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 lea ...

who played 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, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

for

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

. 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 Java ...

for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 civil pari ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, and attended Thurston Upper School in

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. 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 football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

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

midfield In many sports, midfield is the part of a sports field that is near the line that is equally far from the end lines. That is, in American football it is the part of the field near the 50-yard line; in association football (soccer) and field hoc ...

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

relegated Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

to the Second Division, played in the

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...

for the first time in their history. Losing to

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

2–1 with three minutes of normal time remaining, Stevens equalised, and teammate Gordon Smith 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, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

in the

shootout A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a confrontation in which parties armed with firearms exchange gunfire. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to ...

against

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

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

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

in the 1987 FA Cup Final. 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 e ...

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 an English actor, presenter, and former professional footballer. Jones played professionally as a defensive midfielder from 1984 to 1999, notably for Wimbledon, Leeds United, Sheffield United, C ...

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

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

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 broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

, and for

Talksport Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

radio in the UK, although he has since left the station. He also became manager of Wessex league side

Petersfield Town Petersfield Town Football Club are an English association football, football club based in Petersfield, Hampshire, England. The club is affiliated to the Hampshire Football Association, and is an England Football Accredited Club. They are curre ...

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 top tier Azerbaijan Premier League since its establishment in 1992. The fixtures were announced on 29 July 2010 ...

, 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. Known as Mr. Arsenal, he spent his entire playing career of 19 years as a centre-back 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 Sligo Rovers Football Club is an Irish professional association football, football club playing in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland. The club is based in Sligo in the west of Ireland. The club was founded in 1928 and have been in ...

. Stevens works as a presenter on Astro SuperSport in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

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 The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

: 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 the London Borough of Hillingdon People from Hillingdon English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football utility players England men's international footballers England men's under-21 international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Europa League–winning 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