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John O'Shea
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John O'Shea (born April 30, 1981 in Waterford, Ireland) is a
professional football player, who currently plays for Manchester
United.
O'Shea made his professional debut in 1999 against Aston Villa
at Villa Park. Following loan spells at Bournemouth and Royal
Antwerp he returned to Manchester and made his mark on the
United first team in the 2002/03 season, proving his versatility
by playing at left-back, right-back, centre-back and central
midfield during the successful Premiership campaign.
O'Shea earned his first senior cap for the Republic of Ireland
on 15 August 2001, when he came on as an 84th minute substitute
at home to Croatia. Unfortunately, his debut ended in
disappointment when he gave away a penalty in injury time and
the game ended 2-2.
After an excellent debut season, where he famously nutmegged
Real Madrid's Luis Figo in a Uefa Champion's League match, in
which he inspired a terrace chant sung to the tune of The
Beatles' 'Yesterday', this star has been on the wane. In the
2003/04 season he frustrated many Manchester United supporters
with a series of technically inept, slow and clumsy performances
before being pushed down in the pecking order by the arrival of
Gabriel Heinze. He displayed indifferent form in the 2004/05
season and was linked with a move away from Manchester, with
Newcastle and Liverpool being linked with the Irishman. One of
the highlights of Manchester United's otherwise slightly
disappointing season was the 2-4 away victory against Arsenal,
in which O'Shea scored an incredible fourth goal by chipping
Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia. What followed was a bizarre
celebration where it appeared he didn't know what to do with
himself, perhaps due to his suprisingly brilliant finish, as
well the elation to be comprehensively beating one of the
Premiership's strongest teams. Others believe that O'Shea was
attempting to imitate the "celebration" of United legend, Eric
Cantona, when he scored a brilliant goal into the top left
corner. In the 2005/06 season, O'Shea was kept out of the team
by the left-back Gabriel Heinze, until the Argentinian picked up
a serious injury which will reportedly force him to miss the
majority of the season. An injury to Gary Neville also gave
O'Shea more first-team opportunities. He has been criticised for
his lacklustre performances this season, and is reportedly one
of the players lambasted by United veteran Roy Keane in a recent
interview on the club's MUTV channel. O'Shea is a regular
fixture in the Republic of Ireland national team. |
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