Matt Holland
Personal information
Full name	Matthew Rhys Holland
Date of birth	11 April 1974 (1974-04-11) (age 35)
Place of birth	Bury, England
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1992–1995 1995–1997 1997–2003 2003–2009	West Ham United Bournemouth Ipswich Town Charlton Athletic	000 00(0) 104 0(18) 259 0(38) 189 0(13)
National team2
1999–2006	Republic of Ireland	049 0(5)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:35, 16 April 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 19/01/2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Matthew Rhys "Matt" Holland (born 11 April 1974) is an English footballer, who represented Republic of Ireland at international level. He is without club having recently been released by Charlton Athletic.

[edit] Club career

Initially rejected by Arsenal for being 'too small' he went to West Ham United where he moved up the ranks of the academy but never played for the first team. In order to gain first team football, he joined South Coast side Bournemouth in January 1995. He played a total of 116 games scoring 18 goals whilst at Dean Court, and also became captain.

In the summer of 1997, Holland joined Ipswich Town for a fee of £800,000. He again became team captain and captained the club into the Premier League by winning the First Division play-offs in 2000. He later captained the club to well deserved fifth place finish and qualification for the UEFA Cup in 2001, establishing himself as one of the best midfielders in the country. Though Ipswich were sadly relegated in 2002 he stayed with the club after he turned down a £4.5 million move to Aston Villa. His spell at Ipswich is most remembered for the consistency he showed, after playing 223 consecutive games and only missing one league match (due to international duty) in the six years he was at Portman Road.

After Ipswich failed to win promotion in 2003, Holland moved back to the Premier League by joining Charlton Athletic for an initial £750,000 fee which later rose to £900,000. Again with this move he assumed the captain's armband and was ever-present in his first season for the club. One of the longest-serving Charlton players, he claimed more than half the entire vote for the 2007–08 Fans' Player of the Year award to overwhelmingly succeed 2006–07 winner Scott Carson, who became the first ever loan player to win the award the previous season.^[1]

In July 2009, Holland had an unsuccessful trial with Colchester United following his release from Charlton.^[2]

[edit] International career

Although born in England, he qualified to play for Ireland through his grandmother and went with Republic of Ireland to the 2002 World Cup scoring the equaliser against Cameroon in their opening game. Ireland were eliminated from this tournament in a Second Round penalty shootout against Spain and Holland was selected to take a penalty, but missed it.

Following Ireland's failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, he announced his retirement from international football in early February 2006 having made 49 appearances bagging 5 goals.

[edit] Media career

He was one of several players and managers (including Danny Mills and Paul Jewell) who acted as summarisers for BBC Radio Five Live during the 2006 FIFA World Cup. Holland has also appeared on the BBC television program A Question of Sport and the radio quiz Fighting Talk. Holland had also taken up a post as a pundit on ESPN and Sky Sports.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Matt Holland player profile at cafc.co.uk
• Matt Holland career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Republic of Ireland squad – 2002 FIFA World Cup 1 Given • 2 Finnan • 3 Harte • 4 Cunningham • 5 Staunton • 6 Roy Keane • 7 McAteer • 8 Holland • 9 Duff • 10 Robbie Keane • 11 Kilbane • 12 Kinsella • 13 Connolly • 14 Breen • 15 Dunne • 16 Kiely • 17 Quinn • 18 G. Kelly • 19 Morrison • 20 O'Brien • 21 Reid • 22 Carsley • 23 A. Kelly • Coach: McCarthy