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Niall Quinn, (honorary) Order of the British
Empire|MBE (born 6 October 1966 in Dublin) is an
Republic of Ireland|Irish international football
(soccer)|football player, now retired. 

An honest player and a model professional, Quinn
was the archetypal old fashioned target-man. He
played as a youth for Irish club Manortown United
F.C.|Manortown United, before signing professional
forms with England|English club Arsenal
F.C.|Arsenal in 1983. He scored on his first-team
debut against Liverpool F.C.|Liverpool in December
1985, but his form for the rest of that season was
decidedly patchy.

Quinn took time to find form, but by 1986-87 in
English football|1986-87 had become a regular in
the Arsenal side, helping them reach and then win
the 1987 League Cup final. However, the arrival of
fellow centre-forward Alan M. Smith|Alan Smith
that summer forced Quinn out of the Arsenal first
team, and he became a fringe player. In all he
scored 20 goals in 93 matches for the Gunners.

Manchester City F.C.|Manchester City signed Quinn
for £800,000 in March 1990. He scored 22 times in
his first full season, and he went on to spend six
years at the club, scoring 66 goals in just over
200 appearances; his time at City was hampered by
a anterior cruciate ligament|cruciate ligament
injury in 1993-94 in English football|1993-94 and
a falling-out with manager Alan Ball
(footballer)|Alan Ball.

Quinn made his debut for the Republic of Ireland
national football team|Republic of Ireland in
1987, and went on to make 91 appearance. He
retired as his country's all-time scorer with 21
goals; this record was surpassed by Robbie Keane
in October 2004. Quinn played for his country at
two Football World Cup|World Cups, in Football
World Cup 1990|1990 and  Football World Cup
2002|2002; he missed the wc|1994 because of
injury.

Quinn finished his career with highly successful
spell at Sunderland A.F.C.|Sunderland, joining the
north-east club in 1996. His partnership with
striker Kevin Phillips (footballer)|Kevin Phillips
was one of the most prolific in the Football
League and helped the club to promotion to the
Premiership. Quinn will always retain the
distinction of being the first player to score in
Sunderland's Stadium of Light, against Manchester
City in 1997. In 2002, he donated the proceeds of
his testimonial match between Sunderland and the
Republic of Ireland to Charitable trust|charity,
an act for which he received a number of awards,
including an honorary MBE. Quinn retired in 2003,
but still retains a coaching role at Sunderland.

Quinn also wrote an acclaimed autobiography, which
was nominated for a William Hill Sports Award. It
is notable as one of the few football
autobiographies that was actually written by the
footballer, as Quinn used relatively little help
from a ghostwriter in compiling the book. The book
is not structured chronologically, but rather in
the context of Quinn's career swansong, the 2002
World Cup in Japan. 

==External links==
*http://www.discopants.freeserve.co.uk/ Fan site