Jamie Darryl O'Hara (born 25 September 1986) is an English former footballer and player-manager. He currently works as a radio co-host for Talksport's ''The Sports Bar'' show. O'Hara played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

and came through the Arsenal Academy, before signing for and going on to feature in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

for Tottenham Hotspur. He later played top flight football with both

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 ...

and Wolverhampton Wanderers. He was part of the Pompey team that reached the 2010 FA Cup Final. He also 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, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

for Chesterfield, Millwall,

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

and Gillingham. He retired following a spell as player/manager of non-league side Billericay Town. O'Hara was capped seven times at England U21 level. O'Hara has also appeared on UK television as a contestant on '' Celebrity Big Brother''.

Early life and education

O'Hara was born in

Dartford Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames Estuary, is Thurrock in ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

. He was educated at Horton Kirby (

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

)

Primary School A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, He then went on to Hextable Comprehensive School in

and Highams Park School, a mixed state comprehensive school in the Highams Park district of the London Borough of Waltham Forest.

Club career

Early career

As a schoolboy, O'Hara trained with the Arsenal Academy before moving to Tottenham Hotspur's academy in 2003. In 2004–05 he featured in every game in the FA Youth Cup, scoring once against Everton from a free kick in addition to playing in fourteen Under-18 matches and eighteen reserve matches. In January 2006 it was announced he had joined Chesterfield on a three-month loan agreement. His

debut came on 14 January 2006 at Doncaster Rovers in a 1–1 draw. He scored five goals during his loan spell during 19 appearances. He went out on loan for a second time in August 2007 when he joined League One club Millwall on a month-long loan deal which was subsequently extended to December. He made 15 appearances in total for the Lions.

Tottenham Hotspur

O'Hara subsequently returned to Spurs after his successful loan spell at Millwall which attracted the attention of new manager, Juande Ramos, and made his debut as a substitute against

on 15 December 2007, assisting in the game's winning goal. He made his full début a week later in the North London derby against former club Arsenal. He also contributed two appearances to Spurs' run in the 2007–08 Football League Cup, but was left out of the squad for the final itself. He became a regular player for the remainder of the season, scoring his first Tottenham goal on 21 February 2008 in a

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 ...

tie against Slavia Prague at

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

, and his first Premier League goal on 22 March 2008, against Portsmouth. At the end of the season, he was named the One Hotspur Junior Young Player of the Year and was presented with the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust Breakthrough Award for his performances. He was further rewarded by a new three-year deal. The arrival of Harry Redknapp as manager during the next season saw O'Hara gradually lose his regular place in the league. He did however make a vital contribution in the club's League Cup semi-final tie against Burnley, as he scored one goal and helped create two more in a 4–1 first leg victory that helped see them through to the final. Unlike the previous year, O'Hara was included in their squad for the final. Coming on as a substitute, he also stepped up to take the first penalty kick in the shootout against Manchester United, after the match finished goalless; his effort was saved by Ben Foster as ''Spurs'' lost 1–4 on penalties. O'Hara signed a new contract in August, keeping him at White Hart Lane until 2013.

Loan to Portsmouth

After penning a new deal with Tottenham, O'Hara joined

on loan until January 2010, with an option to remain at Fratton Park until the end of the season. He was a regular starter for Pompey during this time, but returned to Tottenham in January 2010 despite Portsmouth wanting to extend his loan and Tottenham agreeing to this, as Portsmouth were subject to a transfer embargo. Following the lifting of Portsmouth's transfer embargo weeks later, he returned to Portsmouth on loan for the remainder of the season. His loan spell created a conflict of interests when Portsmouth were drawn to play the winners of the Tottenham/

tie in the FA Cup semi-finals. Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp gave a stern reminder to O'Hara that his ultimate loyalties lie with Tottenham after the midfielder admitted he hoped Spurs lost to Fulham as he would not be eligible to play against Tottenham. Tottenham did indeed progress to the semi-final, meaning O'Hara was denied a chance to play in the Wembley match. However, Portsmouth won the game 2–0 giving him a chance to play 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 ...

where they were beaten 1–0 by Chelsea. At end of the season O'Hara was voted Portsmouth's ''Player of the Season'' for 2009–10. Having sustained a stress fracture during the 2009–10 season, it was announced in August 2010 that O'Hara was to undergo back surgery. This kept him out contention for any first team football until the New Year.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

On 30 January 2011, O'Hara joined

side Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan for the rest of the 2010–11 season, with view to a permanent deal. O'Hara made his Wolves debut as a substitute against Bolton Wanderers three days later. He made his first start on 5 February 2011, playing 60 minutes of a 2–1 victory against league leaders Manchester United. He scored his first goal for Wolves against local rivals West Bromwich Albion on 20 February 2011. He scored on the final day of the season, in a 2–3 defeat against Blackburn Rovers, which helped Wolves narrowly avoid relegation. The season concluded with him picking up the ''Goal of the Season Award'', for his strike against local rivals West Bromwich Albion. On 21 June 2011, it was announced that O'Hara had signed a five-year contract with Wolves for an undisclosed fee, initially reported to be around £5 million. It was later reported that the actual fee Wolves paid for O'Hara was £3.5 million, not the £5 million quoted. He decided to move to Wolves permanently after missing out on first team football for Tottenham. O'Hara's first full season with the club saw him miss several months of the campaign after twice undergoing surgery, firstly on a double hernia, then to correct a persistent groin problem. He did not return to first team action until January 2013, by which time the club were back in the Championship and had undergone a series of manager changes. The midfielder made 21 appearances during the second half of the 2012–13 season but was unable to halt a second successive relegation. In April 2013, he was sent off for violent conduct in a defeat to Huddersfield Town, which ruled him out for three games. Upon his return at the final game of the season that confirmed relegation, O'Hara responded to jeers from the Wolves fans by sarcastically clapping them. He had previously clashed with fans in March 2012 after being confronted by a group outside Molineux. Following the arrival of Kenny Jackett as manager, it was announced in June 2013 that O'Hara had been made available for transfer. At the beginning of the upcoming season, O'Hara was not allocated a squad number and Jackett reiterated that he remained outside his plans. However, by late October, with no interest from other clubs, Jackett stated that "the last four months have humbled him (O'Hara)" and that "everyone at the club is willing to give him a second chance". O'Hara was thus given a squad number and withdrawn from the transfer list. He made his playing return in a 2–2 draw at Carlisle and also featured in the following game. O'Hara fell out of first team contention after these appearances with manager Kenny Jackett citing his lack of fitness. He spent a short trial period at

in late November 2013 but they did not pursue their interest in taking him on loan. Without any involvement in Wolves' first team for several months, O'Hara requested that Wolves permit him to undertake an intense three-week training programme (at his own expense) at a training facility in Los Angeles, which he did in February 2014. After returning, he featured as an over-age player for Wolves' under-21 games, with Kenny Jackett saying that he was "surprised nobody has taken him" and that hoped that "somebody wants to take a chance (on O'Hara)" before the close of the loan window. However, the only reported loan interest came from his former club

, now near the foot of League Two, but no deal was agreed. Shortly after having not been issued a squad number for the new season, on 28 August 2014 O'Hara's contract was terminated with immediate effect by mutual consent.

Blackpool

On 5 November 2014, O'Hara joined

on a short-term contract until 4 January 2015. He made his debut against Leeds United on 8 November in a 3–1 loss. On 8 January 2015 O'Hara extended his deal at Blackpool until the end of the season.

Fulham

On 7 July 2015, O'Hara joined

on a one-year contract. O'Hara made his debut for Fulham in the opening game of the season in a 1–1 draw against Cardiff City. He scored his first goal for Fulham in a 3–2 defeat at

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

on 19 September 2015. O'Hara was released on 9 June 2016.

Gillingham

On 12 August 2016 O'Hara signed for Gillingham on a two-year contract. On 30 September 2016, the club and player mutually agreed to terminate his contract after his failure to recover from an ongoing injury.

Billericay Town

On 23 March 2017, ''BBC Sport'' confirmed that O'Hara had joined Billericay Town of the Isthmian League Premier Division, in the seventh tier of English football. The article also went on to report that "Billericay have recently been taken over by multi-millionaire Glenn Tamplin, who said shortly after completing a deal for the club that he was "comfortable" investing £10,000 a week." It was also revealed that O'Hara has agreed to forfeit his wages if he gets injured and that a clause will allow him to leave if a "Championship or above" club comes in for him. On 16 April 2017, it was announced that O'Hara had been fined two weeks wages by Billericay for getting into a physical altercation with a young supporter following a 3–2 defeat by Leatherhead on 15 April 2017. O'Hara left Billericay Town in December 2018, but returned to the club a month later as player/assistant manager. He became player-manager in September 2019 stating that the only way he could get a game each week would be if he was picking the team. On 3 December 2020, it was announced that O'Hara and his Assistant Manager Paul Konchesky had both parted company with Billericay Town.

International career

O'Hara was called up to the England under-21 squad for their game against

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

on 5 February 2008, but did not take the field. He did gain his first U21 cap on 25 March 2008, in a 0–0 friendly against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. In total he won seven caps at this level. On 21 February 2011, O'Hara admitted that he would seriously consider playing international football for the

if he got the call. O'Hara has played at the England under-21 level but has never been selected for the senior squad and with an Irish father and grandparents, he could now make the switch. Former Wolves manager Mick McCarthy also expressed that he too wished O'Hara to make the switch to Ireland. He was also eligible for Northern Ireland as his father was born in Magherafelt.

Personal life

O'Hara married former Miss England model Danielle Lloyd on 26 May 2012. They had three sons together. Lloyd filed for divorce in 2014, after O'Hara had admitted to cheating on her on a night out. Out of contract after leaving Gillingham, he participated in series 19 of the reality TV show ''Celebrity Big Brother'' in January 2017. In September 2021, he became host of Talksport's The Sports Bar alongside Jason Cundy.

Career statistics

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur * Football League Cup: 2007–08; runner-up: 2008–09 Portsmouth * FA Cup runner-up: 2009–10 Billericay Town * Isthmian League Premier Division: 2017–18 * Isthmian League Cup: 2016–17, 2017–18 * Essex Senior Cup: 2017–18 Individual *Portsmouth Player of the Season: 2009–10

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ohara, Jamie 1986 births Living people Footballers from Dartford English men's footballers England men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football midfielders Arsenal F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Billericay Town F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players English people of Irish descent Billericay Town F.C. managers English football managers 21st-century English sportsmen