Andrew George Hinchcliffe (born 5 February 1969) 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 ...

, sports television pundit, and co-commentator for

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 ...

. As a player, he was a

left-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 ...

from 1986 until 2002. He began his career with Manchester City in the old First Division but later 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 ...

of both Everton and

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 ...

. He was part of the Everton side that lifted the

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 ...

in 1995. He was also capped seven times by

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

between 1996 and 1998 having initially won a single cap for the England U21 team. Since his retirement, he has worked largely in the media sector as a pundit and co-commentator usually on Sky Sports coverage of the Premier League and the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

Playing career

For much of his early life, Hinchcliffe played for Manchester City's academy, coming through with a number of other players who would go on to establish themselves for City's senior side. In 1986 he was part of the side that won the club's first-ever FA Youth Cup trophy, playing in a team that also featured Ian Brightwell, Steve Redmond, David White, Paul Lake and Paul Moulden, and which was managed by club legend

Tony Book Anthony Keith Book (born 4 September 1934) is an English retired footballer and manager. Book spent a large part of his career in Non-League football with his home town club Bath City, before entering league football with Plymouth Argyle. At the ...

. Having started his career with City he established himself as the club's first-choice left-back. Whilst at City, Hinchcliffe was one of the scorers in the

Manchester derby The Manchester derby refers to football matches between Manchester City and Manchester United, first contested in 1881. City play at the City of Manchester Stadium in Bradford, east Manchester, while United play at Old Trafford in the borough of ...

on 23 September 1989 in a 5–1 victory over Manchester United. Hinchcliffe won the 1995

while with Everton and enjoyed the best form of his career at the club, winning seven full England caps. His England debut came in a 3–0 away victory over

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The unrecognised state of Transnistr ...

on 1 September 1996, in what was manager Glenn Hoddle's first game in charge. After injuring his cruciate ligament in December 1996, Hinchcliffe did not return until September 1997, with Everton then under new management after

Howard Kendall Howard Kendall (22 May 1946 – 17 October 2015) was an English footballer and manager. Kendall joined Preston North End as an apprentice and stayed with the club when he turned professional. He was a runner-up in the 1964 FA Cup with Preston, ...

had replaced Joe Royle. Kendall was not known to be a big Hinchliffe fan, having sold him previously whilst Manchester City manager. He was subsequently sold by the Toffees to Sheffield Wednesday five months into Kendall's reign for £2.65m where he played for a further four years. Hinchcliffe retired from playing football in March 2002 following surgery on his left knee. He only made two appearances in his final season at the club (2001–02), one of which was in the League Cup semifinal first leg against Blackburn Rovers, the other in the league against Crewe Alexandra.

Media career

Hinchcliffe now works as a co-commentator on

. He does co-commentary for both Premier League and Championship games, as well as some Manchester City games in the

Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

. He also sometimes appears on Sky Sports News in the morning with other football guests to talk about transfers and games that have gone on recently.

Personal life

Hinchcliffe was educated at Manchester's William Hulme's Grammar School for Boys, a rugby-playing school. Like his Everton teammate, Duncan Ferguson, Hinchcliffe has inspired a composition by the Finnish composer

Osmo Tapio Räihälä Osmo Tapio Everton Räihälä (born 15 January 1964; name sometimes spelled without umlauts) is a Finnish composer of contemporary music. He has mainly written instrumental music for various chamber music line-ups, five concertos (one for mallet ...

, who wrote an orchestral work titled ''Hinchcliffe Thumper - Tha' Bloody Intermezzo'' in 1993. The work was premiered in

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal pop ...

, Sweden in 1994.

Honours

Manchester City * FA Youth Cup: 1985–86 Everton *

: 1994–95 * FA Charity Shield:

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

Individual * PFA Team of the Year: 1987–88 Second Division

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hinchcliffe, Andy English men's footballers England men's international footballers England men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football defenders Manchester City F.C. players Everton F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Premier League players Footballers from Manchester 1969 births Living people People educated at William Hulme's Grammar School English association football commentators