Paul Michael Kelly (born 12 October 1969) is an English former

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

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

defensive 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

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. He made a single appearance 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 ...

. Kelly played schoolboy football for England and spent two years at the FA School of Excellence at Lilleshall between 1984 and 1986. He made 11 appearances for

England Youth England national under-18 football team, also known as England under-18s or England U18(s), represents England in association football at under-18 age level and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in Englan ...

. After rejoining

as an apprentice, Kelly became a

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

regular. He made a single

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

appearance for West Ham, coming on as a second-half substitute for Steve Potts in a 1–2 defeat against

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

on 20 January 1990. On 19 December, he made his only other first-team appearance, playing the full match against

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 ...

in the second round of the 1990–91 Full Members' Cup, a match that ended in a 5–1 defeat. He was released in May 1991 and was picked up by Gillingham, where he played in a pre-season friendly against his old club, but thereafter gave up football.

Career statistics

References

External links

Paul Kelly
at westhamstats.info {{DEFAULTSORT:Kelly, Paul 1969 births Living people Footballers from Bexley English men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football midfielders West Ham United F.C. players England men's youth international footballers English Football League players