Gareth Southgate

Gareth Southgate (born 3 September 1970, England) is a former English football player. He is currently manager of English Premier League side .

His highest achievements in the sport were winning the League Cup with and Middlesbrough. He also reached an FA Cup and UEFA Cup final as a player, and made 57 appearances for the England national team. His playing career ended in May 2006 after he was appointed Middlesbrough manager.

Club career

Crystal Palace

Born in Watford, Hertfordshire, Southgate began his career at Crystal Palace, playing in central midfield. He became captain and led the club to the 1994 Division One title. After the south-London club's relegation from the Premier League, he moved to Aston Villa for a fee of £2.5 million pounds, having made 151 appearances over four seasons.

Aston Villa

At Aston Villa, he was converted into a centre-back and was part of a formidable defence. In his first season, he lifted the League Cup and Aston Villa qualified for the UEFA Cup. Southgate played in every Premier League game during the 1998–99 season. He continued to play for Villa in the 1999–2000 season as Villa reached the FA Cup Final, but handed in a transfer request just before Euro 2000 citing a desire to move in order to "achieve in [his] career". John Gregory, the then manager of Villa, attempted to keep his club captain but after a year on the transfer list he left the club in 2001.

Middlesbrough

Southgate did not sign for one of the major clubs as many predicted but instead became Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren's first signing for the club. This may have partially been due to the opportunity to reunite his defensive pairing with Ugo Ehiogu with whom he was a centre-back at Villa. Immediately he became a firm favourite at the Riverside, winning the club's Player of the Year award in his first season after a series of assured displays whilst receiving no yellow cards.

Southgate was handed the captaincy for the 2002–03 season when Paul Ince left the club and became the first Middlesbrough captain to lift a major trophy when he helped them win the Carling Cup at the Millennium Stadium in February 2004. His season ended shortly after that win, when he suffered knee ligament damage.

There were strong rumours that Southgate could be set for a move to Manchester United following Rio Ferdinand's ban for missing a drug test in January 2004, but it turned out to be nothing more than paper talk. He later committed his final playing years to Middlesbrough, signing until 2007. His final appearance as a professional player was in the UEFA Cup final against Sevilla, which Boro lost 4–0.

Career statistics

|- |1988-89||rowspan="7"|Crystal Palace||Second Division||0||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1989-90||rowspan="3"|First Division||0||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1990-91||1||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1991-92||30||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1992-93||Premier League||33||3|||||||||||||||| |- |1993-94||First Division||46||9|||||||||||||||| |- |1994-95||Premier League||42||3|||||||||||||||| |- |1995-96||rowspan="6"|Aston Villa||rowspan="6"|Premier League||31||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1996-97||28||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1997-98||32||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1998-99||38||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1999-00||31||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2000-01||31||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2001-02||rowspan="5"|Middlesbrough||rowspan="5"|Premier League||37||1|||||||||||||||| |- |2002-03||36||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2003-04||27||1|||||||||||||||| |- |2004-05||36||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2005-06||24||0||||||||||||||||503||26||||||||||||||||503||26|||||||||||||||| |}

International career

Southgate made his debut for England as a substitute against Portugal in December 1995. He was then named in Terry Venables' squad for Euro 1996 on home soil. At the European championship, Southgate played a towering role in England's charge to the semi-finals. However, Southgate's saved penalty against Germany in the semi-final sent the hosts crashing out. The song Southgate (Euro '96) by The Business is a reference to this famous sporting event. Southgate managed to make light of his blunder by appearing in an advert for Pizza Hut which also featured Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle who had also missed crucial penalties.

Southgate also played in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. He had won 57 England caps and was disappointed not to add to the figure during the 2002 FIFA World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea. However, in the penultimate warm-up game ahead of the finals he captained England for the second half of a 1–1 draw with South Korea. His 50th cap came in a 1–1 draw with Portugal at Villa Park in September 2002.

International Goals

Scores and results list England's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Competition	Scored
1	1998-10-14	Stade Josy Barthel, Luxembourg		3–0	Euro 2000 Qualification	1
2	2003-05-22	ABSA Stadium, Durban		2–1	Friendly	1

Management career

Southgate was handed his first managerial role at Middlesbrough in June 2006 after McClaren had left to manage England. His appointment drew controversy as he did not have the required coaching qualifications (the UEFA Pro Licence) to manage a top-flight club. He was allowed to stay on as manager, despite not possessing the required qualifications, by the Premier League in November 2006; Middlesbrough successfully argued that, because Southgate had recently been an international player, he did not have the opportunity to undertake the coaching courses.

In his first season in charge, Southgate guided Middlesbrough to finish 12^th in the Premier League. His biggest win so far as a manager was a 8–1 victory against in May 2008. He was also rated by manager Arsène Wenger as being "good enough" to be England manager in December 2007. He faced some criticism early in the 2007–08 season after Boro had a spell in the relegation zone but they later pulled clear of the bottom three. Gareth Southgate became the first Middlesbrough Manager since Terry Venables in 2001 to win the English Premier Leagues manager of the month award, for August 2008, this was awarded to Southgate on 12th September 2008.

Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Middlesbrough		June 7 2006	Present	92	27	36	29	29.34

Other roles

During the 2003–04 season he became an author, penning Woody & Nord: A Football Friendship with close friend and former West Ham goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman. This book describes an enduring friendship forged in the Crystal Palace youth team that has survived Southgate and Woodman's wildly differing fortunes in the professional game. The book won the Sporting Book of the Year Award for 2004 from the National Sporting Club.

Southgate was also a co-commentator for ITV at the 2006 World Cup, covering group games alongside Clive Tyldesley. His appointment as Middlesbrough manager two days before the start of the tournament meant that he left Germany before the knockout phase commenced, with David Pleat replacing him as Tyldesley's co-commentator.

In 2005 Southgate became a published poet, with a contribution to the collection Roary & Friends.

Personal life

Southgate is the father of two children with his wife Allison.

Controversy

In 1998 Southgate endorsed Bull Boys Shoes in a television advertisement. The advert caused controversy by implying that Gareth had personally autographed every free football received as part of purchase, when in fact the autographs were printed. Complaints about the advert being misleading to youngsters were upheld. The advert also claimed that Southgate was "Champion of the English National Football Team" although no criteria for why he personally held this title above other teamates was ever supplied.

References

External links