Ian William Bishop (born 29 May 1965) is an English 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 ...

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 ...

. As a player, he was a

who played in 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 Fo ...

for

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 ...

and Manchester City, as well as in Major League Soccer for

Miami Fusion The Miami Fusion was a professional soccer team based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They played in Major League Soccer (MLS) for four seasons, from 1998 to 2001. Announced in 1997 as one of the league's first two expansion teams, their best seas ...

and in the Football League with Everton,

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

, Carlisle United, AFC Bournemouth and

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

. He has also played in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

for Barry Town, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

with

New Orleans Shell Shockers The New Orleans Jesters are an American soccer team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 2003, the team plays in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. Nicknamed 'The Jesters', they are c ...

and for non-league side Radcliffe Borough. He was capped once at England B level. Since retirement, Bishop has worked as a technical director for Evergreen FC. He has also played as a professional poker player and now resides in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Playing career

He was born in inner city

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

but shortly afterwards moved to the new Cantril Farm housing estate, and on leaving school in July 1981 he joined Everton, turning professional for the 1983–84 season under the management of

Howard Kendall Howard Kendall (22 May 1946 – 17 October 2015) was an English footballer and manager. Kendall joined Preston North End as an apprentice and stayed with the club when he turned professional. He was a runner-up in the 1964 FA Cup with Preston, ...

– who had taken over during the same summer that Bishop had first joined the club. However, he failed to break into the first team at

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a association football, football stadium in the Walton, Liverpool, Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. Located in a residential area ...

, played just once in the First Division. He then tried his luck in the Fourth Division as one of Dario Gradi's first signings for

. Bishop established his reputation at Carlisle United where he made 132 appearances from 1984 to 1988 before moving to AFC Bournemouth. He then signed for Manchester City in the summer of 1989 for £465,000 in a deal involving Paul Moulden on City's promotion to the First Division. Bishop was a good passer of the ball and in his 24 appearances for Manchester City in his first spell helped the team demolish their local rivals Manchester United 5–1 scoring City's third goal, on 23 September 1989. Despite being popular with the Manchester City supporters he was sold by then manager

in December 1989. Bishop joined in the same week as Trevor Morley and Colin Foster, as manager Lou Macari continued to rebuild the West Ham squad. He spent the majority of his career at West Ham, playing 284 times between 1989 and 1998, scoring 16 goals and becoming something of a cult figure. Although Macari resigned before the season ended, he remained in favour under his successor

Billy Bonds William Arthur Bonds (born 17 September 1946) is a former professional footballer and manager, who is most often associated with West Ham United with whom he spent 27 years as player and manager. He played 799 first-team games for West Ham in a ...

and then under the management of Harry Redknapp. In early 1998, having become surplus to requirements at the

Boleyn Ground The Boleyn Ground, often referred to as Upton Park, was a football stadium located in Upton Park, east London. It was the home of West Ham United from 1904 to 2016, and was briefly used by Charlton Athletic in the early 1990s during their years ...

, he returned to Manchester City, who were now battling against relegation to Division Two. His second spell at the club saw the team relegated to what was then Division Two, but then promoted to Division One and in the following season to the Premier League. Bishop was an integral player in the team which earned promotion to the Premier League but only played ten times for the club in the top flight as they fought an ultimately unsuccessful battle against relegation. By the time City's relegation battle was lost, Bishop had headed across the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

to sign for

. He played 23 games in the

MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

before finishing his playing career with a stint at the

in the

USL Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syst ...

Personal life

Bishop claims that false accusations that he was gay and in a relationship with friend and team mate Trevor Morley was the reason behind him not being called up to the England team. Bishop said "Whether people think I was good enough or not, I wasn’t going to displace Gazza ( Paul Gascoigne), But other players did get caps and jumped ahead of me in the queue. And I heard rumours at the time that someone from the international set-up asked about my sexuality. My manager asked why I wasn’t in the next England B squad. Why, after one game, was I not involved? He was my friend and I was watching him suffer. I was also getting abuse for no reason whatsoever.” Bishop now resides in

. He played in the Party Poker’s World Series main event in the MGM Grand in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

. Bishop previously served as the Technical Director for Evergreen Hammers FC, in Leesburg, Virginia (USA)

Honours

Individual * PFA Team of the Year: 1990–91 Second Division

References

External links

*
The Wonderful World of West Ham United statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop, Ian 1965 births AFC Bournemouth players Carlisle United F.C. players Crewe Alexandra F.C. players English footballers Footballers from Liverpool English expatriate footballers England B international footballers Everton F.C. players Association football midfielders Living people Manchester City F.C. players Miami Fusion players Premier League players English Football League players Rochdale A.F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Barry Town United F.C. players New Orleans Shell Shockers players USL League Two players Major League Soccer All-Stars Expatriate soccer players in the United States Radcliffe F.C. players Major League Soccer players English expatriate sportspeople in the United States