Friday, July 22, 2011

Teddy Sheringham

Edward Paul "Teddy" Sheringham MBE (born 2 April 1966) is a retired English footballer, and the father of footballer Charlie Sheringham. Sheringham played as a striker, and had a successful career at the club level, winning almost every domestic honour available with his clubs, most notably the Treble with Manchester United in the 1998–99 season. The pinnacle of his career came when he scored the equaliser and provided the assist for Manchester United's winning goal in the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final against Bayern Munich. Sheringham also represented England at international level. He was given an MBE in June 2007.He retired from competitive football at the end of the 2007–08 season with Colchester United, at the age of 42.
Sheringham began his professional career at Millwall in 1982 at the age of 16, after impressing a scout when playing for non-league club Leytonstone & Ilford during a youth team game against Millwall. He was signed up, initially as an apprentice and scored on only his second appearance for the club in a match away at Bournemouth in January 1984. After being loaned out by the club twice in 1985 to Aldershot and later a Swedish side, Djurgården, he quickly became a first choice selection at Millwall and during the late 1980s formed a striking partnership with Tony Cascarino. He was the club's top goalscorer in four seasons (1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89 and 1990–91) and played in every game of the season twice, in 1986–87 and 1990–91.
The 25-year-old Sheringham was sold to Nottingham Forest in a £2 million deal in July 1991[10] to play alongside Nigel Clough. He did well for Forest and helped them finish eighth in the First Division at the end of the 1991–92 season as well as to reach the League Cup final, where they lost to Manchester United. Sheringham scored Forest's first Premiership goal against Liverpool in August 1992 (which was also the first ever live goal shown on Sky Sports) but a week later he was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for £2.1 million. Forest went on to be relegated in 1992–93, having failed to adequately replace Sheringham in attack.
Sheringham had a successful start to his career at the club by being the Premier League's top goalscorer in its inaugural season, scoring 22 goals (21 with Tottenham and one with Forest).His strike partners at White Hart Lane included Gordon Durie, Ronny Rosenthal, Jürgen Klinsmann and finally Chris Armstrong. In 1993–94, he was Tottenham's top scorer with 14 Premiership goals but played in just 19 games due to injury and this impacted negatively on Tottenham's league form. Spurs finished 15th and were not completely safe from relegation until the penultimate game of the season. They have not finished lower than this ever since.
In June 1997, Sheringham agreed to join Manchester United in a £3.5million deal. He was signed to replace the iconic Eric Cantona whose retirement had left the Old Trafford faithful demanding a big name to fill the gap. His first competitive game for the club was against his former employers, Tottenham, at White Hart Lane. Throughout the game, Sheringham suffered jeers and boos from his former fans, who had been angered by the fact that Sheringham had accused Tottenham of lacking ambition when he made his transfer. In the 60th minute with the score at 0–0, Sheringham missed a penalty, although ended up on the winning side as two late goals gave United the win.
Speculation that Sheringham would leave United increased just after the 1998–99 season got underway, when Dwight Yorke moved to Old Trafford from Aston Villa. Sheringham's first-team chances were relatively limited but he still managed to get enough Premiership games to qualify for a title winner's medal at the end of the season — at the age of 33 he had finally won a major trophy. A week later he scored one of United's two goals in the FA Cup final to yield his second honour.[14] Four days after the FA Cup triumph, Sheringham scored a dramatic stoppage-time equaliser against Bayern Munich in the Champions League final, having come on as a substitute earlier in the game. With seconds of stoppage-time remaining, Ole Gunnar Solskjær scored from Sheringham's headed flick-on, and United won a treble of the Premiership, FA Cup and European Cup with Sheringham – having not won a major honour in his 15 year career on leaving Spurs – now having won every top-level trophy in the club game.
Sheringham did not get as many first-team chances as he might have hoped for during 1999-00, but he still played enough times to merit another Premiership title medal. In 2000–01, Sheringham played some of the best football of his career as he was United's top goalscorer, displacing Dwight Yorke as the preferred first-team player, as well as being voted Player of the Year by both the PFA and FWA.His fine form ensured that he was still involved with the national side despite being in his 35th year, being named in the squad for the 2002 World Cup. He still maintains a legendary status with the Old Trafford faithful, appearing as a special half-time guest at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's testimonial match.

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