PLAYER PROFILE

Micah Richards

Position: Defence

Height: 5'11

Weight: 13st 8lbs

Date of Birth: 1988-06-24 Birmingham, England

Micah Richards

Manchester City's promising defender Micah Richards has been earmarked as future star by his manager, Stuart Pearce. Birmingham-born Richards joined City as a youth trainee and has captained the youth side, as well as impressing in the reserves. A string of strong performances from the athletic centre-back saw him break into the first team, making his debut as a substitute against Arsenal in October 2005, before getting his first full start in City's 3-2 win over Charlton in the Premiership in February 2006.

One week after that game the 17-year-old rose to national prominence in only his second start, when he scored a dramatic late equaliser for Manchester City in the FA Cup 5th round at Aston Villa. The injury time header won City a replay and Richards celebrated by leaping into the crowd, getting booked in the process, before mistakenly uttering a swearword during a live TV interview.

In July 2006, City moved quickly to deny reports that Richards would be heading for Spurs in a £5m deal, insisting that they want to keep their young talent at the club, and he signed a new contract a week later.

He quickly repaid this faith in his talents by becoming a mainstay in the Manchester City defence in 2006/07, continuing his meteoric rise in 2007/08 and establishing himself in the England team after making his debut against the Netherlands in 2006.

However, 2008/09 was a difficult season for Richards, as he dropped out of the England senior set-up under Fabio Capello and lost form for City. At 21 years old though, he still had time on his side to get his promising career back on track.