Micah Richards

Early career

Although Richards was born in Birmingham, he grew up in Chapeltown, Leeds. Richards began playing football when he was young and played for the Leeds United youth system as a striker, but was released when he was around eight years old. He also represented Leeds Schools FA (Leeds City Boys) at a young age. Richards later moved to playing in either the centre-back or right-back positions. He later played for the Oldham Athletic youth system, moving to Manchester City as a 14-year-old, with Oldham reputedly having a 20 per cent sell-on clause. In July 2006, Manchester City reportedly tried to buy out the clause but Oldham refused. He also attended the Brazilian Soccer Schools scheme and retains strong links with the programme, with his father Lincoln running a Brazilian Soccer School in Chapeltown. Richards progressed through Manchester City's youth system. Despite initially struggling to get a YTS contract, he later signed his first professional contract with the club in 2005.

Manchester City

In the summer of 2005, Richards was called up by Manchester City's first team for the Premier League Asia Trophy. He was later promoted to the first team in early October 2005. Richards made his first-team debut on 22 October 2005 against Arsenal, coming on as a substitute for Danny Mills in the 85th minute of a 1–0 defeat at Highbury. After the match, he said it was the most memorable day of his life. It was not until 1 February 2006 that he made another…

England youth team

Richards made two appearances for the England under-16 side. For the next two years, he was called up to England U18 and England U19.

England under-21 team

On 16 August 2006, Richards made his England U21 debut, playing the whole game, in a 2–2 draw against Moldova U21. During a 2–0 win over German under-21s on 10 October 2006, opposition player Aaron Hunt racially abused both Richards and Anton Ferdinand, leading Hunt to be banned for two matches. This led the German Football Association to successfully overturn the suspension. For most of his exile from the senior team, Richards was still young enough to be eligible for the under-21s, and played regularly. He was called up for the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship held in Sweden, where he scored the winning goal against Finland as England went through the group stages undefeated. England reached the final of the competition, but lost 4–0 to Germany. Richards played in four of England's five matches, including the final. He captained England U21 on three occasions between late–2009 and once in his only appearance of 2010. During qualifying for the 2011 tournament, Richards captained the team. However, he had to withdraw from the squad for the finals due to injury.

England senior team

In November 2006, Richards received a call-up to the England squad for a friendly against the Netherlands after playing only 28 professional club matches. He had previously won three caps…

After his retirement, Richards began working as a pundit for Sky Sports and BBC Sport, appearing across radio and television, including Match of the Day and hosting the podcast The Rest is Football. He also became a part of CBS Sports's UEFA Champions League coverage, notably featuring with Kate Scott, Jamie Carragher, and Thierry Henry in a show that achieved widespread critical acclaim.

Richards is of Kittitian descent through his father who moved from Basseterre to England in the 1960s. He has credited his father for being a major influence on his career and keeping him grounded while growing up. Richards also credited his former teammate Richard Dunne for being a big influence on his early career. His first cousin, Atiba Harris, is also a former professional footballer and long-time captain of the Saint Kitts and Nevis national football team. Richards has two brothers, both of whom played football but never became professionals. Although Richards likes Leeds United, he supported Arsenal because of Ian Wright, due to his great character and as Wright "made him smile with his goal celebrations". Richards said that he "did alright at school" and got Cs in GCSEs Maths, English and Science. Richards has one child, a son. During his playing career, Richards was involved with Kick It Out, football's anti-racism campaign. In October 2012, he was among several footballers to not wear a Kick It Out anti-racism T-shirt, due to protest against the lack of action by the organisation in the wake of high-profile cases of footballers racially abusing their opponents during matches. In December 2007, the News of the World published an article about Richards when he was involved in an incident in a disabled toilet. Although Sven-Goran Eriksson was upset by the incident, Richards faced no disciplinary action by the club. In February 2022, Richards and Chris Sutton spoke…