HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Jason Wynne McAteer (born 18 June 1971) is a former professional footballer. His primary position was in
centre midfield 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 ...
, though he was also an able right winger and full-back. During his professional career from 1992 to 2007, McAteer played for five clubs,
Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...
, Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers,
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 finally Tranmere Rovers. His transfer fees added up to £9.5 million. Born in England, he represented the Republic of Ireland national team at international level, winning 52 international caps and playing at the World Cup in
1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
and
2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
.


Club career


Bolton Wanderers

McAteer was born in Birkenhead on the Wirral. His family were shaken by the closure of the shipyards in the 1980s, and he began the 1990s in a state of unemployment. McAteer got his big break aged 20, at local non-league team
Marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...
, when impressing for Marine Reserves against the Bolton Wanderers A team in 1992. He had no contract with Marine, and Bolton purchased the young midfielder for £500 plus a large bag of footballs. He made his first team debut against Burnley in a Division Two game at Burnden Park on 28 November 1992, finishing on the winning side in a 4–0 triumph. He made a total of 21 appearances in the
1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...
season for Bolton, who finished the season as runners-up and secured promotion to Division One. Bolton were FA Cup quarter-finalists in the 1993–94 season and achieved a comfortable position in Division One. During the 1994–95 season, Bolton reached the final of the
Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...
(their first appearance in a major cup final for 37 years), but lost 2–1 to Liverpool. McAteer and his colleagues returned to Wembley the following month on 29 May 1995, as they reached the final of the Division One playoffs having finished third in the league. Their opponents on this occasion were Reading. Reading took a 2–0 lead in the first half and led the match until the 86th minute when Bolton scored a late equaliser to make the game 2–2 and force extra-time. Bolton went on to win the match 4–3 after extra time, and McAteer was given his first chance of
FA 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 ...
football.


Liverpool

Early in the 1995–96 season, McAteer joined Liverpool in a £4.5 million deal after he played against them in the
1995 Football League Cup Final The 1995 Football League Cup Final was a football match played between Liverpool and Bolton Wanderers on 2 April 1995 at Wembley Stadium, London. It was the final match of the 1994–95 Football League Cup, the 35th staging of the Football Le ...
for Bolton. He came close to joining Blackburn Rovers in 1995, but when Liverpool declared an interest, McAteer decided to sign for the team he had supported as a boy and turned down the then Blackburn manager
Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic F.C., Celtic and 515 for Liverpoo ...
. He made his Liverpool debut on 16 September 1995 in a 3–0 win against Blackburn at Anfield, coming on as a late substitute for John Barnes. During his time at Anfield, McAteer also filled in at right back for certain spells despite being primarily a central midfielder. He broke his leg whilst playing against Blackburn at Anfield on 31 January 1998. He made a full recovery and on his return to the first team scored two goals against West Ham United on 2 May 1998. He played in the
1996 FA Cup Final The 1996 FA Cup Final was the 51st to be held at Wembley Stadium after the Second World War and was held between two of the biggest rivals in English football, Manchester United and Liverpool. Build-up A few days before the final, Manchester ...
against Manchester United in which Liverpool lost to a single goal scored by Eric Cantona. In total he made 139 appearances for Liverpool, scoring six goals over four seasons. McAteer was part of the group of 1990s Liverpool players known as the " Spice Boys" for the tabloid attention towards their private lives. Other players named in this group included
Robbie Fowler Robert Bernard Fowler (born 9 April 1975) is an English football manager and former player, who most recently managed East Bengal in the Indian Super League. As a player, he was a striker, and is the eighth-highest goalscorer in the history ...
,
Steve McManaman Steven McManaman (born 11 February 1972) is an English former footballer who played as a winger for Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester City. McManaman is one of the most decorated English footballers to have played for a club abroad and is ...
and Jamie Redknapp.


Blackburn Rovers

Blackburn Rovers manager
Brian Kidd Brian Kidd (born 29 May 1949) is an English football coach and former player, who was most recently assistant coach of Manchester City, alongside manager Pep Guardiola. Kidd was also assistant to Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson from 199 ...
signed McAteer for £4 million on 27 January 1999. He signed a four-year contract with wages of £20,000 a week. Rovers were relegated that season, but McAteer would help the club to promotion back to the Premiership in
2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
during his second full season with the club. During his time with Rovers, McAteer had a vicious argument one day with manager
Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current TV pundit. A midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Ranger ...
, and said of him in 2002: "He almost ruined my career and I cannot help but despise him for it."


Sunderland

Souness sold McAteer to Sunderland for £1 million in October 2001, on a three-year deal. He made 27 appearances that season, but was unable to prevent the Black Cats' relegation to the First Division the following season. After a double abdominal hernia operation, he played only five times between September 2002 and December 2003. In his first game back on 13 December, he took just four minutes to score away to West Ham United, albeit in a 3–2 loss. He played both legs of the play-off semi-final against Crystal Palace in May 2004 before being released at the end of the year.


Tranmere Rovers

In July 2004, McAteer was close to a one-year deal at newly relegated Leicester City, which was called off due to unforeseen circumstances. Days later, he signed a two-year deal with Tranmere Rovers, hoping to play out his career with his hometown club. He trained as a coach ready to embark on a career in that department after his retirement. He was made club captain by manager
Brian Little Brian Little (born 25 November 1953) is an English football manager and former player. As a player, Little was a striker who spent his entire career for Aston Villa in a career that spanned from 1971 to 1980. He made 247 league appearances, ...
, skippering the side to the League One play-off semi-finals, where they eventually lost on penalties to Hartlepool United. He was released by Tranmere Rovers in May 2007 and announced his retirement shortly afterwards. On 15 June 2009, he was appointed assistant manager to former Liverpool teammate John Barnes at Tranmere. On 9 October, the pair were sacked after a run of just two league wins from 11 games.


International career

McAteer qualified to play for Republic of Ireland through his grandfather who was born in
County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...
. He was capped 52 times between 1994 and 2004 making his debut on 23 March 1994 in a 0-0 draw against Russia in a friendly match at Lansdowne Road and was selected by manager Jack Charlton for the Republic's
1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the countr ...
squad. McAteer came on as a substitute in Ireland's 1–0 group stage victory over Italy on 18 June. McAteer played in his second World Cup in
2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
. He scored the decisive goal for the Irish in a 1–0 World Cup
qualifying Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...
win against the Netherlands on 1 September 2001, which helped Ireland stay on course for their place in the 2002 World Cup. Mcateer was critical of
Roy Keane Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football pundit, coach and former professional player. He is the joint most successful Irish footballer of all time, having won 19 major trophies in his club career, 17 of which came during ...
after the Saipan Incident at the
2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...
, saying "Everything is black or white with Roy, there is no such colour as grey. I do not always understand his rage." McAteer said that when they clashed during Sunderland's match against Manchester United in August 2002, he had said to Keane: "Put it all in your next book". Keane responded by elbowing McAteer on the side of the head.


Personal life

McAteer was nicknamed " Trigger", after an '' Only Fools and Horses'' character of low intelligence. He said in 2005 that he cultivated this image in order to play more matches, as managers would be comfortable putting him in different positions. Anecdotes spread about McAteer's purported low intelligence, including that he had asked for a pizza to be cut into four pieces and not eight because he was not hungry; he confirmed in 2005 that this story is true. McAteer released an autobiography, ''Blood, Sweat & Jason McAteer'', in 2017. In it, he said that he struggled with depression and thoughts of suicide after his football career ended. McAteer married his first wife, Kristina Delaney, at Slane Castle in 2001. In October 2013, he married Lucy Edwards in Limerick with the reception at Dromoland Castle. His brother-in-law is his ex Liverpool team-mate,
Steve McManaman Steven McManaman (born 11 February 1972) is an English former footballer who played as a winger for Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester City. McManaman is one of the most decorated English footballers to have played for a club abroad and is ...
, who married Lucy Edwards' older sister, Victoria, in 2002. McAteer said that while he was at the
2022 UEFA Champions League final The 2022 UEFA Champions League Final was the final match of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, the 67th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 30th season since it was renamed from the European Champio ...
with LFC TV, his wife Lucy and 22-year-old son were assaulted and robbed
amidst the chaos ''Amidst the Chaos'' is the sixth studio album by American singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, released on April 5, 2019, through Epic Records. The lead single from the album, "Armor", was released digitally on October 26, 2018. The album debuted ...
.


Endorsements

McAteer featured in EA Sports' ''FIFA'' video game series; he was on the cover for the International edition of FIFA Soccer 96, alongside Frank de Boer. In 1997, McAteer featured in a Wash & Go shampoo advert, for which he was reportedly paid £40,000.


Post-playing career

McAteer has regularly appeared for the Liverpool legends who play in various charity games around the world. In March 2005, he recruited friends from football and showbusiness for ''Tsunami Soccer Aid'' which generated over half a million pounds for Save the Children, helping survivors of the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...
. In May 2008, he visited
Banda Aceh Banda Aceh ( Acehnese: ''Banda Acèh'', Jawoë: كوتا بند اچيه) is the capital and largest city in the province of Aceh, Indonesia. It is located on the island of Sumatra and has an elevation of . The city covers an area of and had ...
in Indonesia to see how the money had been used. In 2006, McAteer became an investor in '' Golf Punk'' magazine, alongside former Sunderland teammates Phil Babb, Michael Gray, Thomas Sørensen and
Stephen Wright Stephen Wright may refer to: * Stephen Wright (English footballer) (born 1980), English footballer * Stephen Wright (Scottish footballer) (born 1971), Scottish footballer * Stephen Wright (Australian rules footballer) (born 1961), Australian rules ...
, saving the publication from closure. In April 2011, while participating in a charity football match between Darndale F.C. and Liverpool/Manchester United Legends in aid of Autism Ireland, McAteer clashed with
Dublin GAA The Dublin County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) ( ga, Cumann Luthchleas Gael Coiste Contae Átha Cliath) or Dublin GAA is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in the Dublin Regi ...
goalkeeper
Stephen Cluxton Stephen Cluxton (born 17 December 1981) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who played as a goalkeeper at senior level for the Dublin county team. Cluxton made his senior debut for Dublin during the 2001 Championship. Since then he has established ...
. Cluxton punched McAteer and knocked him to the ground. Cluxton and McAteer were both sent off. McAteer has worked in the media for Asia-based ESPN Star Sports. He has also worked on LFC TV.


Honours

Bolton *
Football League First Division play-offs The English Football League Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , ...
:
1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...
*
Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...
runner-up: 1994–95 Liverpool * FA Cup runner-up: 1995–96 Individual *
PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...
: 1993–94 First Division, 1994–95 First Division


See also

* List of Republic of Ireland international footballers born outside the Republic of Ireland


References


External links


LFChistory.net player profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:McAteer, Jason 1971 births Living people 1994 FIFA World Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Chester City F.C. non-playing staff Citizens of Ireland through descent English people of Irish descent Association football midfielders Liverpool F.C. players Marine F.C. players People from Birkenhead Premier League players Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland international footballers Republic of Ireland B international footballers Sunderland A.F.C. players English Football League players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. non-playing staff FA Cup Final players English autobiographers Irish autobiographers