Gary Andrew Stevens (born 30 March 1962) 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 ...

who played in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

for

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

and

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 ...

. He won seven

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for

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 ...

Playing career

Stevens was born in

Hillingdon Hillingdon is an area of Uxbridge within the London Borough of Hillingdon, centred 14.2 miles (22.8 km) west of Charing Cross. It was an ancient parish in Middlesex that included the market town of Uxbridge. During the 1920s the civ ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

, and attended Thurston Upper School in Suffolk. He joined

in 1977. Stevens made his debut as a 17-year-old on 15 September 1979, in the First Division as Brighton won 2–0 at home to

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 ...

, the club which had released him as a schoolboy. A versatile defender who could also play in

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

, he made 26 appearances in his first season, scoring once, and remained a regular in the side. In 1983, Brighton, already

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

to the Second Division, played in the

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official atten ...

for the first time in their history. Losing to Manchester United 2–1 with three minutes of normal time remaining, Stevens equalised, and teammate

Gordon Smith Gordon Smith may refer to: In politics *Gordon H. Smith (born 1952), former U.S. Senator from Oregon, and current Area Authority for the LDS Church * Gordon Elsworth Smith (1918–2005), Canadian politician * Gordon Smith (academic) (1927–2009), ...

missed an easy chance to win the game at the end of extra time, remembered for the commentator's line "And Smith must score..." Brighton lost the replay 4–0, and Stevens joined

for a fee of "about £350,000". Stevens made his Tottenham debut at the start of the 1983–84 season, again against Ipswich, but this time was on the losing side. He was a first team regular that season, making 40 league appearances and scoring four goals, and played on the winning side in the 1984 UEFA Cup Final, scoring his

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

in the

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight or gunfight, is a fight between armed combatants using firearms. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used to describe those that do not involve military forces or only invo ...

against Anderlecht. He was also in the side that suffered an unlikely 3–2 defeat to

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...

in the

1987 FA Cup Final The 1987 FA Cup Final between Coventry City and Tottenham Hotspur on 16 May 1987 at Wembley Stadium, London, England was the 106th Final of the FA Cup, English football's primary cup competition. It was the third final for Tottenham Hotspur in s ...

. He was also

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

seven times by

, and was included in the squad for the

1986 World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia had ...

squad – as, confusingly, was the unrelated Everton player Gary Stevens. He later joked that Sir Bobby Robson picked them both to make sure he got the right one. He made two substitute appearances in the tournament. He also won eight caps for England under-21s. Stevens left Spurs for

in 1990 but persistent injuries forced him to retire in 1992. He had never fully recovered from a knee injury suffered in November 1988 when heavily tackled by

Vinnie Jones Vincent Peter Jones (born 5 January 1965) is a British actor, presenter, and former professional footballer. Jones played professionally as a defensive midfielder from 1984 to 1999, notably for Wimbledon, Leeds United, Sheffield United, Chels ...

. At the time of the challenge, Gary Stevens was contesting possession of the ball with

John Fashanu John Fashanu (, born 18 September 1962) is an English television presenter and former professional footballer. In his former career, he was a centre-forward from 1978 until 1995, most notably in an eight-year spell at Wimbledon in which he w ...

near the touchline when Jones slid into him.

Post-playing career

Following retirement Stevens worked as a presenter 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 ...

, and for Talksport radio in the UK, although he has since left the station. He also became manager of Wessex league side Petersfield Town in 1992–93 season but resigned six months later. At the start of the

2010–11 Azerbaijan Premier League The 2010–11 Azerbaijan Premier League (known as the Unibank Premyer Liqası for sponsorship reasons) was the nineteenth season of the Premier League since its establishment in 1992. The fixtures were announced on 29 July 2010; the season began o ...

, Stevens joined Gabala as assistant to

Tony Adams Tony Alexander Adams (born 10 October 1966) is an English former football manager and player. Adams played for Arsenal and England, captaining both teams. He spent his entire playing career of 19 years as a centre back at Arsenal, making 672 t ...

. Stevens stayed on as assistant after Adams left in November 2011, until April 2012 when he also left the club. In January 2013 he became the assistant coach at Sligo Rovers. Stevens works as a presenter on

Astro SuperSport Astro SuperSport is an English language in-house subscription satellite television network in Malaysia dedicated to broadcasting sports-related content 24 hours a day. It is available on the Astro via Channels 810 & 831 (HD) to subscribers of ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

with former England teammate

Steve McMahon Stephen Joseph McMahon (born 20 August 1961) is an English football manager, former professional footballer and current television pundit. As a player, he was a midfielder from 1979 to 1998, most notably playing for Liverpool in the late 1980s. ...

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur *

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 solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

: 1983–84 England U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the comp ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

References

External links

* *
Gary Stevens Interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevens, Gary 1962 births Living people Footballers from Hillingdon English footballers Association football defenders Association football utility players England international footballers England under-21 international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Cup winning players FA Cup Final players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players English Football League players English football managers Gary Stevens Gary Stevens English expatriate football managers English expatriate sportspeople in Thailand Expatriate football managers in Thailand