Dion Dublin

Norwich City

Dublin was born in Leicester. While at school he played for several Leicestershire youth teams, including Wigston Fields and Thurmaston Magpies. He then went on to begin his professional footballing career with Norwich City after leaving school in 1985, but never made a first-team appearance and was released by the club in 1988.

Cambridge United

In August 1988, Dublin joined Cambridge United on a free transfer, as a centre-forward, which had been his position at Norwich City. However, due to injuries he had to make a number of appearances at centre-half. His prolific goalscoring helped United to successive promotions. During the 1988–89 season, Dublin was then loaned out for short spells in the Conference with Barnet and Wycombe Wanderers. The 1989–90 season saw Cambridge promoted from the Fourth Division via the play-offs, when Dublin became the first ever scorer in a Wembley play-off final. In the 1990–91 season, the club were champions of the Third Division, and the club also reached the quarter-final of the FA Cup in both seasons, with Dublin scoring at Arsenal in 1991. In the 1991–92 season, he played a big part in helping Cambridge to their highest ever finishing position in the football league, by finishing in fifth place in the last season of the old Second Division, but when Cambridge failed to win promotion to the new Premier League via the play-offs, Dublin was put up for sale. He has since spoken many times of his affection for…

The 28-year-old earned his first cap for England on 11 February 1998, playing the whole 90 minutes in the 2–0 friendly defeat to Chile at Wembley Stadium. In the run-up to the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Dublin played in the King Hassan II International Cup Tournament in May, starting in the 1–0 win against Morocco, and coming off the bench in 0–0 draw with Belgium, a game England lost on penalties. Despite showing good form and versatility throughout the season, including finishing joint top scorer in the Premier League with 18 goals, Glenn Hoddle included Les Ferdinand ahead of Dublin in his 22-man squad for the tournament in France. On 18 November, he started in the 2–0 friendly win against the Czech Republic at Wembley Stadium. This turned out to be Dublin's last cap for his country. He won four caps for England but did not score any goals.

Since retiring from football, Dublin has worked in the media as a pundit for Sky Sports. As well as appearing on Ford Super Sunday with Richard Keys, Dublin has commentated on a number of games including the UEFA Champions League games with Martin Tyler. He has also been a member of the panel on BBC Radio 5 Live's Fighting Talk. He has also co-presented 606 on BBC Radio 5 Live, Match of the Day 2 and was also a regular on BBC One's Late Kick Off in the East region. He joined Lucy Alexander and Martin Roberts on Homes Under the Hammer in 2015. Also for the BBC, he has appeared as a regular pundit for BBC Sport namely on Football Focus, Match of the Day or Final Score. He also occasionally provides co-commentary on live televised FA Cup games. In August 2021 it was announced that Dublin would be a competitor on BBC's Celebrity MasterChef. He reached the final.

Away from football, during his spell with Norwich, he invented a percussion instrument called The Dube, a form of cajón. In 2011, he accompanied Ocean Colour Scene during a gig at the University of East Anglia. In July 2021, Dublin was appointed as a club director at former club Cambridge United.