Gary Kelly (footballer born 1974)
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Gary Oliver Kelly | ||
| Date of birth | 9 July 1974 | ||
| Place of birth | Drogheda, Ireland | ||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||
| Playing position | Right back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1989–1990 | Drogheda United | ||
| 1990–1991 | Home Farm | ||
| 1991–1992 | Leeds United | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1992–2007 | Leeds United | 430 | (4) |
| National team | |||
| 1992–1994 | Republic of Ireland U21 | 5 | (0) |
| 1994–2003 | Republic of Ireland | 51 | (2) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Gary Oliver Kelly (born 9 July 1974) is an Irish former footballer who played his entire professional career with Leeds United.
He played as a right back or a right midfielder from 1992 until 2007 and made 531 appearances in total for Leeds, being the only player at Leeds to make more than 500 appearances from outside the stewardship of Don Revie.
Kelly, the youngest of a family of 13, originally started playing football as a striker, and was reasonably successful in this position for Home Farm. However, when he joined Leeds, then boss Howard Wilkinson recognised qualities in him that would make a very good wing-back.
Kelly made his debut for Leeds in the 1991–92 season, although he did not become a regular in the side until the 1993–94 season, when Wilkinson made him his first choice right-back following the injury-induced retirement of Mel Sterland, occasionally filing in at centre back when needed.
He had played just twice in the 1991–92 season, when Leeds were champions of the last old Football League First Division before the FA Premier League was created, and did not qualify for a title winner's medal.
He was selected in the Premier League team of the season for the 1993–94 campaign.
By the end of that season, he had also played himself into Jack Charlton's Republic of Ireland squad that went to the 1994 World Cup in the USA He was one of the "Three Amigos" alongside Phil Babb and Jason McAteer whose youthful exuberance rejuvenated an ageing Irish squad and even scored in a 2–0 victory over Germany in a warm-up friendly before those finals. So consistent were his performances for Leeds over the following number of seasons, Kelly was installed by George Graham as his skipper in the 1997–98 season, at the age of 23.
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