Richard Dunne

Everton

Having played schoolboy football in Dublin for Home Farm, Dunne joined Everton as a 16-year-old schoolboy in 1996. The next season, he started to play for Everton reserves and in early 1997, Dunne signed a 5-year professional contract. He was part of the successful 1998 FA Youth Cup squad along with Tony Hibbert and Leon Osman. Dunne made his debut under then manager Joe Royle in January 1997, at the age of seventeen. Under Walter Smith, however, he was often used out of position at right back, and was punished by Smith for two separate disciplinary incidents. Wimbledon reportedly had a bid accepted for Dunne, only for it to fall through, and Dunne stayed at Everton for another year, again usually filling in at right back.

Manchester City

In the autumn of 2000, Dunne was signed by Manchester City for a fee of £3.5 million, rejoining his former manager Joe Royle. City had signed both Dunne and Laurent Charvet as replacements for right back Richard Edghill who had suffered from a dip in form. It was in the centre of defence where Dunne made his biggest impact on the team. Dunne had various partners in the centre of defence in his first season at the club and for a few games he played in a three-man defence with Andy Morrison and Steve Howey. His first season saw City relegated into the First Division and acquire the services of a new manager, Kevin Keegan. Manchester City made an instant return to the Premier League, finishing the 2001–02 season as…

Dunne played for the Republic of Ireland national under-19 football team in the 1997 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship finals in Iceland. Dunne made his debut for the Republic of Ireland on 26 April 2000 in a 1–0 loss against Greece in a friendly match. His first international goal came just two months later in only his third cap as he scored on 4 June against Mexico, helping his team come from 2–0 down to drawing 2–2. He was selected by Mick McCarthy to play against the likes of the Netherlands and Portugal during Ireland's successful 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, where he also scored his first competitive international goal in a 2–0 win against Estonia. Dunne was part of the Irish squad that played at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but the centre-half pairing of Gary Breen and Steve Staunton (the latter of whom became team captain following the departure of Roy Keane) was favoured by Mick McCarthy, meaning Dunne did not even make an appearance as a substitute. The emergence of John O'Shea, and Brian Kerr's preference for Kenny Cunningham, meant that Dunne's chances with Ireland were extremely limited during their unsuccessful attempt to qualify for UEFA Euro 2004. He did score his fourth international goal in a friendly against Turkey just prior to the end of the campaign. Dunne again found himself out of favour with Kerr during the qualification campaign for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, only featuring in the final three matches which included a 1–0 defeat…

After retiring in 2015 he joined BT Sport as a pundit for their coverage of the Premier League, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. Dunne has been praised for his insightful and opinionated style of punditry.

Dunne is related to footballers Theo Dunne (uncle) and Gavin Molloy (second cousin).