Gary Pallister Profile

Gary Pallister

Ga­ry An­drew Pal­lister, born Rams­gate, Eng­land, June 30, 1965. Ga­ry Pal­lister was prob­ably the greatest play­er to come out of Rams­gate since Ge­orge Wright, who ap­peared for, among oth­ers, Lon­don clubs West Ham Uni­ted and Ley­ton Ori­ent. A cent­ral de­fender, Pal­lister en­joyed a fine ca­reer at Billing­ham To­wn, Middles­brough, Man­chester Uni­ted, and Dar­ling­ton, and also ma­naged to gain 22 full caps for the coun­try of his bir­th be­tween 1988 and 1996.

A ded­ic­ated per­former for Man­chester Uni­ted for al­most a dec­ade, Ga­ry Pal­lister formed a for­mid­able part­ner­ship wi­th de­fens­ive col­league Ste­ve Bru­ce and was a key play­er for the club be­tween 1989 and 1998. He star­ted out his ca­reer wi­th North­ern Lea­gue te­am Billing­ham To­wn be­fore he sig­ned up wi­th Sec­ond Di­vi­sion Middles­brough as a raw teen­ager at the start of the 1983-84 sea­son. Af­ter ap­pear­ing in 156 Foot­ball Lea­gue mat­ches for Boro, Pal­lister was bought by Man­chester Uni­ted for an es­tim­ated trans­fer fee of £2.3 mil­lion in the sum­mer of 1989, and he was giv­en his Lea­gue Di­vi­sion One de­but for the sleep­ing gi­ant by Al­ex Fer­guson in a 2-0 de­feat ag­ainst Nor­wich City at Old Traf­ford on the 30th of Au­gust 1989. A tough tack­ling cent­ral de­fender wi­th ex­cel­lent con­trol of the ball, he pro­ceeded to play well over 400 fir­st class ga­mes for The Reds, and was a con­sist­ent and reg­u­lar mem­ber of Ferguson´s all con­quer­ing te­am of the 1990´s. Whi­le wi­th Man­chester Uni­ted, he won the Pre­miership title in 1994, 1995, 1997, and 1998, the FA Cup in 1990, 1994 and 1996, and the Lea­gue Cup in 1992, as well as the Euro­pean Cup Win­ners’ Cup Fi­nal ag­ainst Bar­celona at Fey­enoord Sta­dium in Rot­ter­dam on the 15th of May 1991. He also won run­ners up medals wi­th Uni­ted in the Pre­mier Lea­gue in 1992, 1995 and 1998, the Lea­gue Cup in 1991 and 1994, and the FA Cup in 1995. Fol­low­ing nine years of ster­ling ser­vice for Man­chester Uni­ted, he de­cided to fin­ish off his Old Traf­ford ca­reer by re­turn­ing to for­mer em­ploy­er Middles­brough for a trans­fer fee of £ 2.5 mil­lion at the start of the 1998-99 campaign.

Dur­ing his pro­fes­sion­al play­ing days be­tween 1984 and 2001, Ga­ry Pal­lister ma­naged to notch up a total of 535 Lea­gue out­ings for Middles­brough, Dar­ling­ton, and Man­chester Uni­ted, con­trib­ut­ing eight­een goals dur­ing the pro­cess. Fol­low­ing his seni­or de­but for Eng­land in a 0-0 friendly draw ag­ainst Hun­gary at the Nep­sta­di­on in Bud­apest on the 27th of April 1988, Pal­lister would qui­ckly build a brave and strong pres­ence at the heart of The Three Li­ons de­fence, and he was capped on 22 oc­ca­sions by his coun­try in an in­ter­na­tion­al ca­reer which spanned eight years. At the age of 33, the com­mand­ing stop­per ap­peared in his fi­nal in­ter­na­tion­al ga­me for his na­tion in a 2-1 Wor­ld Cup Quali­fier tri­umph ag­ainst Po­land at Wemb­ley Sta­dium on the 9th of Oct­ober 1996. Then, at the end of the 2000-01 sea­son, he ev­entually an­nounced his re­tire­ment from the ga­me be­cause of per­sist­ent in­jury prob­lems and the Kent man was la­ter employ­ed as Op­er­a­tions Dir­ect­or at Foot­ball Lea­gue Two out­fit Dar­ling­ton for whom he played a mere sev­en Third Di­vi­sion mat­ches dur­ing a re­l­at­ively short-lived loan pe­riod in 1985-86. Ga­ry Pal­lister Play­ing Ca­reer: Billing­ham To­wn, Middles­brough, Dar­ling­ton, Man­chester Uni­ted, Middles­brough. Ga­ry Pal­lister Play­ing Hon­ours: Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, Eng­lish FA Cup: 1990, 1994, 1996, Eng­lish Foot­ball Lea­gue Cup 1992, Eng­lish FA Char­ity Shield: 1990, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, UEFA Euro­pean Cup Win­ners’ Cup 1991, UEFA Euro­pean Su­per Cup 1991.

 

Gary Pallister Quickfacts

Af­ter hanging up his boots, Ga­ry Pal­lister wor­ked as a pun­dit for bo­th the BBC and ITV.

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