, and Gary Breen was favoured by Mick McCarthy meaning Dunne did not even make an appearance as a substitute. The emergence of John O'Shea and Brian Kerrs preference of Kenny Cunningham meant that Dunne's chances with Ireland were extremely limited during their unsuccessful Euro 2004 qualification attempt. He did score his third international goal in a friendly against Turkey just prior to the end of the campaign. Dunne again found himself out of favour with Kerr during the qualification for the 2006 World Cup only featuring in the final three matches which included a 1–0 defeat to France, a game that ultimately cost Ireland qualification. Another change of manager for Ireland saw Dunne's former teammate, Steve Staunton, use him during the majority of the Euro 2008 qualification campaign. Early defeats to Germany and a humiliating 5–2 loss to Cyprus, a match in which Dunne scored before giving away a penalty and being sent off, meant qualification always looked beyond the Irish. Dunne only missed three of the twelve matches, due to suspension and injury rather than form. Giovanni Trappatoni was appointed Ireland manager for the 2010 World Cup qualification campaign and with it is has cemented Richard Dunne as Irelands top defender and one of the best players. He played in all ten games helping Ireland finish second and qualify for a play-off whilst also scoring goals in both 1–1 draws with Bulgaria, as well as winning the man of the match award in the game held in Sofia. He also played the entire matches in both legs against France as Ireland were controversially knocked out 2–1 on aggregate. On 8 February 2011, Dunne started and completed the full 90 minutes in Ireland's first Nations Cup game against Wales in a 3-0 win. On 26 March 2011, he started and played the full 90 minutes in the Group B Euro 2012 qualifier against Macedonia in a 2-1 victory at the Aviva Stadium. On Wednesday 10 August 2011, he started and played the full 90 minutes alongside Sean St. Ledger in the goalless draw against Croatia at the Aviva Stadium. On Tuesday 6 September 2011, Dunne started and played the full 90 minutes in the goalless draw against Russia in Moscow. Dunne gave perhaps the best performance of his career to date, winning the man of the match award as he almost single-handedly stopped a Russian team which totally dominated midfield and created wave after wave of attacks, to which former Villa centre half Paul McGrath said it was the best performance from an Irish centre half he had ever witnessed including his own against Italy in the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Honours

Club

Everton

• FA Youth Cup: Winner 1998

Manchester City

• Vodacom Challenge Runner-up: 2009
• Football League First Division: Winner 2001/2002

Aston Villa

• League Cup: Runner up 2010

Individual

• PFA Team of the Year: 2010
• FAI Senior International Player of the Year: 2007

Career statistics

Club

As of 4 September

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1996–97||rowspan="5"|Everton||rowspan="5"|Premier League||7||0||1||0||0||0||0||0||8||0 |- |1997–98||3||0||1||0||0||0||0||0||4||0 |- |1998–99||16||0||2||0||2||0||0||0||20||0 |- |1999–00||31||0||4||0||1||0||0||0||36||0 |- |2000–01||3||0||0||0||1||0||0||0||4||0 |- !colspan="3"|Total !60!!0!!8!!0!!4!!0!!0!!0!!72!!0 |- |2000–01||rowspan="10"|Manchester City||Premier League||25||0||3||0||0||0||0||0||28||0 |- |2001–02||Division 1||43||1||3||0||3||0||0||0||49||1 |- |2002–03||rowspan="8"|Premier League||25||0||0||0||1||0||0||0||26||0 |- |2003–04||29||0||5||0||2||0||4||0||40||0 |- |2004–05||35||1||1||0||0||0||0||0||36||1 |- |2005–06||32||3||5||0||1||0||0||0||38||3 |- |2006–07||38||1||5||0||1||0||0||0||44||1 |- |2007–08||36||0||3||0||3||0||0||0||42||0 |- |2008–09||31||1||1||0||1||0||14||0||47||1 |- |2009–10||2||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||2||0 |- !colspan="3"|Total !296!!7!!26!!0!!12!!0!!18!!0!!352!!7 |- |2009–10||rowspan="3"|Aston Villa||rowspan="3"|Premier League||35||3||4||0||5||0||0||0||44||3 |- |2010–11||32||0||2||0||1||0||0||0||35||0 |- |2011–12||3||0||0||0||1||0||0||0||4||0 |- !colspan="3"|Total !70!!3!!7!!0!!7!!0!!0!!0!!83!!3 |- Template:Football player statistics 5426||10||40||0||23||0||18||0||507||10 Template:Football player statistics end

External links

• Richard Dunne – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Richard Dunne at Soccerbase