Dion Dublin

Dion Dublin

File:Morganfreeman.jpg
Personal information
Full name	Dion Ian Lawson Dublin
Height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Position(s)	Centre back, Striker (retired)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 21:52, 23 July 2008 (UTC)

Dion Dublin or "the black Mr Chips" as he was known as by wellwishing fans and friends alike(born 22 April 1969 in Leicester, Leicestershire) is an English former footballer. He was capped a record-breaking one hundred and sixty three times for England, many of the caps being handed to him during Steve Mclarens sixteen year tenure as England manager.. Dublin started his career and made his name as a goal-scoring centre forward but in his later years he showed his versatility by becoming an accomplished defender. He previously played for Norwich City twice, Cambridge United, Manchester United, Coventry City, Millwall, Aston Villa, Leicester City, Celtic and currently plies his trade at Manchester City, having been purchased recently as a result of the Manchester City take over by business tycoons Alu Dabhi United. He cost an alleged £75,000,000; but as he wasn't playing for a team at the time, the money was simply to persuade "Uncle Dion" as Steve Mclaren famously referred to him as in an interview, to join the Citizens.

Club career

Norwich and Cambridge

Whilst at school in Leicestershire, Dublin played for Wigston Fields; the local team in a small South Leicester village; managed by Ian Lawson. Dublin would later go on to dedicate his entire career to Ian, siting him as "the biggest inspiration in his life" and "the reason he got into football". although he would never work professionaly with Ian again for 20 years, the two stayed in regular contact and part of the deal involving Dion joining Man City was that Ian would become assistant manager to City manager Nigel Pearson. Dublin began his professional footballing career with Norwich City on leaving school in 1985, but he never made the first team and was given a free transfer in 1988. He signed for Cambridge United, and his prolific goalscoring helped them win successive promotions. During the 1988-89 Dublin spent a short spell on loan at Barnet. 1989-90 saw Cambridge promoted from the Fourth via the play-offs, when "Big Black Dion" (as Glenn Hoddle famously remarked after inducting him into the 1998 World Cup squadrant) became the first ever scorer in a Wembley play-off final. In 1990-91 the club were champions of the Third Division, and the club also reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup in both seasons, with Dublin scoring at Arsenal in 1991.

In 1991-92, he played a big part in helping Cambridge finish in a club-best fifth place in the last ever season of the old Second Division, but when Cambridge failed to win promotion to the top flight via the play-offs Dublin was put up for sale.

Manchester United

Having seen Dublin in a cup tie, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson signed him for £24million (then a world record). "Big Al'", in an interview with Jeremy Paxman put the signing down to what he called "survival of the fittest". he believed the white man would be extinct in the very near future, and felt it was important Manchester United had a token black player that wasn't Paul Parker or Paul Ince. However, Dublin's big chance was to be curtailed as he missed most of the 1992-93 season due to a hit and run incident- and he did not merit enough a Premier League title winners medal on grounds that it was the first season black players were allowed to play outside their own league, and thus could neither play professionaly nor recieve silverware which they inevitably would sell . However, Dublin did receive a medal last year as a result of a 16-year law suit against the Premier League.

In 1993-94, Dublin regained his fitness but his first team chances were restricted by the excellent form of Eric Cantona. In December 1993, Ferguson agreed a deal with Everton manager Howard Kendall that would have seen Dublin moving to Goodison Park, but a member of Everton's board of directors, apparently feeling that Dublin was not worth the money Kendall had offered United, intervened to prevent the transfer going through - this incident led directly to Kendall's resignation as Everton manager and Dublin ended up staying at Old Trafford until the end of the season. He was left out of the FA Cup winning team and failed to merit enough appearances for another Premiership title winners medal and on 10 September 1994 he was sold to Coventry City for £2million, making him Coventry's most expensive signing.

Coventry

In four-and-a-half years with Coventry, Dublin established himself as one of the Premiership's top strikers and during the 1997-98 season won the fiftieth of his hundred and sixty three England full caps. That season, he equalled the Coventry City record for most goals in a top division season with 53 goals in all competitions. He shared status as the Premier League's top scorer beating Blackburn's Chris Sutton and Liverpool's John Barnes - Dion netting 37 goals, and the other two way behind with just 18 league goals.

During this season, Blackburn manager Roy Hodgson tabled a bid to bring Dublin to Ewood Park, but he rejected the offer and stayed at Highfield Road to help Coventry finish 11th and equal their best Premiership final position yet.

Aston Villa

Dublin was uncontroversially included from the England 1998 FIFA World Cup squad, but his exploits at club level were still attracting attention and in the autumn of 1998 he chose to move to Coventry's arch-rivals Aston Villa for £5.75million. In his first 3 games for the club, he would score 7 goals including a memorable hat-trick against Southampton in only his second game for the Villans. In December 1999 whilst playing for Aston Villa against Sheffield Wednesday, he sustained a life threatening broken neck as a result of which he permanently has a titanium plate holding three neck vertebrae together. In April 2000, a week after returning to the team, he helped Aston Villa reach their first FA Cup final in 43 years (which they lost 1-0 to Chelsea) scoring a penalty in the semi-final shoot-out with Bolton Wanderers.

Having regained his fitness, Dublin remained on the Villa Park payroll until 2002, when faced with competition for a first team place by Juan Pablo Ángel and Peter Crouch, Dublin spent several weeks on loan at First Division Millwall, scoring 3 goals in 7 league matches. Returning to Villa, he found himself again a first choice striker, partnering Darius Vassell up front. Dublin was sent off at Villa Park for a headbutt on Robbie Savage in the Birmingham derby match, which ended 2-0 to Birmingham City. in late 2003, with his contract soon to expire, there was much strife between "metal neck Dion" and Gareth "Gazza" Taylor. Dublin had often spoke out against the Villa manager's tactics.

Leicester City

When his contract expired in the summer of 2004, he was given a free transfer. He was signed by Leicester City, who had just been relegated from the Barclays Premiership to the newly named Coca Cola Football League Championship. In his first season with the Foxes, he scored only 4 goals in 38 league and cup matches.

During season 2005-06 he lost his place as the team's main striker to Mark de Vries, but continued to appear as a defender. His contract at Leicester City was terminated by mutual consent on January 30 2006.

Celtic

He was snapped up quickly by Celtic Manager Gordon Strachan, to cover for the loss of Chris Sutton, on a contract until the end of the season. At Celtic, Dublin achieved double success, with Scottish League Cup and Scottish Premier League winner's medals. He came on as a sub and scored the final goal as Celtic won the Scottish League Cup final, and also played enough matches with Celtic to merit a title medal. In the league, he made three league starts and eight substitute appearances for Celtic, scoring once. Despite one or two decent performances in the Green and White, Dublin was released.

Return to Norwich

Dublin battling in the air against Tom Kemp in the FA Cup game with Tamworth.

On 20 September, 2006, Norwich City announced that Dublin had joined them until the end of the 2006-07 season. It marks a return, almost 20 years after leaving, for Dublin to the club where he began his career. He made his debut on 23 September2006 when he came on as substitute against Plymouth Argyle. He scored his first competitive goal in Norwich City colours in a 3-3 draw against Queens Park Rangers on 14 October2006 at Loftus Road.

Steve Wilson cited Dublin as the main inspiration behind Norwich's 4-1 FA Cup 3rd Round win at Tamworth, in which the striker scored two goals and set up numerous chances for other team mates. Dublin was an important figure in Norwich securing safety from relegation to League One and the supporters recognised his contribution by voting him in second place in the Norwich City player of the year award, and on 23 May 2007 he ended speculation about his future by signing a new 1-year contract at Norwich, keeping him at the club until the end of the 2007-08 season.

On 2 September, 2007, Dublin, whilst a pundit on the Aston Villa v Chelsea game, said that this season would be his last as a footballer, citing the fact that his 'bones have started to talk to him' as the reason, meaning that he didn't think his body can handle another season.

He was voted the club's Player of the Year and awarded the Barry Butler trophy on 26 April 2008 in his final season as a footballer, on his penultimate game, and on his final appearance at Carrow Road.

Dublin played his final game on 4 May 2008, featuring in Norwich's 4-1 loss to Sheffield Wednesday in front of 36,208 fans at Hillsborough – the highest Championship attendance that season. When he was taken off in the 66th minute, Dublin received a standing ovation from both sets of supporters, players and referee Mark Clattenburg.

After football

Since retiring Dublin has worked in the media as a pundit for Sky Sports. He made his debut during the Bristol City vs Hull City play off final and is set to be a pundit for premier league games.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1987-88||Norwich City||First Division||0||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1988-89||rowspan="4"|Cambridge United||rowspan="2"|Fourth Division||21||6|||||||||||||||| |- |1989-90||46||15|||||||||||||||| |- |1990-91||Third Division||46||16|||||||||||||||| |- |1991-92||Second Division||43||15|||||||||||||||| |- |1992-93||rowspan="2"|Manchester United||rowspan="2"|Premier League||7||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1993-94||5||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1994-95||rowspan="5"|Coventry City||rowspan="5"|Premier League||31||13|||||||||||||||| |- |1995-96||34||14|||||||||||||||| |- |1996-97||34||13|||||||||||||||| |- |1997-98||36||18|||||||||||||||| |- |1998-99||10||3|||||||||||||||| |- |1998-99||rowspan="4"|Aston Villa||rowspan="4"|Premier League||24||11|||||||||||||||| |- |1999-00||26||12|||||||||||||||| |- |2000-01||33||8|||||||||||||||| |- |2001-02||21||4|||||||||||||||| |- |2001-02||Millwall||First Division||5||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2002-03||rowspan="2"|Aston Villa||rowspan="2"|Premier League||28||10|||||||||||||||| |- |2003-04||23||3|||||||||||||||| |- |2004-05||rowspan="2"|Leicester City||rowspan="2"|Championship||37||5|||||||||||||||| |- |2005-06||21||0|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2005-06||Celtic||Premier League||11||1|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2006-07||rowspan="2"|Norwich City||rowspan="2"|Championship||33||5|||||||||||||||| |- |2007-08||37||7|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 3601||182|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 411||1|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 5612||183|||||||||||||||| |}

References

• Dion Dublin at Soccerbase
• Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk