Michael Ball (footballer)
Ball warming-up for Leicester City in 2011
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Michael John Ball | ||
| Date of birth | 2 October 1979 | ||
| Place of birth | Liverpool, Merseyside, England | ||
| Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) | ||
| Playing position | Left-back | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1996–2001 | Everton | 121 | (8) |
| 2001–2005 | Rangers | 55 | (3) |
| 2005–2007 | PSV Eindhoven | 11 | (2) |
| 2007–2009 | Manchester City | 48 | (2) |
| 2011–2012 | Leicester City | 0 | (0) |
| Total | 235 | (15) | |
| National team | |||
| 2001 | England | 1 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Michael John Ball (born 2 October 1979) is a former English professional footballer who played as a left-back.
Family: Ball has three Children - Michael aged 17, Aleisha aged 13 and Leo aged 3.
Ball started his professional career at Everton, making his debut as a 17 year old in 1997. In 2001 he was capped by England, he is also the youngest player to play in the Merseyside derby. In the 2001 close season he joined Rangers in a record £6.5m transfer. In December 2001 he suffered a knee ligament injury which took 18 months to heal. In the 2004-05 season, Ball won League Championship and League Cup medals with Rangers. Before the start of the following season, Ball was signed by world renowned manager Guus Hiddink spending a successful one and a half seasons at PSV winning the Dutch Eredivisie as well as runner up in the KNVB Cup. The departure of Guus Hiddink to manage the Russian National side and arrival of Ronald Koeman as the replacement signalled the sale of Michael to Manchester City, under Stuart Pearce, then Sven Goran Eriksson and lastly Mark Hughes, before signing for Leicester City when is career was caught short to a recurrence of his knee injury. In 2001, he was capped by the England national team under Sven Goran Eriksson
Ball was born in Liverpool. As a schoolboy he was part of the Liverpool youth system, playing alongside Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard. From 1994–1996 he attended the FA's National School at Lilleshall, before joining Everton. He played his first senior match in April 1997 as a substitute against Tottenham, and made his first start a week later at West Ham. Ball developed into an impressive player equally adept at both centre back and his main position, left back. His solid performances for Everton led to an England National Football Team call-up to Sven-Göran Eriksson's first England squad for a friendly against Spain in February 2001. Ball was named as a substitute, and made his debut when he replaced Chris Powell at half-time.
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