Kevin Richards (born December 23, 1981) is a Bermudian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who plays for

PHC Zebras The Pembroke Hamilton Club Zebras is a Bermuda, Bermudian association football, football club who participate in the Bermudian Premier Division. They play their home games on PHC Field at "Stadium Lane", which was reopened in 2015 after 17 year ...

Career

College

Richards played college soccer at University of Notre Dame in the United States from 2000 to 2003. Richards was a Big East Academic All-Star in 2002–2003 and one of the team captains in 2003.

Club

Richards was drafted to

Major League Soccer 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 ...

team Colorado Rapids as the 35th overall pick in the

2004 MLS SuperDraft The 2004 MLS SuperDraft, held in Charlotte, North Carolina on January 16, 2004, was the fifth incarnation of the annual Major League Soccer SuperDraft. The draft was most notable at the time for the selection of one of the youngest athletes in Am ...

. In 2004, he also had international trials at Ross County in the Scottish First Division, in France with

Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; oc, Engoleime) is a communes of France, commune, the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Charente Departments of France, department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern Franc ...

, and in England at

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. In 2008, he had a further trial in England at Queens Park Rangers of the

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 ...

. Richards began his professional career in his native Bermuda in 2006, playing for

in the

Bermudian Premier Division The Bermudian Premier Division (officially the Digicel Premier Division for sponsorship reasons) is the highest level of professional football in Bermuda. Teams in this league (currently ten) compete for the national title and theoretically ...

, helping the Zebras to the BFA Championship in 2008. Richards received the Most Valuable Player for the Premier Division as well as the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2007–2008. He has also played with the Bermuda Hogges of the USL Second Division for their first season in 2007. Richards was a starter on the squad for 2 seasons. He returned to Zebras as player coach in 2015.

International

He made his debut for Bermuda in a February 2004 friendly match against Trinidad and Tobago and earned a total of 20 caps, scoring no goals. He has represented his country in 6

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

matches. He played in both of Bermuda's qualifying games against El Salvador for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

, and in all four of Bermuda's qualifying games for the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

, including their 3–1 victory over the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

on March 30, 2008, and their historic 2–1 victory over Trinidad and Tobago on June 15, 2008. His final international match was a June 2008 World Cup qualification match against the Trinidad and Tobago.

Personal life

He was appointed new business development manager at the Bermuda Business Development Agency in September 2015, after working for four years with General Electric.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Richards, Kevin 1981 births Living people People from Warwick Parish Men's association football defenders Bermudian men's footballers Bermuda men's international footballers PHC Zebras players Bermuda Hogges F.C. players USL Second Division players Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's soccer players Colorado Rapids draft picks