Alan Kelly, Jr.
Alan Kelly 2013
Alan Kelly Jr. ( born August 11, 1968 in Preston, England ) is a former Irish football player who played the position of goalkeeper.
Playing career
Association
Kelly began his career at Preston North End in the Football League Fourth Division, following in his father Alan Kelly senior, who played 447 games for Preston. His older brother Gary is also a former goalkeeper.
For a fee of £ 150,000 in July 1992, he moved to Sheffield United. He remained in Sheffield until 1999, despite their relegation from the Premier League and came to 213 inserts.
In 1999, Kelly Blackburn Rovers, where he came to 50 mandatory wagers to 2004. Behind the American Brad Friedel, who joined the Rovers in 2000, Kelly was mostly just a spectator. So also with the final of the League Cup, as he held only the function of the viewer. According to Friedel's arrival in Blackburn Kelly slipped behind John Filan on the position of the third goalkeeper. For this reason, he toyed with the idea to leave the club in the winter of 2001. Filan, who was the number two also dissatisfied, but Kelly came before and the club had no change to more. In the meantime, the Irishman at Stockport County and Birmingham City has been awarded for a period of one month. At the end of the season 2003 /04 he ended his active career.
National
Kelly came on 34 missions in the Irish national team and was a member of the Executive of the Irish national team at the World Championships in 1994 and 2002. Among a world deployment of the goalkeeper but did not. In 1994, he was behind Pat Bonner number two, eight years later, he had Shay Given to defer. Especially the sidelines in 2002 did not please the goalkeeper. After he was the first qualifying matches between the posts of the Irish National Team Mick McCarthy put him to power fluctuations and injury to the qualification end on the bench.
Coaching career
In the summer of 2006, Kelly was goalkeeping coach at the football camp of the academies in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania in the United States. For the season 2007/ 08 he returned to his former club Blackburn Rovers, where he worked from then on as goalkeeper coach in the youth department.
He is currently active as goalkeeping coach of the Irish national team.
Achievements
- League Cup Winners: 2002
Trivia
- Kelly's father, Alan Kelly senior, was 1956-1973 also Irish player selection. His older brother Gary Kelly was also a professional footballer. Both played, as well as Kelly, on the position of the goalkeeper.