Shay Given

By Craig · Published 9 November 2026

Shay Given spent 12 years in goal for Newcastle United, made two PFA Teams of the Year and played more European games for the club than anyone else. He also won 134 caps for the Republic of Ireland, more than any other goalkeeper. Kenny Dalglish signed him twice, and Newcastle still count him as one of their own.

Clubs

Celtic (youth), Blackburn Rovers, Swindon Town (loan), Sunderland (loan), Newcastle United, Manchester City, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough (loan), Stoke City

Premier League

450 appearances, 0 goals

Honours

Second Division 1995/96 (Swindon Town, loan), First Division 1995/96 (Sunderland, loan), PFA Team of the Year 2001/02 and 2005/06

International

134 Republic of Ireland caps

Fantasy price

£4.0m in 1996/97

How he arrived

Given is from Lifford in County Donegal. He let in seven on his debut for the local amateur side, Lifford Celtic, but the bigger Celtic noticed him anyway. He trained with their youth team on a pre-season tour in 1991 and signed a year later. He never played for the first team. The closest he got was the bench for an Old Firm derby on New Year's Day 1994.

That summer he joined Blackburn Rovers on a free transfer. The manager was Kenny Dalglish, and the first-choice keeper was Tim Flowers, who wasn't going anywhere. Blackburn won the league in 1994/95 without Given playing a minute. So he went on loan: five games at Swindon, then 17 at Sunderland from January 1996, with 12 clean sheets as they won the First Division. His Premier League debut finally came on 14 December 1996, a 1-0 defeat at Wimbledon.

Dalglish had since moved to Newcastle, and he had been impressed by those loan spells. In the summer of 1997 he signed Given for the second time. The fee went to a tribunal, which set it at £1.5m. Given beat Shaka Hislop, Pavel Srníček and Steve Harper to the shirt and made his debut on 9 August 1997, a 2-1 home win over Sheffield Wednesday.

The moment: Barcelona, 17 September 1997

A few weeks into his Newcastle career, Given was in goal for a Champions League night against Barcelona at St James' Park. He was 21. Barcelona had Rivaldo, Luís Figo and Luis Enrique. "Nobody gave us much of a chance beforehand," he said.

Faustino Asprilla won a penalty off the Barcelona keeper, Ruud Hesp, and scored it. Then he headed in two Keith Gillespie crosses, and it was 3-0 four minutes into the second half. Given did his part at the other end. He tipped over a shot from Miguel Ángel Vidal and kept out Rivaldo after a turn.

Barcelona came back. Luis Enrique and Figo pulled two back in the last 20 minutes, and with a minute left Given fumbled a corner. The finish was tense, but Newcastle held on, 3-2.

"The crowd was maybe 37 or 38,000 but I felt like there were 137,000 there," Given told Sky Sports in 2019. More than 25 years on, he still calls it "the best atmosphere at St James' Park that I played in."

Why he left Newcastle

Given stayed for 11 and a half years. By the 2008/09 season the club was struggling under Joe Kinnear, and on 1 February 2009 he joined Manchester City on a four-and-a-half-year deal, for a fee reported at around £6m.

Kinnear said Given "felt the time was right to move on", and that Newcastle "had no choice but to reluctantly agree". Mark Hughes said City had needed "the experience of a keeper like Shay". Given thanked the people he was leaving. "I have a lot of friends there, and the supporters there are fantastic," he said. "They have been great to me for so many years, and I thank them for that."

Newcastle were relegated that May. At City, Given was first choice for the rest of that season and most of the next, and he saved a Frank Lampard penalty in a 2-1 win over Chelsea in December 2009. Then Joe Hart took the shirt, and Given didn't play a league game in 2010/11. In July 2011 he moved to Aston Villa on a five-year deal.

Why the streets won't forget

Newcastle had more famous names in those years, Alan Shearer above all. Given was the one who was always there. He played all 38 league games in 2001/02, 2002/03, 2003/04 and2005/06, and 36 in the season in between. He was in the PFA Team of the Year in 2001/02 and 2005/06, and Newcastle's player of the year in 2004/05 and 2005/06.

He made 462 appearances for the club. His 54 European games are more than any other Newcastle player has managed. He is in the club's Hall of Fame, and he was a fan favourite long before that.

For a retro squad, that's the appeal. In his best years at Newcastle, he simply didn't miss games.

Ireland got the same reliability for 20 years. He made his debut against Russia in March 1996, before he had played a Premier League game, and finished with 134 caps. OnlyRobbie Keane has more. He played every game at the 2002 World Cup, where Ireland went out to Spain on penalties, and he gave his international match fees to charity.

Where is he now

Given's first season at Villa was his last as a regular. He was loaned to Middlesbrough in 2013/14, played in the 2015 FA Cup final at 39 (a 4-0 defeat by Arsenal) and finished his career at Stoke. He announced his retirement in April 2018, the day after his 42nd birthday, while collecting the Donegal Person of the Year award.

In June 2018 he joined Derby County as goalkeeping coach under Frank Lampard. He stayed under Phillip Cocu and then Wayne Rooney, stepping up to first-team coach in January 2021, until the club's financial problems ended his time there that summer.

These days he works in the media. He is a pundit on the BBC's Final Score, has covered Newcastle games for Amazon Prime, and turns up on podcasts. In March 2026 the FAI inducted him into its Hall of Fame. "Playing for Ireland always meant so much to me, it was the world to me," he said.

Which seasons can you draft him in?

Want the keeper who played every league game for Newcastle in 2001/02? Draft a squad from2001/02.