Martin Raymond Keown is an English former professional footballer who
played as a defender from 1984 to 2005 notably in the Premier League for
Arsenal where he made over 300 appearances for the club and won nine
major trophies. He also played for Brighton & Hove
Albion, Aston Villa, Everton, Leicester City and Reading. Keown made his England
debut in 1992 against France and went on to win 43 caps for the national side
over the next 10 years, gradually forming a respected defensive
partnership with Arsenal team-mate Tony Adams at both club and international
level. Keown represented England at four major international football finals
including the 1998 and 2002 World Cups. He is now a part-time scout and coach
for Arsenal, as well as a pundit for the BBC, ESPN, TV3, and Al Jazeera Sports
+3. He came out of retirement in 2012 and briefly played for Combined Counties
League Premier Division side Wembley in their FA Cup fixtures.
Club career = Arsenal =
A centre back from Oxford, Keown played for local sides and his local Gaelic
football team as a boy, before joining Arsenal on a schoolboy contract in 1980,
though he made his professional debut on loan at Brighton & Hove Albion in 1984.
His debut for Arsenal came on 23 November 1985, when Don Howe was still
their manager, and they drew 0–0 with West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns.
He played 22 league games that season but when George Graham was appointed
manager on 14 May 1986, he decided that Keown was not part of his plans to try
and turn Arsenal into league title contenders and on 9 June 1986 he joined
Aston Villa for £200,000. = Aston Villa =
Keown signed for Villa after a season in which they had narrowly avoided
relegation to the Second Division, a mere four years after being European Cup
winners and five years since being league champions. Manager Graham Turner
was under a lot of pressure, and after their dismal form continued into the
1986–87 season he was sacked on 14 September 1986 and succeeded by Billy
McNeill. Keown appeared in 36 league games that season, but he was unable to
save Villa from finishing bottom of the First Division and being relegated after
12 successive seasons in the top flight. Graham Taylor then arrived at Villa Park
to succeed the sacked McNeill, and Keown was very much part of his rebuilding
plans as he missed just two league games and scored three goals as Villa finished
second in the Second Division and won promotion back to the top flight at the
first attempt. Keown helped the team secure its top flight status the
following season, but was sold to Everton on 7 August 1989, just before
the start of the 1989–90 season, for a fee of £750,000.
= Everton = Keown had a fine start to his Everton
career, and they topped the table for a while in late autumn and there was hope
that they could win the league title, but their form ebbed away after
Christmas and they managed only a sixth-place finish. Keown managed 20
league appearances that campaign and a slightly better 24 in 1990–91, when
Harvey was replaced by Howard Kendall as manager in November. He missed just
three league games in 1991–92, which brought another mid-table finish, and he
played just 13 more league games for the Toffees before accepting a £2 million
return to Arsenal in February 1993. = Arsenal =
Keown did not feature in Arsenal's historic FA Cup and League Cup double of
1993 due to being cup-tied. However, he did manage 16 Premier League
appearances, mostly at the expense of Steve Bould, forming arguably the most
intense battle for central defensive positions in the Premier League at the
time. He and Andy Linighan were high quality defenders competing alongside
Bould and captain Tony Adams in the centre of one of the best English league
defences of the 1990s. Keown also missed out on Arsenal's Cup
Winners' Cup Final win over Parma the following year (although he did play a
part in the overall campaign after appearing in earlier rounds. However, he
did start the final the following season when Arsenal were narrowly beaten by
Real Zaragoza after extra time. He rarely missed a game in his first
four full seasons back at Highbury, though in the 1997–98 double winning
campaign, the 31-year-old Keown was selected just 18 times in the Premier
League by manager Arsène Wenger as he claimed the first two major trophies of
his career after well over a decade of waiting.
Keown later became an integral part of Arsène Wenger's double Double winning
sides of 1998 and 2002, remaining a first team regular until the end of the
2002–03 season, when the Gunners won their ninth FA Cup but blew the chance
of a unique fourth double due to a late loss of form in the league.
On 20 September 2003, during Arsenal and Manchester United's match at Old
Trafford, Manchester United were awarded a late penalty, with the score at 0–0.
Ruud van Nistelrooy stepped up to take the penalty, and hit the bar with it.
After the penalty, Keown and Ray Parlour confronted van Nistelrooy, and Keown hit
him on the back of the head. Keown remained at Arsenal until 2004, winning
another Premier League title, before being released on a free transfer. His
final season brought 10 league appearances – the minimum to qualify for
a title winner's medal. = Later career =
He signed for Leicester City, but left after less than six months and signed
for Reading in January 2005 until the end of the season, after which he
retired. = Wembley F.C. =
On June 2012, he was one of several former professional footballers who
agreed to join Wembley F.C. to play in their FA Cup campaign for the new
season. Keown and fellow former-internationals Ray Parlour, Danny
Dichio, Jaime Moreno, Graeme Le Saux, Claudio Caniggia and Brian McBride, plus
David Seaman and former England manager Terry Venables, all came out of
retirement to play for Wembley F.C. as the club endeavours to play at Wembley
Stadium – all of which is to be featured in a television documentary. Wembley
were knocked out in a replay by Uxbridge after initially setting up the tie by
knocking Langford out in the previous round.
International career Keown played U16 and U18 for England.
When it was learned that his mother was Irish, Jack Charlton made an inquiry as
to his availability to play for the Republic of Ireland but Keown was not
eligible due to his underage games. He was also eligible to play for Northern
Ireland as his father was from County Fermanagh. He made his England debut in
1992 against France. With an injury to Mark Wright he was called up into
England's squad for UEFA Euro 1992, and played in all three of England's
matches. Keown's early ascension to the England
team under Graham Taylor did not continue under Terry Venables, who
ignored him completely. Keown earned a recall from Glenn Hoddle in 1997, and
went to the 1998 World Cup, but did not play. Keown became a regular under Kevin
Keegan and played in two of England's Euro 2000 matches.
By the time Sven-Göran Eriksson became manager, Keown's age was starting to
count against him, though he went to the 2002 World Cup, again as a non-playing
squad member. Keown retired from international football the day after
England's exit at the hands of Brazil. In all he played 43 times for England,
scoring two goals. Management and career outside football
Keown joined the coaching staff of Newbury in August 2005, but is now
coaching back at former club Arsenal where he is taking his coaching badges.
He has been identified by former Arsenal manager Terry Neill as a key figure
behind the success of Arsenal's inexperienced "new-look" defence. In
2007–08 Keown was also a coach for the Oxford University Blues Football team on
a part-time basis. Keown regularly appears as a pundit on
the BBC's football coverage and Match of the Day, as well as covering the
Champions League for Irish broadcaster TV3. He was also working for ESPN UK
during the 2011 Emirates Cup. His son Niall made his debut for Reading
on 10 March 2015, coming on in injury time in a 2-1 victory over Brighton.
In 2015, he was appointed as the manager for Spencer FC in the Wembley Cup. A
team made by youtuber Spencer Owen to face against a team made by Simon "Mini"
Minter called Sidemen United. Spencer's team includes notable youtubers such as
ChrisMD, Billy Wingrove, AnEsonGib, Jeremy Lynch, Joe Weller, FifaManny,
OfficalMGH, Oakelfish, Poet, HurderOfBuffalo and Vujanic. Spencer FC
won the match on a scoreline of 5-2. Honours
Arsenal Premier League: 1997–98, 2001–02,
2003–04 FA Cup: 1997–98, 2001–02, 2002–03
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1993–94 FA Community Shield: 1998, 1999, 2002
References External links
Martin Keown career statistics at Soccerbase
Daily Mail Column