Niall Quinn was born in Dublin on October 6th 1966. He was a natural sportsman from a young age. Quinn played Hurling and Gaelic Football for Dublin and was offered a highly lucrative contract to play Aussie Rules football before he eventually decided to play soccer professionally. He signed for Arsenal and made his debut for the Gunners in December 1985 against Liverpool. Arsenal won the game 2-0 and Quinn scored one of the goals. Quinn went on to collect a League Cup winners' medal - again against Liverpool - the following season. Despite that exciting start, however, his time at Arsenal was to be a frustrating and ultimately a disappointing one. Arsenal would later sign striker Alan Smith from Leicester City. Smith was a very similar player to Quinn - tall, strong in the air - and it was soon apparent that Quinn's days at Highbury were numbered. In March of 1990, he left Arsenal and moved to the north of England and Manchester City.

Quinn's time at Manchester City was noticeably better than it had been at Arsenal. He became hugely popular with the Maine Road crowd and played a key role in helping City avoid relegation during his first season there. He was voted Manchester City's 'Player of the Season' by their supporters for the 1990 - 1991 season. Not only was Quinn a formidable centre-forward, he also considered himself to be a useful goalkeeper - winning quite a bit of money from his Republic of Ireland team mates by saving penalties they took at the end of training sessions! He famously saved a penalty in 1991 when playing for Manchester City; City's goalkeeper was sent off and Quinn pulled his jersey on and went between the posts. He saved Dean Saunders' penalty and helped City to a much-needed victory!

Quinn during Ireland's 4-1 win over England in the 'B' International in 1990

During his career, Quinn suffered two serious injuries. In November 1993 he would severely damage his Cruciate ligament in a match against Sheffield Wednesday. The injury prevented him from playing again for over a year - meaning that he missed Ireland's trip to the USA for the 1994 World Cup Finals. At the start of the 1996 - 1997 season, he was struck down again by another long-term injury which prevented him from playing for the remainder of that season. By this time he had joined Sunderland for £1.3 Million; Sunderland were relegated at the end of the season. However, in May 1999, Sunderland were promoted to the English Premier League as the First Divisions Champions. He went on to form a partnership with Kevin Phillips that brought Sunderland well into the top half of the Premier League. Phillips was the top scorer in the Premier League that season and a significant slice of credit for that went to Quinn who had provided many of his goals (as well as scoring quite a few himself!)

Quinn made his debut for Ireland against Iceland in May 1986. He came on as a substitute in all of Ireland's matches during the 1988 European Championships in West Germany and also played an important role during the 1990 World Cup - he came on as a substitute in the final group game against Holland and scored the goal which took Ireland into the Second Round! He also played for Ireland during the 2002 World Cup Finals - his most significant acts were coming on as a substitute against Germany and setting up Robbie Keane's equalising goal, and winning Ireland's second penalty against Spain.

Quinn scores against England at Wembley in 1991

However, the warmth and sincerity of Niall Quinn was demonstrated when he made the fairly unprecedented decision to donate all of the money raised from his testimonial match to charity. The game was played at the Stadium of Light just before the World Cup Finals - Sunderland played an Ireland XI. Many 'Non-attendance' tickets were purchased by supporters who wanted to help but who could not attend and in the end well over £1 Million was raised. His final appearance in an Irish shirt was in the disappointing defeat to Spain on penalties in the 2002 World Cup Finals. He has since become the Sunderland chairman and took the decision to appoint Roy Keane to the manager's position at the club at the start of the 2006-2007 season.