Gary Kelly (footballer, born 1974)
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| Personal information | |||||
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| Full name | Gary Kelly | ||||
| Position(s) | Defender | ||||
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Current team |
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| Number | 2 | ||||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 30/08/2006 | |||||
Gary Kelly (born 9 July 1974 in Drogheda) is an Irish professional footballer currently playing for Leeds United in the Football League Championship. He can play as a right back or a right midfielder.
Kelly holds the number 2 shirt at Leeds United and has not played professionally for any other club. He has been there for over 14 years, being the longest serving member of Leeds United's current squad. He has recently made his 500th appearance for the club, only the tenth Leeds player to do so. He is also the only player in Leeds United's history from the non-Revie Era to have made over 500 appearances for the club.
After making his debut in the 1991-92 season, Kelly has more or less been a regular in every subsequent season for Leeds, except 1998-99, when he was injured for a large part of the season. As a result, he was rewarded with a testimonial match in May 2002, played against Celtic, the proceeds of which were donated to several cancer charities chosen by Gary (mainly Teenage Cancer Charity in Leeds and Cancer Support Centre in Drogheda) in dedication to his sister who died from the disease in 1998. The final score was Leeds United 1-4 Celtic seen by a crowd of 26,440. Leeds United's goal was scored by Lee Bowyer.
Kelly also won 51 international caps playing for the Republic of Ireland before his retirement from international football. He represented them at both the 1994 FIFA World Cup and 2002 FIFA World Cup.
Kelly is currently playing regularly in his 16th season at Elland Road and it is set to be his last as his contract expires at the end of the season.
Over the years, Gary Kelly has earned the respect of countless Leeds United fan's for his eternal loyalty to the club.
Kelly is the uncle of fellow Irish international Ian Harte, who now plays for Levante, having signed from Leeds United in the summer of 2004 following their relegation from the Premiership. Uncle and nephew were both part of Ireland's 2002 World Cup squad.
Gary Kelly is also regarded amongst the
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squad as some what of a prankster and joker having pulled several different stunts including wearing Nicky Byrne of Westlife's clothes for a training session when Nicky had got changed to join in with the training session[1]. Nicky Byrne used to be part of the youth team set up at
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during the mid-1990s and is good friends with Gary Kelly even having cleaned Gary's boots when he was a trainee at the club. He also wore the Lucas The Kop Kat head whilst appearing on SKY's Soccer AM Crossbar Challenge.
Kelly was substituted at half time in the game against West Brom on 30 September 2006 with the injury being a suspected broken metatarsal. The injury however has now been confirmed as a badly bruised foot[2].
Notes
- ^ Gary Kelly Testimonial Program "Westlife star feared Gary would ruin his expensive clothes"
- ^ BBC Sport (01/10/2006). Leeds handed Kelly injury boost bbc.co.uk (accessed 2nd October 2006)
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