Chris Kirkland - Biography

Last Editor: deva666				Chris Kirkland Biography -   Name : Chris Kirkland Date of birth : 2 May 1981 Place of birth : Leicester

Chris Kirkland Trivia -

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Chris Kirkland Detailed Biography -

Christopher Edmund Kirkland (2 May 1981, Leicester) is an English football goalkeeper. He is currently on loan to West Bromwich Albion F.C. from Liverpool F.C. Kirkland shot to prominence as one of the most promising young English keepers in the country in the 2000-01 season while with his first club, Coventry City. He was bought by Liverpool for £6m on the last day of the transfer windows at the start of the 2001-02 season, as backup for the Reds' other new signing, Jerzy Dudek. Injury to Dudek gave Kirkland his debut in the first team, against Galatasaray in the UEFA Champions League, but he had to wait until the following season for his first run in the team. Costly errors by Dudek in a league fixture against Manchester United handed the jersey to Kirkland for 14 matches, during which he kept 6 clean sheets. However, Kirkland was then himself injured, and a succession of recurring problems has seen him only make sporadic appearances since then. He has won 6 caps with the England under-21 team and has been selected for the senior squad, but has not yet made an appearance. When Kirkland was a teenager, his father and some family friends placed bets at long odds that he would play for England before the age of thirty — if he does so, as looks likely, the syndicate stands to win several thousand pounds. At the beginning of the 2004-05 season, Kirkland found himself with the chance to make an impact on the fortunes of Liverpool and England, having ousted his friend Jerzy Dudek as first-choice Liverpool keeper. His good form and lack of injury was seen as welcome news for Liverpool and England fans. 2005, however, did not start well for Kirkland, with his Liverpool career once again interrupted by injury. Having begun his Anfield career as the future England Number 1, a series of ineffective performances for the Reds, coupled with a string of injuries, meant that Kirkland had slipped down the goalkeeping pecking order behind Jerzy Dudek and new signing Scott Carson. In the summer of 2005 Kirkland agreed to go on a season-long loan to West Brom in order to kick-start his career again; he had been moved to fourth in the pecking order, behind new signing Jose Reina, Dudek, and Carson. This move bore immediate fruit for Kirkland as he was called up to replace the increasingly accident prone Man City player David James as second-choice keeper for the England squad.