 | Thisbiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Ronnie Whelan" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 Whelan in 2013 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ronald Andrew Whelan | ||
| Date of birth | (1961-09-25)25 September 1961 (age 64) | ||
| Place of birth | Dublin, Ireland | ||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[1] | ||
| Position | Midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Home Farm | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1977–1979 | Home Farm | 45 | (7) |
| 1979–1994 | Liverpool | 362 | (46) |
| 1994–1996 | Southend United | 34 | (1) |
| Total | 441 | (54) | |
| International career | |||
| 1979 | League of Ireland XI | 1 | (1) |
| 1981 | Republic of Ireland U21 | 1 | (0) |
| 1994 | Republic of Ireland B | 1 | (0) |
| 1981–1995 | Republic of Ireland | 53 | (3) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1995–1997 | Southend United | ||
| 1998–1999 | Panionios | ||
| 2000–2001 | Olympiakos Nicosia | ||
| 2002 | Apollon Limassol | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Ronald Andrew Whelan (/ˈrɒniːˈhwiːlən/; born 25 September 1961) is an Irish former professionalfootball player who played as amidfielder and sometimes as adefender. He played an integral role in the dominantLiverpool side that won a wealth of titles in the 1980s. He was at the club from 1979 until 1994, scoring a number of vital goals. In100 Players Who Shook The Kop, a poll of 110,000 Liverpool fans conducted by Liverpool's official website, Whelan came in 30th.
Whelan finished his career atSouthend United, where he was alsoplayer-manager. He has also managed in Greece and Cyprus, withPanionios,Olympiakos Nicosia andApollon Limassol.
Whelan was an important member of theRepublic of Ireland national team at oneUEFA European Football Championship (1988) and also appeared at two World Cups (1990 and1994). He played a total of 53 times for the national side between 1981 and 1995.
Since retirement he has begun a media career, and is a regular contributor toRTÉ Sport in Ireland.
Whelan was born into a family of footballers from Finglas,Dublin, Ireland; his father,Ronnie Sr., was an Irish international and a key member of the successfulSt Patrick's Athletic side of the late 1950s and early 1960s. His brother Paul Whelan played forBohemian FC andShamrock Rovers.
Whelan was a skilful and industrious midfield player, who, after an unsuccessful trial period forManchester United (for whom he made one appearance for their 'B' team, scoring in a 7–4 win overLiverpool 'B', on 20 August 1977),[2] made hisLeague of Ireland debut forHome Farm on his 16th birthday atTolka Park.[3]
Whelan scored for aLeague of Ireland XI against theBasque Country at theSan Mamés in August 1979[4]
Whelan was signed for Liverpool byBob Paisley for a bargain£35,000[5] on 19 September 1979, a few days before his 18th birthday and made his debut 18 months later, on 3 April 1981, scoring his first goal in the 27th minute of the 3–0 league win overStoke City atAnfield.[6] This would be Whelan's one and only appearance of the season for the first team, as Whelan spent much of his first few months at the club in the reserves.[7]
The following season Whelan won his place on the left side of the Liverpool midfield, ending theAnfield career ofRay Kennedy[8] and also taking over his No. 5 shirt. It was an excellent season for Whelan, as he settled into first team football and helped Liverpool to anotherLeague championship.[9] They also retained theLeague Cup with victory overTottenham Hotspur atWembley, with Whelan scoring twice[10] in the 3–1 win, including the equalizer late in regulation time and the winner in extra-time.[9]
In1983, Liverpool retained these two trophies and Whelan again tallied in the League Cup final, scoring the winner with a curving shot into the Manchester United net in extra-time to secure a 2–1 win. Whelan then played a major role in Liverpool'streble ofLeague title, League Cup andEuropean Cup of1984, although he was injured for part of this season.[11]
Liverpool's trophyless season in1985, culminating in the disaster atHeysel, was followed by a much more successful season for Whelan and Liverpool, under the new management ofKenny Dalglish. Liverpool clinched another League title and added theFA Cup, with Whelan setting up two of the goals in a 3–1 victory overMerseyside rivalsEverton, the first time the two had met in an FA Cup final. It was only the third League andFA Cup"double" of the 20th century. Whelan put in some fine performances in the league as well, most notably a hat-trick in the 5–0 home win overCoventry City on 12 April 1986.[12][13]
Liverpool ended the following season trophyless, losing theLeague Cup Final toArsenal and coming second to Everton in the league.[14] The following year, Whelan switched to a central role following the arrival ofEngland wingerJohn Barnes at Anfield, supplementing the new strike partnership ofPeter Beardsley andJohn Aldridge.[15] This season saw Liverpool play an exciting brand of football and they won the league title with just two defeats all season. They also reached the final of the FA Cup, although Whelan missed out on the cup final asNigel Spackman, who had won his place in the team when Whelan was injured earlier in the season was chosen ahead of him. Whelan's name and profile was even left out of the official match programme at Wembley for the FA Cup final againstWimbledon, which prohibitive favourites Liverpool lost 1–0 to a team who had just completed only their second season in the First Division and their 11th in the Football League.[1][16]
An injury to club captainAlan Hansen meant that Whelan spent much of the1988–89 season as captain of Liverpool, a role he relished as the club progressed to another challenge for a "double".[17] Then theHillsborough disaster happened, and Whelan played a key role in leading the team on and off the pitch in a difficult time. When Hansen recovered, Whelan maintained the captaincy for continuity purposes and it was he who lifted the FA Cup after a 3–2 win overderby rivals Everton.[18] However, he missed the chance to do the same with the League title, withArsenal taking the championship thanks to alast-minute goal fromMichael Thomas on the final day of the season on goal difference. This meant that for the second year running Liverpool narrowly missed out on a unique second double.[17]
Liverpool won the League again in1990 with Whelan playing a central role for much of the season, although he missed the last few games due to the first of several injuries which would severely hamper the rest of his Liverpool career.[19] One of Whelan's more forgettable moments came that season, when in a match at Old Trafford, an unmarked Whelan chipped a backpass from 30 yards over goalkeeperBruce Grobbelaar and into the net. It is considered to be one of the most bizarre and comical own goals in top flight history.[5] However, Liverpool still won the match 2–1.
Whelan remained a first team regular the following season, until an injury sustained in February 1991 against Everton ruled him out for the rest of the campaign.[20] For the rest of his Anfield career, Whelan was injured as often as he played. He missed much of the1991–92 season with injury, although returned to score a crucial equaliser againstPortsmouth in the FA Cup semi-final, forcing a replay which Liverpool won on penalties.[20] However, although he had recovered from another minor injury in time for the successful Cup final againstSunderland, he didn't feature, his place going toJan Mølby.[20]
When Whelan was fit, managerGraeme Souness gave him plenty more first team opportunities in the newFA Premier League for the1992–93 and1993–94 seasons, but it was a disappointing period for the club, as they finished sixth in the Premier League in 1993 and eighth in 1994.[21][22] By this time, Graeme Souness had been replaced as manager byRoy Evans. At the end of the1993–94 season, Evans decided not to offer Whelan a new contract.[23][24]
In all, Whelan played 493 first team games for Liverpool, scoring 73 goals in combined league and cup matches. He scored 46 league goals in fourteen consecutive seasons, 37 of them in his first seven years when he played a more attacking role. He won six League championship title medals, three FA Cups, a European Cup and three League Cup medals in his time with the club.[8]
By the age of 20 Whelan had represented theRepublic of Ireland national team at schoolboy, youth, amateur, U21 and senior level. Whelan first represented his country at schoolboy level.[25]
Whelan was a regular for the Republic of Ireland, making his debut on 29 April 1981 when he came off the bench in the 63rd minute of the 3–1 victory overCzechoslovakia atLansdowne Road.[26][27]
Whelan was part of the Irish side which qualified for theUEFA European Championship of1988 inWest Germany.[27] He was in the team which memorably beatEngland 1–0, and in the next game scored a spectacular goal in a draw with theUSSR.[28][29] Defeat in the final group game, against eventual championsNetherlands, eliminated Ireland from the competition.[30] In general, Ireland's style under managerJack Charlton did not involve precision midfield play, which limited Whelan's international impact. He came on as a substitute against Holland in his only appearance in the 1990 World Cup, and played for less than a half against Norway in his sole 1994 World Cup game. In all he played 53 times for his country, scoring three goals.[27]
On his departure from Anfield in 1994 after 15 years, Whelan signed forSouthend United and became their player-manager a year later, before being sacked at the end of the1996–97 season following their relegation from Division One.[31]
He later worked with clubs inGreece such asPanionios and inCyprus such asApollon Limassol andOlympiakos Nicosia.[32] His greatest success as a manager, was withPanionios in1999, when his team reached for first time the quarter finals of a European competition, theCup Winners Cup, when they were eliminated by eventual championsS.S. Lazio by 0–4 and 0–3 scores over the two legs.[citation needed]
Whelan now works on the after-dinner circuit and does some punditry.
Whelan features regularly onRTÉ Sport's soccer programming, including itsPremier League andUEFA Champions League coverage.[33] He is notable for his pronunciation of Germany midfielderBastian Schweinsteiger's name. He contributed toRTÉ Sport's coverage of the2010 FIFA World Cup.[34][35] He was also part of RTÉ Sport's studio coverage of the2014 FIFA World Cup.[36]He was signed to be part of RTÉ Sport's coverage ofUEFA Euro 2016,UEFA Euro 2020 andUEFA Euro 2024.[37][38][39]
| Club | Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Other[a] | Total | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Home Farm | 1977–78 | League of Ireland | ||||||||||||
| 1978–79 | ||||||||||||||
| Liverpool | 1979–80 | First Division | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | |
| 1980–81 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | 1 | |||
| 1981–82 | 32 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 1 | — | 47 | 14 | |||
| 1982–83 | 28 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 41 | 7 | ||
| 1983–84 | 23 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 2 | — | 34 | 9 | |||
| 1984–85 | 37 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 59 | 12 | ||
| 1985–86 | 39 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 3 | — | 4 | 0 | 57 | 14 | |||
| 1986–87 | 39 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 2 | — | 3 | 0 | 53 | 5 | |||
| 1987–88 | 28 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | — | — | 33 | 1 | ||||
| 1988–89 | 37 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 6 | 0 | — | 3 | 0 | 51 | 4 | |||
| 1989–90 | 34 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 0 | — | 1 | 0 | 46 | 2 | |||
| 1990–91 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 1 | 0 | 17 | 1 | |||
| 1991–92 | 10 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 13 | 1 | |||
| 1992–93 | Premier League | 17 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 1 | |
| 1993–94 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | 23 | 1 | ||||
| Southend United | 1994–95 | First Division | 33 | 1 | — | 33 | 1 | |||||||
| 1995–96 | 1 | 0 | — | 1 | 0 | |||||||||
| Career total | 396 | 47 | 41 | 7 | 50 | 14 | 23 | 6 | 17 | 0 | 527 | 74 | ||
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Republic of Ireland | 1981 | 3 | 0 |
| 1982 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1983 | 2 | 0 | |
| 1984 | 3 | 0 | |
| 1985 | 6 | 0 | |
| 1986 | 2 | 0 | |
| 1987 | 7 | 1 | |
| 1988 | 6 | 1 | |
| 1989 | 7 | 1 | |
| 1990 | 4 | 0 | |
| 1991 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1992 | 2 | 0 | |
| 1993 | 4 | 0 | |
| 1994 | 4 | 0 | |
| 1995 | 2 | 0 | |
| Total | 53 | 3 | |
Liverpool
liverpool was invoked but never defined (see thehelp page).People always say I've got 16 Liverpool medals, but I've got 17. Nobody counts the 1982 League Cup because I didn't play in the final. But I played in every round, so they made me a medal. They're on display in the Liverpool Museum – 17 of them. But time and again people say I've got 16.
Republic of Ireland squads | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||
