Niall John Quinn (honorary MBE; born 6 October 1966) is an Irish former professional footballer, manager, businessman and sports television pundit.
As a player, he was a striker who played top flight football for Arsenal, Manchester City and Sunderland, with spells in the Premier League for both City and Sunderland. Quinn also received 92 caps for the Republic of Ireland national team, scoring 21 times, which makes him Ireland's second highest goalscorer of all time. He also appeared with the Irish team at the UEFA European Football Championship of 1988 and two FIFA World Cups in 1990 and 2002.
After his football career he was part of a consortium to buy Sunderland and became the club's chairman. He also had a spell as manager before stepping down to a role of club director. He left the club in February 2012 and has since worked as a pundit namely on Sky Sports.
Club career
Early career and Gaelic games Born in Perrystown, Quinn started playing association football for his local club Manortown United as a nine-year-old. Initially a goalkeeper, he did not play outfield until he was twelve. He later moved to Lourdes Celtic in Crumlin and played as a centre-back or midfielder. It was not until he represented Drimnagh Castle Secondary School in association football that he finally became a centre-forward.
The son of All-Ireland Minor winning Tipperary hurler Billy, Quinn also participated in Gaelic games, playing Gaelic football and hurling for local Perrystown club Robert Emmets.Niall Quinn His ability saw him represent his county, playing for the Dublin GAA minors in both codes, and in July 1983 Quinn captained the Dublin Colleges Under-18 Gaelic football team on a tour of Australia.Irish Examiner – 2002/03/07: Quinn game for Gaelic His sporting career came to a crossroads when, aged 16, he played in the 1983 All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship final, was offered a contract to play professional Australian rules football and received an offer from Arsenal to pursue a career in association football. He later returned to play Gaelic football for County Kildare club Eadestown after his retirement, winning a junior C county title in 2008.Junior C victory
Arsenal After an unsuccessful trial at Fulham, he signed professional forms with English club Arsenal in 1983. He was signed as a centre-forward, but also had a brief spell as a centre-half for the Arsenal third team. After scoring 18 goals in 18 reserve matches in the first half of the 1985–86 season, Quinn was included in the first-team squad for a match against Liverpool. Quinn scored in the match as Arsenal recorded a 2–0 win. He made a further 11 league appearances for Arsenal that season, but failed to score as they finished seventh in the league. The end of the season brought Quinn his first call-up to the Republic of Ireland national team.
Quinn found himself playing under a new manager for the following season, as George Graham was appointed in place of Don Howe. Quinn had a regular place in the side that season, appearing in 35 league games and scoring eight goals. He also collected a Football League Cup winner's medal as Arsenal triumphed 2–1 over Liverpool in the final. However, after Arsenal signed another target man, Alan Smith, in the 1987 close season, Quinn struggled to get into the team. Over the next three seasons he managed a total of just 20 league appearances and five goals – his three appearances in 1988–89 not being enough for a title medal. Quinn's lack of opportunities led him to submit a written transfer request at the start of the 1989–90 season. In total he scored 20 goals in 94 appearances for Arsenal, of which 81 were starts.
Manchester City Manchester City manager Howard Kendall signed Quinn for £800,000 in March 1990, shortly before the transfer deadline. He marked his debut with a goal, in a 1–1 draw against Chelsea at Maine Road. He scored 22 times in his first full season, and he went on to spend six years at the club, scoring 78 goals in 245 appearances; his time at City was hampered by a cruciate ligament injury in 1993–94. Although he returned to the side the following season, he managed just eight goals from 35 games.
His most notable game for City was 20 April 1991 when he scored early on and saved a penalty as City beat Derby County 2–1, relegating Derby in the process.Who has saved and scored a penalty in the same match?, The Guardian, 20 October 2004 City goalkeeper Tony Coton had been sent off before half time for fouling Dean Saunders to concede the penalty. At this time teams rarely named goalkeepers as substitutes, so Quinn replaced Coton in goal. Other notable games included the Manchester derby on 7 November 1993, in which he scored twice in the first half to put City 2–0 up against United by half time, although a remarkable United comeback saw City lose 3–2.
In the 1993 close season, Everton made a bid to sign Quinn and a further bid was made early in the 1993–94 season, but both bids were rejected and Quinn remained at Maine Road for a further three seasons.Quinn could lead exodus from Manchester City, New Straits Times, 2 September 1993. Retrieved 3 February 2012. A cruciate ligament injury sustained in a match against Sheffield Wednesday in November 1993 caused Quinn to miss the majority of the 1993–94 season, and prevented him from playing in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He returned at the start of the 1994–95 season, but the partnership forged by Uwe Rösler and Paul Walsh in his absence meant he was not always a starter. In an attempt to reduce the wage bill, Manchester City tried to sell Quinn in the 1995 close season, but a proposed move to Lisbon club Sporting fell through after failure to agree contractual terms.
He managed a total of 193 league appearances in over six years at Maine Road, and scored a total of 64 goals for them.
Manchester City supporters created a song about Quinn, "Niall Quinn's Disco Pants", during a night out on a pre-season tour of Italy, in 1992. There had been a bust-up with City team-mate Steve McMahon and Quinn had removed his torn and bloodied shirt and was dancing with Rick Holden wearing just a pair of cut-off jeans. He was "hardly aware" that there were a group of hardcore City fans watching and they treated him to "the first performance of the song that will follow me till the end of my career."Niall Quinn, The Autobiography (Headline Publishing, 2002), 182. The song was later adopted by Sunderland fans and released as a single by the club's dedicated fanzine A Love Supreme. It reached no. 56 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1999.
Sunderland
Quinn finished his career with a highly successful spell at Sunderland, joining the north-east club in August 1996 for a club record £1.3 million, although he missed six months of his first season due to a knee injury – similar to the one which ruined his World Cup chances three years earlier. Before his injury, he had got off to a fine start to his Sunderland career, finding the net twice on his debut in a 4–1 win at Nottingham Forest. In his absence from September to March, Sunderland struggled and although he was back in action by the end of the season, they were relegated.Premier League 96/97 / Notts Forest vs Sunderland , Statbunker.com. Retrieved 3 February 2012.
His partnership with striker Kevin Phillips, signed in the 1997 close season, was one of the most prolific in the Football League in the late 1990s/early 2000s (a combined 194 goals for both players in all competitions from 1997–98 to 2002–03) and helped the club to regain promotion to the Premiership for the 1999–2000 season. In March 1999, Quinn again had to play in goal, this time replacing the injured Thomas Sørensen in a game against Bradford City. In similar circumstances to when playing for Manchester City against Derby County in 1991, Quinn scored and then went in goal, and kept a clean sheet to help his side win. He also has the distinction of being the first player to score at Sunderland's Stadium of Light, against Manchester City in 1997. He quickly became a legend at Sunderland, winning both the Sunderland and North East Sportswriters' Player of the Year awards in 1999 after scoring 21 goals in Sunderland's record-breaking Division One title-winning season. His final appearance for Sunderland came on 19 October 2002 against West Ham United.
In a league career lasting 17 years, he had played a total of 475 times in the Premier League and Football League, scoring 141 goals.
International career Quinn played in the qualifiers for the 1986 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship, and made his Irish international debut at under-17 level against Northern Ireland at Seaview in a 6–1 friendly win in January 1985, the first ever fixture between the two nations. Quinn scored a hat trick, as did Eamonn Dolan. However, Arsenal refused permission for Quinn to travel to the 1985 FIFA World Youth Championships.
Quinn made his senior debut as a substitute against the host nation in the Iceland Triangular Tournament in 1986. Quinn played for his country at two World Cups, in 1990 and 2002; he missed the 1994 FIFA World Cup because of injury. Quinn was also a member of the Irish squad that participated in the 1988 European Championship playing just once, as a substitute in the Republic of Ireland's 1–0 win over England in Stuttgart.
Quinn scored the equaliser against the Netherlands in the 1990 FIFA World Cup which allowed the Republic to progress to the second round of that tournament. In the qualifiers for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he scored against Cyprus on his 35th birthday to break the all-time goalscoring record, then held by Frank Stapleton. In the tournament proper, his header set up Robbie Keane's late equaliser against Germany, which was the only goal Germany conceded before the final. In the second-round, with the Republic behind 1–0 to Spain, it was a foul on Quinn that led to Ireland's last-minute penalty, converted by Robbie Keane, which tied the game and brought extra-time, but the Republic lost 3–2 in the resulting penalty shootout.
After the tournament, he announced his retirement from international football, amassing 92 caps. At the time, he was his country's all-time top scorer with 21 goals; this record was surpassed in October 2004 by Robbie Keane.
Quinn had a testimonial match between Sunderland and the Republic of Ireland in 2002. He donated the entire proceeds to charity, an act for which he received a number of awards, including an honorary MBE. Instead of receiving an appearance fee for the game, all the players received a letter from a sick child. Quinn played for both teams during the match, which raised over £1 million. The Republic of Ireland won the match 3–0.
Post-playing career
Quinn retired in 2003 at the age of 37, taking a brief coaching role at Sunderland. He made a single league appearance for Thai Premier League side BEC Tero Sasana in March 2006 to promote the league and the side's link with Arsenal. His post-playing career has involved stints as chairman of Sunderland and, on an interim basis, the FAI, as well as journalism and commentary, charitable work and business pursuits. The Times reported that the Labour Party had approached Quinn about potentially running in Dublin Bay North in the 2024 general election, and he was mooted as a potential candidate for Fianna Fáil in the 2025 Irish presidential election, but ultimately did not run in either.
Football executive and coach Heading the Drumaville Consortium of wealthy Irish businessmen, in June 2006, Quinn successfully brokered a deal to buy a controlling stake in Sunderland. In July, Quinn became the chairman and manager of Sunderland. The deal was finalised on 27 July, with sufficient shares being sold to the consortium in order for them to take complete control.