Steve Finnan

Stephen John Finnan (born 24 April, 1976 in Limerick) is an Ireland football (soccer) player, who currently plays for Liverpool F.C. at right back.

Club career

Early career

Finnan was born in the Janesboro area of Limerick City, but moved to Chelmsford, England at a young age. He began his career with non-league Welling United F.C., turning professional with Birmingham City F.C. in 1995, but, after only a handful of appearances, he was soon on his way to Notts County F.C..
There he established himself in the first team and attracted a considerable amount of interest from higher division teams.

Fulham

After some strong showings for County in 1997-98 in English football, Fulham F.C. paid £600,000 for his services in November 1998. He became an instant regular at Craven Cottage and a fans' favourite.
With Fulham he won the old Football League Second Division championship in 1999 and then the Football League First Division in 2001.

Finnan had an impressive first season in the FA Premier League, helping Fulham F.C. qualify for the UEFA Intertoto Cup and being voted into the 2001-02 in English football PFA team of the year by his fellow professionals. Fulham then went on to win the Intertoto Cup, giving Finnan his first taste of European football.

Liverpool

In the summer of 2003 Finnan found himself courted by many of England's top clubs and eventually joined Liverpool for a fee of €4.9m.

Finnan's first season at Anfield was disrupted by a succession of injuries. However, the campaign ended on a high as Liverpool clinched fourth place and a UEFA Champions League qualifying spot.

During the 2004-05 in English football season with Liverpool, he established himself as the first choice right back and a firm fans' favourite.This successful season saw him play in the Football League Cup final which Liverpool lost 3-2 to Chelsea F.C..Finnan also started in the UEFA Champions League final against A.C. Milan, which the team went on to win. Unfortunately he picked up an injury and was substituted at half time.
He had a highly successfully 2005-06 in English football season in which he was a start performer for Liverpool and was consistent throughout the season.
At the end of the season Liverpool won the FA Cup and Finnan added another medal to his collection.

Finnan played for Liverpool as first choice right back for the 2006-07 in English football season despite heavy competition from newly arrived team-mate Alvaro Arbeloa.
The season was a very successful one for him as he was very consistent throughout the season and many fans considered him to be one of their top-performers as evident through the high amounts of vote he collected in a poll in the official Liverpool website.
He participated in the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final and was later substituted after 88 minutes for Arbeloa. Liverpool went on to lose the game 2-1. On July 23 Finnan agreed a new 3 year contract to remain with Liverpool

On August the 19th Finnan was involved in a penalty decision in which Chelsea's Florent Malouda went to ground, not one Chelsea player appealed for a penalty, however referee Rob Styles gave a penalty because he thought Finnan had fouled him. Video replays later showed that there was no illegal contact between the players. The final score was Liverpool 1 - 1 Chelsea when Frank Lampard converted the penalty to level with Fernando Torres' 16th minute goal.

Steve made it into the top 100 liverpool appearances of all time when he came on as substitute in the 4-0 victory over Toulouse on 28th August 2007.

International career

A Republic of Ireland national football team Under-21 international, Finnan stepped up to the senior side in 2000 against Greece national football team, filling in for the injured Stephen Carr.Although he was raised in England Finnan is very proud of his Ireland nationality and he has alluded to this fact in many interviews.

He cemented his place in the Irish starting XI towards the end of qualification for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, supplying the cross for Jason McAteer to score the only goal in the crucial 1-0 home win against the Netherlands in September 2001.He appeared in all four of Ireland's games in South Korea/Japan, but injury disrupted his participation in the unsuccessful attempt to reach the 2004 European Football Championship finals.He was a regular choice in the 2006 FIFA World Cup (qualification UEFA) games.

Personal life

Finnan was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving] in April 2005. He was reportedly involved in a collision in his black Range Rover which resulted in the death of a pensioner three weeks after the accident.The incident happened in the Tuebrook area of Liverpool on 27 January 2005. Finnan was bailed pending further inquiries, but the case against him was later dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Trivia

In December 2006, it was announced on the BBC1 program 'Final Score' that Steve Finnan is the only player to have played in every English football league (from the FA Premier League to the Football Conference). So far he has won the FA Cup and the Champions League and appeared in the World Cup finals.