Kieron Courtney Dyer (born 29 December 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He was recently the U23s manager at Ipswich Town. Born in Ipswich, Dyer played youth football for his home club Ipswich Town before going on to make nearly 100 league appearances for the club's first team. He was sold to Newcastle United for £6 million, at the time the highest fee paid for an Ipswich player, and made nearly 200 appearances for Newcastle between 1999 and 2007. A move for the same fee to West Ham United followed, but Dyer suffered from various injuries, restricting him to 30 league appearances in four seasons. After a short loan back to Ipswich in March 2011, he signed for newly promoted club Queens Park Rangers ahead of their 2011–12 Premier League season. However, his time at QPR was again blighted by injuries and he made just eight appearances for the club before being released in January 2013, spending the rest of the season at Middlesbrough before retiring. Dyer represented England on 33 occasions between 1999 and 2007. He was a member of the England squads which reached the quarter-finals at the 2002 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2004. Club career Ipswich Town Dyer was born in Ipswich, to an Antiguan father and English mother. Dyer's career began with his hometown team, Ipswich Town, whom he signed for as a 17-year-old trainee in 1996. He broke into the Ipswich first team during his first season at the club, and quickly established a reputation as one of the top youngsters in English football outside of the Premier League. He had spent three years at Portman Road when he requested a transfer in order to further his international prospects following Ipswich's failure to gain promotion to the Premier League through the play-offs in 1999. Newcastle United Dyer was sold to Newcastle United in July 1999 for a fee of £6 million, which stood as the record transfer fee received by Ipswich Town until Connor Wickham was sold to Sunderland. He was the only English player signed by Ruud Gullit during his spell as Newcastle's manager. Dyer opened his Newcastle goalscoring account at home to local rivals Sunderland, but the match ended in a 2–1 defeat, which saw Gullit resign shortly afterwards. Under Gullit's replacement, Bobby Robson, Dyer was a key player in the Newcastle team which finished