Keith Ryan (born 25 June 1970) 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 le ...

who played in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

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 ...

for

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

. In July 2009 he was appointed reserve team manager at

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

Career

Born in

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

, Ryan started his career at Berkhamsted Town. He was one of Martin O'Neill's first singings for

in August 1990. "Rhino", as he is

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

d, played in over 500 games for the club and scored more than 50 goals. He would go on to be a mainstay of the Wycombe midfield of the 1990s, playing in all three of their Wembley visits, during the decade. Ryan was awarded a testimonial on 1 August 2000 where Leicester City were the visitors. Leicester would go on to win the game 3–0, later in the season Ryan would be part of the squad that would go on to shock the Foxes 2–1 in the quarter final of the 2001

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

. Before going on to score Wycombe's goal in the semi-final against

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 popul ...

. Following the departure of manager

Tony Adams Tony Alexander Adams (born 10 October 1966) is an English former football manager and player. Adams played for Arsenal and England, captaining both teams. He spent his entire playing career of 19 years as a centre back at Arsenal, making 672 ...

in November 2004, Ryan was appointed

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

until the appointment of permanent successor

John Gorman John Gorman may refer to: * John Gorman (director) (1884–1936), American movie director *John Gorman (entertainer) (born 1936), English vocalist and musician *John Gorman (politician) (1923–2014), Northern Ireland politician *John Gorman (footb ...

. Gorman rewarded Ryan's service to the club by making him an assistant manager, along with fellow Blues legend Steve Brown. Ryan retired from professional football in April 2006. He was retained as a coach when

Paul Lambert Paul Lambert (born 7 August 1969) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Ipswich Town. Lambert played as a midfielder and won the Scottish Cup in 1987 with St Mirren as a 17-year-ol ...

took over as manager in June 2006, but left the club a year later when the coaching staff structure was reorganised for financial reasons. He was promptly appointed by John Gregory, his former manager at Wycombe, as a youth team coach at

, and promoted to reserve team manager in July 2009. As of December 2021, he is first-team coach at

Flackwell Heath F.C. Flackwell Heath Football Club is a football club based in Flackwell Heath, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. Affiliated to the Berks & Bucks Football Association, they are currently members of the and play at Wilks Park. Histor ...

Honours

Wycombe Wanderers *

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

: 1990–91, 1992–93

Notes

A. The Wycombe appearance figures are for

only, not for the

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

References

External links

* * 1970 births Living people Footballers from Northampton English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Berkhamsted Town F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Queens Park Rangers F.C. non-playing staff National League (English football) players English Football League players {{england-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub