Kieran Edward Richardson (born 21 October 1984) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger, left-back, or central midfielder. Richardson began his career as a trainee at West Ham United, going on to play senior football at Manchester United, Sunderland, Fulham, Aston Villa and Cardiff City. He was capped eight times for England, scoring twice. Club career Early career Richardson was born in Greenwich, London and was schooled at the private and non-selective Riverston School in Lee, London. Growing up he would watch Arsenal with his father Clyde who was a season ticket holder. He began playing football at Parkwood Primary School and his talent was very apparent at this young age, he was made captain of his school team and was invited to train with Arsenal. He then moved to West Ham United where he would begin training professionally. However, before he made his debut for the Londoners, he was signed by Manchester United in 2001. Manchester United During his first season at Manchester United, Richardson established his place as a regular on United's reserve team. He was given squad number 42 for the first team, but he failed to make his debut with them. He made his first appearance for Manchester United on 23 October 2002 when coming on as a late substitute in a match against Olympiacos in the UEFA Champions League. He then scored his first goal for United in the League Cup on 5 November 2002 against Leicester City. Richardson enjoyed his first breakthrough during the 2002–03 season appearing nine times and scoring a goal for the first team. He also played a role in Manchester United's youth team's win of the 2003 FA Youth Cup. At the start 2003–04, he was given squad number 23 and only appeared three times, all of them in League Cup and FA Cup. During 2004–05, he started to become more involved with the first team. He had already made nine appearances and scored one goal during the first half of the season. However, during the January transfer window, Alex Ferguson decided to loan him out in order for him to gain more first team experience. Richardson was linked with a loan move to Norwich City, but Ferguson said there was no chance as other players had gone on loan. Former Manchester United captain Bryan Robson, manager of West Bromwich Albion, enquired about loaning Richardson, the