Stephen Kelly

Tottenham Hotspur

Kelly was born in Dublin, where he played football for Belvedere before joining Tottenham Hotspur through their youth programme. He was something of an understudy to Stephen Carr (who was subsequently transferred to Newcastle United) and then to Paul Stalteri. He made his Spurs first team debut in 2003 and then went on to make 37 Premier League appearances, scoring two league goals, against Birmingham City and Aston Villa.

Birmingham City

Birmingham City were reported to have agreed a deal to sign Kelly in January 2006 before Tottenham's shortage of defenders put a stop to the move. He did join Birmingham, however, on 28 June for an initial fee of £750,000, potentially rising to £1.25 million depending on his success with the club. He made 36 appearances in the 2006–07 Championship as Birmingham were promoted as runners-up. Kelly was the only outfield player in the 2007–08 Premier League season to play every minute of every game for his club.

Stoke City (loan)

On 4 February 2009, Kelly joined Stoke City on loan from Birmingham City until the end of the 2008–09 season. Stoke City had to wait for 36 hours after the January transfer window shut for confirmation of the deal. Kelly made his Stoke debut in their next game, a 2–0 defeat to Sunderland, but picked up a hamstring injury while on international duty which kept him out of Stoke's next fixture.

Fulham

On 16 June 2009, Kelly signed a three-year contract with…

Kelly won Irish caps at junior levels and became a member of the senior Irish national squad, making his debut versus Chile. He represented the Republic of Ireland Under-16 team at the 2000 UEFA European Under-16 Football Championship and the Under-20 team at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship. On 29 March 2011, Kelly was named as Ireland captain for the friendly against Uruguay at the Aviva Stadium. He was a squad member at UEFA Euro 2012 but saw no game time. Then, despite injuries to Richard Dunne and Sean St Ledger, manager Giovanni Trapattoni left him on the bench for the 6-1 home defeat to Germany in 2014 World Cup qualifying. Days later, Kelly had a training ground row with assistant manager Marco Tardelli, and was left so upset by the incident that he did not want to board the plane for the game against the Faroe Islands.

Club

International

Birmingham City

Championship runner-up: 2006–07 Fulham

UEFA Europa League runner-up: 2009–10 International

Nations Cup: 2011