Kevin Andrew Gallen (born 21 September 1975) 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 striker. He notably 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

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 ...

over several seasons, and would have two spells with the

Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...

club. He also played in the Football League for

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

, Barnsley, Plymouth Argyle,

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

and Barnet, before finishing his career in Non-league with Braintree Town,

Leverstock Green Leverstock Green is a suburb in Hemel Hempstead, in the English county of Hertfordshire. It is located on the eastern edge of the town. Leverstock Green has a school, Leverstock Green Church of England Primary School, cricket club, tennis clu ...

and

Aylesbury United Aylesbury United Football Club is a football club based in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England. They are currently members of Division One Central of the Southern League and play at Chesham United's Meadow ground, having been evicted from their ...

. A former England Under-21 striker, Gallen signed a professional contract for QPR on his 17th birthday after setting phenomenal scoring records whilst in the youth team, breaking

Jimmy Greaves James Peter Greaves (20 February 1940 – 19 September 2021) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. Greaves is regarded as one of England’s best ever players. He is England's fifth-highest international goalscorer ...

' long-standing record at that level.

Playing career

Queens Park Rangers

Gallen was born in Chiswick. He made his

league debut in the

at Old Trafford on the opening day of the 1994–95 season, and later went on to form a partnership with

Les Ferdinand Leslie Ferdinand MBE (born 8 December 1966) is an English football coach, former professional footballer and television pundit, who is currently the director of football at Queens Park Rangers. A striker, his playing career included notable sp ...

, scoring more than ten goals. Gallen's form dipped the next season after Ferdinand departed for Newcastle United, as QPR were relegated to The First Division. After just two games of the 1996–97 season, in which he scored three goals, Gallen sustained a serious knee injury whilst playing against

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, which resulted in him missing the rest of the season. His return to the team saw mixed performances, but by the 1998–99 season he was back to his best form, before injuries again held him back and the arrival of Rob Steiner and

Chris Kiwomya Christopher Mark Kiwomya (born 2 December 1969) is an English football manager and former professional footballer, who is the manager of British Virgin Islands national football team. He played as a forward from 1987 until 2002 notably in the ...

kept him out of the team. The 1999–2000 campaign saw Gallen fall behind Kiwomya, Steiner, Steve Slade and Mikkel Beck in the pecking order. He did, however, manage to score a winning goal on the last day of the season at the ground where his injury troubles had started – Portsmouth.

Huddersfield and Barnsley

In August 2000 he left QPR to find first-team football at

. His return to

as an opposition player saw him score, but then miss a penalty. Gallen soon found himself out in the cold once more as Huddersfield changed managers, and his contract was not renewed at the end of the season. Gallen spent the summer of 2001 training with QPR, now in Division Two, with a view to joining on a free transfer, but a compromise on wages could not be reached. He instead joined Barnsley on a two-year contract.

Return to QPR

The deal at Barnsley proved to be a short-lived, as Gallen re-joined Queens Park Rangers on 19 November 2001. Two days after returning to his boyhood club he scored one and set up two others in an emphatic 4–0 home win over Swindon. A change in fortunes soon followed for Gallen and QPR, with Gallen earning the club captaincy, netting another 55 goals over the ensuing five seasons and helping the club to establish itself back in the second tier of English football. Overall, Gallen scored 97 goals for QPR, making him the sixth highest scorer in the club's history.

Plymouth and MK Dons

On 11 January 2007 Gallen linked up with his former QPR manager

Ian Holloway Ian Scott Holloway (born 12 March 1963) is an English professional football manager, former player, media personality and television pundit who was most recently the manager of Grimsby Town. A midfielder, he notably played in the Premier League ...

, joining Plymouth Argyle on loan until the end of 2006–07 season. During his spell at

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.Plymouth Argyle, but instead opted to join a lower-level club –

. Gallen played 31 games and scored nine goals as MK Dons won both promotion to

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

as champions, and The Football League Trophy.

Later career

On 14 November 2008, Gallen joined

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side

on an initial one-month loan, which was later extended by a further month. His run in the team at Luton coincided with a seven match unbeaten run for ''The Hatters'', with Gallen often being used 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 ...

. At the beginning of January, Gallen had his contract at MK Dons terminated by mutual consent, and he subsequently signed for Luton as a free agent. Gallen signed a one-year extension to his Luton contract at the end of the season, a campaign that ultimately ended in Luton's relegation to the Conference, keeping him at the club until June 2010. Now in non-league football, Gallen found himself utilised back in his familiar position as a striker, scoring eighteen goals in the 2009–10 season, including his first ever

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

on 5 April 2010 in a 6–0 win over Grays Athletic. His goalscoring prowess saw him sign a further one-year extension to his contract, running until the end of the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

season. In October 2010 Gallen joined Barnet on a three-month loan deal. He scored one goal in nine appearances during his time at the club, before returning to Luton on 8 January 2011. On 31 January 2011, Gallen was released from his Luton contract. He made a total of 74 appearances for Luton, scoring 21 goals. On 31 March 2011, Gallen signed for Braintree Town. After a short spell with

in 2011–12, Gallen signed for

of the Molten Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division at the start of the 2012–13 season.

Personal life

Gallen has two brothers in football, Joe and Steve, who have both also worked as coaches for QPR. In January 2015, Gallen was a finalist alongside

Rufus Brevett Rufus Brevett (born 24 September 1969) is an English football manager and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a defender who notably played in the Premier League for Queens Park Rangers, Fulham and West Ham United. He was par ...

for the Harrow Borough job, although the job was handed to Steve Baker instead. Gallen has appeared on The Magic Sponge podcast by Dave which is hosted by comedians

Rob Beckett Robert Anthony Beckett (born 2 January 1986) is an English comedian, narrator, and presenter. He was a co-host on the ITV2 spin-off show '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! NOW!'' from 2012 to 2014. Since 2016, Beckett has been a team capta ...

Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 1919 – 20 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1 ...

and ex-footballer

Jimmy Bullard James Richard Bullard (born 23 October 1978) is an English former professional footballer, coach and television personality. He is the co-host of the Saturday morning Sky Sports show ''Soccer AM''. As a player he was a midfielder and played you ...

. He has appeared twice as a guest, one time being a late replacement for

Chris Iwelumo Christopher Robert Iwelumo (; born 1 August 1978) is a Scottish former professional footballer, who played as a striker. Iwelumo started his career with St Mirren before moving to Danish club Aarhus Fremad for two years. A move to Stoke City ...

. Gallen became a cult hero on the podcast and occasionally steps in for Jimmy Bullard as a co-host when Jimmy is absent.

Honours

England U-18 * UEFA Under-18 Championship:

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

Queens Park Rangers * Football League Division Two runner-up (

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

): 2003–04 Milton Keynes Dons *

Football League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

: 2007–08 *

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

: 2007–08

References

External links

*
England FA profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallen, Kevin 1975 births Living people English footballers Association football forwards England under-21 international footballers Premier League players English Football League players National League (English football) players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Barnet F.C. players Braintree Town F.C. players Leverstock Green F.C. players Aylesbury United F.C. players Footballers from Chiswick Queens Park Rangers F.C. non-playing staff