Matthew Rhys Holland (born 11 April 1974) is a 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 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 ...

. Holland began his career at West Ham United, having previously been with

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

's academy. During his time at West Ham spent time out on loan at Farnborough Town and

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

, going on to join the later permanently in 1995. After making over one hundred appearances for Bournemouth and captaining the club, Holland signed for

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

in 1997. He spent six years at Ipswich, making over three hundred appearances and captaining the club to promotion to 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 Foo ...

through the First Division play-offs in 2000. In 2003, Holland signed for

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

. He spent six years at Charlton, captaining the club and making over two hundred appearances. He retired from playing in 2009. Having won one cap for the Republic of Ireland B team in 1999, he made his senior debut for the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...

in October 1999. He represented the Republic of Ireland from 1999 to 2005 at international level, earning 49 caps and scoring 5 goals. He was included in their squad for the

2002 FIFA 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 ...

. Since ending his football career he has worked in the media, including with the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

Setanta Sports Setanta Sports is a sports television company based in Dublin, Ireland broadcasting throughout select Eurasian. The company was formed in 1990 to facilitate the broadcasting of Irish sporting events to international audiences. The company previo ...

, Talksport, BT Sport and

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish language, Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the Public broadcaster, national broadcaster of Republic of Ireland, Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on RTÉ Television, telev ...

Club career

Early career

Initially rejected by

for being 'too small', Holland went to West Ham United where he moved up the ranks of the academy but did not play for the first team. He joined Football Conference side Farnborough Town during the 1992–93 season and made twenty-one appearances.

AFC Bournemouth

In order to gain first team football, Holland joined South Coast side

in January 1995. He won the club's Player of the Year award for the 1995–96 season. He played a total of 104 games, scoring 18 goals whilst at Dean Court and also became

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Ipswich Town

In the summer of 1997, Holland joined

for a fee of £800,000. He made his debut for Ipswich on the opening day of the 1997–98 season, starting in a 0–0 draw with Queens Park Rangers. He scored his first goal for the club on 20 September 1997, netting in a 2–3 loss to

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

. Holland became an integral part of the side during his first season at Portman Road, starting every league and cup game as Ipswich finished 5th in the First Division, qualifying for the First Division play-offs as a result. Ipswich lost out 0–2 on aggregate over two legs to

in the play-offs semi-finals. In total Holland made 59 appearances in all competitions during his first season at the club, scoring 12 goals, including a brace in a 0–3 away win over

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

in a League Cup second round tie. He won the club's Player of the Year award for the 1997–98 season. He again became Ipswich's club captain during his second season at the club and continued to feature as a key part of the team. He scored his first goal of the season on 11 August in a 1–1 draw with Exeter City in a League Cup match. He once again featured in every game of season as Ipswich finished 3rd in the league and qualified for the play-offs for a third successive season. Ipswich were knocked out of the play-offs by

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 ...

over two legs, losing the first leg 0–1, Holland scored a brace in the second leg in a 4–3 victory, one of which being the winning goal, leveling the tie at 4–4 with Ipswich losing out on away goals. Ipswich continued to challenge for promotion during the 1999–2000 season. Holland kept up his impressive record of playing every game over the course of the season. He scored 10 goals in the league as Ipswich once again finished 3rd in the First Division, narrowly missing out on an automatic promotion place on the final day of the season. This meant Ipswich had qualified for the play-offs for the fourth season in a row. Holland started both legs of the semi-finals. The first leg of the semi-finals saw Ipswich come from 0–2 down to draw 2–2 away at Bolton, with

Marcus Stewart William Marcus Paul Stewart (''né'' Tubbs; born 8 November 1972) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward from 1991 until 2011. He is currently Head of Player Development at Yeovil Town. Stewart played over 500 gam ...

scoring a brace. Ipswich won the second leg 5–3 at Portman Road, in a match that also saw two Bolton Wanderers players red carded, with goals from Jamie Clapham,

Martijn Reuser Martijn Franciscus Reuser (born 1 February 1975) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played top-flight football in both the Netherlands and England. He made one appearance for the Netherlands national team. Career Born in Amsterdam, ...

and a Jim Magilton

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 ...

. Ipswich progressed to the play-offs final following a 7–5 aggregate win over Bolton Wanderers. Holland started in and captained Ipswich in the final on 29 May 2000 against

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

. Ipswich again came from behind to eventually win the final 4–2, following goals from Tony Mowbray,

Richard Naylor Richard Alan Naylor (born 28 February 1977) is an English former footballer who played as a centre-back. Naylor started his career at Ipswich Town, where he played as a striker up until he was moved to centre-back by Joe Royle in 2002; he co ...

and

, winning promotion to the

following a 5-year absence from the top flight. The following season, Holland captained the club to a 5th-placed finish in the 2000–01 Premier League season, Ipswich's highest Premier League finish. He scored his first Premier League goal on 11 November in a 2–0 home win over

at Portman Road. He also scored in League Cup wins over Millwall and

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

as Ipswich reached the semi-finals of the 2000–01 League Cup, losing 4–2 on aggregate to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

over two legs having won the first leg 1–0. Holland again started every league game that season, making 47 appearances in all competitions and scoring 5 goals. As a result of finishing 5th in the Premier League, Ipswich qualified for the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

for the first time since the 1982–83 season. Holland scored his first goal of the 2001–02 season on 28 October in a 2–3 loss to his former club West Ham United. He played every match in the Premier League and

that season, however Ipswich suffered relegation from the Premier League after finishing 18th in the 2001–02 season. In total Holland made 46 appearances during the season, scoring 3 goals, including the winning goal in a 2–1 away win over Everton on 2 February. Though Ipswich were relegated Holland stayed with the club during the 2002–03 season after he turned down a £4 million move to

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

. He continued to play regularly, scoring his first goals of the season on 18 August, netting a brace in a 6–1 win over Leicester City at Portman Road. On 15 March he scored the winning goal in a 1–0 win over

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

. He made 54 appearances over the course of the season, scoring 7 goals as Ipswich finished 7th in the league. Holland won Ipswich's Player of the Year award for the second time in the 2002–03 season. His spell at Ipswich is remembered for the consistency he showed, after playing 223 consecutive games and only missing one league match (due to international duty) in the six years he was at Portman Road. Combined with the end of his time at Bournemouth, Holland's sequence of 286 matches is among the highest in English league football.

Charlton Athletic

After Ipswich failed to win promotion in 2003, Holland moved back to the Premier League by joining

on a four-year contract for an initial £750,000 fee, which later rose to £900,000. Again with this move he assumed the captain's armband and was ever-present in his first season for the club. He made his debut for Charlton against Manchester City on 17 August 2003. He scored his first goals for the club on 3 November 2003 when he netted a brace in a 2–1 win over

. He played in every league game during his first season at Charlton, scoring 6 goals. In his first season at the club, Holland captained Charlton to 7th in the league, their highest ever Premier League finish. Holland continued to be a key part of the Charlton side during the 2004–05 season. He scored the winning goal in 0–1 away win over

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

on 11 December, a month later he again scored the winner in a 0–1 away win over Everton. He scored 3 goals in 36 appearances as Charlton finished 11th in the Premier League. He remained as a regular in the Charlton first-team during the following season, helping the club to another mid-table season in the top-flight in the 2005–06 season, although Charlton did suffer relegation from the Premier League the following season. Holland remained with the club following relegation, becoming one of the longest-serving Charlton players. He claimed more than half the entire vote for the 2007–08 Fans' Player of the Year award. He continued to play regularly during the 2008–09 season, making 38 appearances across all competitions. His final match came in a 2–2 draw with

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

on 21 April 2009, and the club released him after relegation to League One at the end of the season. In July 2009, Holland trained with Colchester United following his release from Charlton in order to keep himself fit.

International career

Although born in England, Holland qualified to play for the Republic of Ireland through his grandmother who hailed from County Monaghan. He made his international debut on 9 October 1999 in an away Euro 2000 qualifier against Macedonia, playing the last five minutes as a substitute for Mark Kennedy. He made his club manager at the time, George Burley, aware of his interest and Burley spoke to the national manager Mick McCarthy. Holland's first goal for the national team came on his fifth cap, the equaliser in a 1–1 draw with

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

on 7 October 2000 in qualification for the

. Holland captained the side in three internationals, the first on his 28th cap, a 2–0 friendly defeat to

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

.Matt Holland – national football team player – eu-football.info
/ref> He went with the

to 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 ...

scoring the equaliser against

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

in their opening game. He swapped shirts with Dietmar Hamann after the

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

game. Ireland were eliminated from this tournament in a

Second Round The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds e ...

penalty shoot-out against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, with Holland among those who missed. Following Ireland's failure to qualify for the

2006 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 ...

, he announced his retirement from international football on 5 February 2006 having made 49 appearances and scoring five goals. Manager Steve Staunton had attempted to persuade Holland to continue.

Media career

He was one of several players and managers (including Danny Mills and Paul Jewell) who acted as summarisers for BBC Radio Five Live during the

. Holland has also appeared on the

television program '' A Question of Sport'' and the radio quiz '' Fighting Talk''. Holland as a freelance pundit has appeared on nearly every media outlet covering football in the UK. He has been a pundit on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

, appeared on BBC results service Final Score on the odd Saturday afternoon and appeared on ITV commentating on the UEFA Cup. He is also a presenter for the Eastern England edition of the BBC regional football show ''

Late Kick Off ''Late Kick Off'' is a BBC One regional television football programme which was broadcast between 2010 and 2015. Launched on 18 January 2010, it covered Football League teams on a regional or pan-regional basis in a magazine-style format. The sho ...

''. He has also appeared on many radio shows, he usually appears on talkSPORT on kick off usually on Friday nights and also appearing on Matchday Live on Saturday afternoons whenever he is not on Final Score. Holland has also appeared frequently on

Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British National radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via Digital audio broadcasting and on 1215 kHz MW. History 1993–1997: Virg ...

and

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station covering sport in the United Kingdom, broadcast ...

as a co-commentator as well as Final Score,

Premier Soccer Saturday ''Premier Soccer Saturday'' (formerly ''The Premiership'') was the principal weekly club association football programme on RTÉ television. In June 2013, RTÉ Sport confirmed that due to cost-cutting initiatives to save the station up to €1. ...

or talkSPORT. In addition Holland previously appeared as an analyst for

' live matches. He also co-commentates on BT Sport on the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

and

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

. Holland began work with

when he commentated alongside George Hamilton during the Rep. of Ireland and Brazil friendly. He then appeared as a member of the panel on RTÉ's Premier Soccer Saturday for a number of weeks. He commentated the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Personal life

Holland is colour blind. He said that he had particular difficulty on his Charlton debut, when they wore red against

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

's green.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Republic of Ireland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Holland goal.''

Honours

Ipswich Town *

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. , ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Individual *

Player of the Year: 1995–96 * Ipswich Town Player of the Year: 1997–98, 2002–03 *

Player of the Year: 2007–08 * Ipswich Town Hall of Fame: Inducted 2014

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Matt 1974 births Living people People educated at Newport Free Grammar School Footballers from Bury, Greater Manchester English people of Irish descent English footballers Republic of Ireland association footballers Republic of Ireland B international footballers Republic of Ireland international footballers Association football midfielders West Ham United F.C. players Farnborough F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Ipswich Town F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players National League (English football) players English Football League players Premier League players 2002 FIFA World Cup players English association football commentators