Shay Given
| Full Name: | Séamus John James Given |
| Date of Birth: | 20-Apr-1976 |
| Place of Birth: | Lifford, Republic of Ireland |
| Height: | 6 ft 1 in(1.85 m) |
| Weight: | 84 kg |
| Current Team: | Newcastle United |
| Number: | 1 |
Given has been one of the outstanding stoppers in the Premiership this season and his form will be crucial to Ireland in the World Cup finals. Still a relatively young stopper, he started his career at Blackburn before finding a home at St. James' Park.
A fine shot stopper who makes the spectacular save look easy. Others may have grabbed more headlines, but few players made a more vital contribution to Ireland's World Cup qualifying campaign than goalkeeper Shay Given.
A clean sheet against the Netherlands helped the Irish to their epic 1-0 win in Dublin which guaranteed a playoff slot, while two stunning saves against Iran preserved Ireland's precious 2-0 lead from the first leg of the knock-out tie. The Republic went on to triumph 2-1 on aggregate.
"Shay has now made the position his own for Ireland," said goalkeeping coach Packie Bonner, winner of 80 Irish caps and veteran of two World Cup finals, after the first game. "He showed in the first leg against Iran just how high his level of concentration is."
The Newcastle United keeper has been pursued by his share of doubters during his career, but has maintained an unshakeable self-belief which is starting to be shared by a growing number of people, and is borne out by 17 clean sheets in his first 37 international appearances. His Newcastle club manager Bobby Robson, has already labelled Given "world class", while midfielder Gary Speed rates him as "the best I've ever played with at club level".
Like Bonner, who secured folk hero status in the Republic after his penalty save in a shoot-out against Romania in the second round of the 1990 World Cup, Given hails from Donegal in Ireland's far north west. Coached from an early age by his father Seamus, he attracted the interest of scouts from as far afield as Turkey's Galatasaray as a teenager, but signed his first professional forms with Bonner's old club Glasgow Celtic. He spent two years at Celtic before being let go by then-manager Lou Macari, signing with Blackburn Rovers on a free transfer in August 1994. At Blackburn he found himself behind England keeper Tim Flowers in the pecking order, and after loan spells in the lower divisions with Swindon Town and Sunderland he joined Newcastle for £1.5 million in the summer of 1997.
The smallest keeper in England's premier league until the arrival of French World Cup winner Fabien Barthez at Manchester United, Given has fought hard to establish himself as number one goalkeeper for both club and country. The current season could not have got off to a worse start for him, when he was guilty of an opening day howler at Stamford Bridge which saw a weak daisy-cutter from Chelsea's Boudejwin Zenden trickle meekly under his body into the net. But Given quickly bounced back, and his displays have helped keep Newcastle soaring near the top of the premier league table and challenging for a Champions League place -- something few pundits gave them much hope of at the season's start.
At international level his qualifying campaign performance and playoff heroics have cemented his place ahead of Alan Kelly and Dean Kiely as coach Mick McCarthy's first choice.