Kevin Austin

Kevin Austin (born 12 February 1973 in London Borough of Hackney, London, England) is an England professional football (soccer), currently playing for Swansea City A.F.C. in Football League One. He was eligible to play for either England national football team or Trinidad and Tobago national football team at international level and chose to play for T&T against Panama national football team in 2000.

Austin is a centre-half who has also been used as a full-back. Standing at 6'1" (185cm), he is an imposing figure who has been dubbed "The Doorman". In recent seasons, his size and advancing years have perhaps compromised his pace.

Austin began his career at Saffron Walden Town F.C., before moving in August 1993 on a free transfer to Leyton Orient F.C., for whom he made over 100 first-team appearances. He moved to Lincoln City F.C. in July 1996 for a fee of £30,000, again making more than 100 appearances. A firm favourite during his time at Sincil Bank, Kevin was recently voted in Lincoln's 100 league legends.

Austin moved to Barnsley F.C. in July 1999 on a Bosmen free transfer but, in only his sixth match for Barnsley and ironically against Lincoln, he suffered a serious achilles injury that kept him out of action for the remainder of the season. Returning to fitness, Austin was loaned to Brentford F.C. and also linked up with Trinidad and Tobago, making his one and only appearance for the Warriors in a 1-0 World Cup qualifying win over Panama in Port of Spain in November 2000. However, he was then sidelined by a recurrence of his achilles tendon injury picked up on international duty in the Cayman Islands. A proposed move to Oxford United F.C. fell through when he failed a medical and he was released by Barnsley in the summer of 2001.

He linked up with his old manager John Beck %28footballer%29 at Cambridge United F.C. but continued to be bedevilled by injury and he agreed to cancel his contract with them in March 2002. He spent the remainder of the season with Kettering Town F.C., making his debut against Folkstone on 30 March 2002 and going on to make three appearances.

In the summer of 2002, Bristol Rovers F.C. appointed John Still %28footballer%29 as their assistant manager and Still, who had worked with Austin at Lincoln, invited him for pre-season training. Austin impressed sufficiently to earn a contract and he returned to both full fitness and regular first-team football, making a total of 61 appearances. In June 2004, he moved across the Severn Bridge to Swansea City F.C.. Austin still and in the 2006/07 season he travelled to Swansea with Adebayo Akinfenwa. He leaves more time over his journey now having missed making his home début game for Swansea against Cheltenham on August 21 2004 when he was caught in a traffic jam on the M4.

In all competitions, to the end of the 2005/06 season, Austin had made 81 first-team appearances for Swansea City (with a further four as substitute). He has not yet scored his first goal for the club.