Stephen Ireland

Rare card · No. 69540

Stephen James Ireland (born 22 August 1986) is an Irish former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, and current manager of Wythenshawe FC Veterans. Ireland played as a youth player with Cobh Ramblers before joining English club Manchester City in 2001 at the age of 15. He made his professional debut in September 2005 and soon established himself as a regular at the City of Manchester Stadium. At the start of the 2008–09 season, City were taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group, which led the club to buy players such as Robinho and Vincent Kompany. Ireland was a key player for Manchester City that season, becoming the club's player of the year. Ireland fell out of favour at City when manager Mark Hughes was sacked and replaced with Roberto Mancini in December 2009. In September 2010, Ireland was transferred to Aston Villa in a swap deal with James Milner. After a slow start to his Villa career, he was loaned out to Newcastle United where he only played twice....

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