Alan Quinn (born 13 June 1979 in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

) is an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He is one of nine brothers; both

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

and

Keith Keith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Keith (surname) * Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949) * Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...

were on the books at Alan's former club,

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

while another brother, Gerry, played for

St Patrick's Athletic St Patrick's Athletic Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Lúthchleas Phádraig Naofa) is a professional Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the Irish Premier Division. Founded in May 1929, they played origin ...

in the

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally us ...

, the club which his cousin Joe Redmond also plays for. Quinn has also played for

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

, and is the only player to have scored for both teams in the

Steel City derby The Steel City Derby (also known as the Sheffield Derby) is a local derby that takes place between Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday, the two professional football league teams based in the city of Sheffield, England. It is widely consi ...

. During his playing career he also played for

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

and

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

Club career

Quinn played youth football in Dublin for Old Church United,

Manortown United Manortown United F.C. is a football club based in Perrystown, Dublin, Ireland. The club has senior teams competing in the Leinster Senior League and Ireland's cup competitions including the FAI Cup and the FAI Junior Cup. The youth set-up h ...

and Cherry Orchard.

Sheffield Wednesday

Quinn started his English club career at

, making his first appearance as a substitute during 1997–98 and his first start the following season. After two games in his first two seasons his career took off during 1999–00 and he eventually played 178 League and Cup games for Wednesday, scoring 17 times. After 6 games on loan to

, and winning OwlsOnline.com player of the year award for the 2002–03 season he moved to Wednesday's rivals

on a free transfer in 2004 after no clubs came in with a bid for the out of favour player.

Sheffield United

After a couple of substitute appearances he made his full debut for the Blades in a 1–0 away victory at

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

on 8 August 2004. He scored his first goal for the club a couple of weeks later in a 2–1 home defeat by

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. He was a regular in the starting eleven in his first season at Bramall Lane but in later years Quinn found first team football more difficult to come by. With the Blades promoted to the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for the 2006–07 season he could not hold down a regular spot, with his younger brother

being preferred ahead of him for a time. Despite that Quinn made 19

appearances that season and was rewarded in July 2007 with a contract extension until 2010. Following United's relegation back to the Championship, Alan failed to impress new manager

Bryan Robson Bryan Robson OBE (born 11 January 1957) is an English football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain before moving to Manchester United in ...

enough to convince him that he was worth a place in the first team and made only a handful of appearances. The club allowed him to leave for free during the January transfer window, meaning Quinn never commanded a transfer fee throughout his career.

Ipswich Town

On 18 January 2008 Quinn signed for

on an emergency loan, after an undisclosed fee was agreed. The transfer was made permanent on 23 January 2008, with Quinn signing a three and a half-year contract. He was allocated the number 25 shirt and scored four minutes into his second appearance for Ipswich against his former team

. He also scored a goal in the

East Anglian Derby The East Anglian derby is a sobriquet used to describe football matches held between Norwich City and Ipswich Town, the only fully professional football clubs in the neighbouring East Anglian counties of Norfolk and Suffolk respectively. In rece ...

Portman Road Portman Road is a football stadium in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, which has been the home ground of Ipswich Town F.C. since 1884. The stadium has also hosted many England youth international matches, and one senior England friendly internatio ...

in April 2009.

Handsworth

In 2014, he signed for Handsworth.

International career

At Youth level he won the 1998 U-18 European Championships with Republic of Ireland in a team that also featured Robbie Keane and Richard Dunne, scoring in the final. the match finished 1–1 AET with Rep. Of Ireland winning on penalties. Quinn won his first senior cap for the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

on 30 April 2003 and went on to earn 8 caps.

Career statistics

International

:Source:

Honours

Sheffield United *

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

runner-up: 2005–06 Individual *

Player of the Year: 2002–03

References

External links

Alan Quinn player profile
at itfc.co.uk * {{DEFAULTSORT:Quinn, Alan 1979 births Living people Association footballers from County Dublin Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland international footballers Association football midfielders Cherry Orchard F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Handsworth F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players