Kevin Moran Profile

Kev­in Bern­ard Mor­an, born Dub­lin, Re­pub­lic of Ire­land, April 29, 1956. Kev­in Mor­an ap­peared for Bo­hemi­ans, Man­chester Uni­ted, Sport­ing de Gi­jon, and Black­burn Rov­ers dur­ing a re­ward­ing ca­reer which spanned al­most two dec­ades. A Re­pub­lic of Ire­land play­er, the de­fender amassed an im­press­ive 71 seni­or ap­pear­ances for the coun­try of his bir­th be­tween 1980 and 1994, con­trib­ut­ing six hits in the process.

Al­though Kev­in Mor­an was an im­port­ant part of the Dub­lin Gael­ic Foot­ball Te­am that went on to win the Na­tion­al Foot­ball Lea­gue in 1976-77 af­ter de­feat­ing Derry in the fi­nal, he op­ted for soc­cer in­stead. He star­ted out wi­th loc­al te­am Bo­hemi­ans, but he on­ly ma­naged to make one Lea­gue of Ire­land ap­pear­ance for The Bo­hs. The tal­en­ted young pro­spect was ev­entually dis­covered by Man­chester Uni­ted Chief Scout Billy Be­han whi­le play­ing as­so­ci­ation foot­ball for Pe­gas­us and agreed to his fir­st pro­fes­sion­al con­tract wi­th the club in Feb­ruary 1978. Qui­ckly set­tling down at Man­chester Uni­ted, he was giv­en his Fir­st Di­vi­sion de­but by Dave Sex­ton in a 1-1 draw to South­ampton at The Dell on the 20th of April 1979, and net­ted his fir­st goal for The Reds when he sco­red one of the goals in a 5-0 trash­ing of John Bond´s Nor­wich City at Old Traf­ford on the 1st of Nov­ember the same year. Hard work­ing and totally com­mit­ted to the ga­me of foot­ball, Moran´s ag­gres­sion in the tack­le and his ex­cel­lent dis­tri­bu­tion skills in­stant­an­eously made him a mas­sive fa­vour­ite wi­th the Uni­ted sup­port­ers and he was well es­tab­lished in the si­de when Ron Atikin­son took over in the sum­mer of 1981.

Whi­le wi­th Man­chester Uni­ted, Kev­in Mor­an picked up FA Cup win­ners´ medals un­der “Big Ron” in bo­th 1983 and 1985. The Ir­ish­man earned his place in Brit­ish foot­ball his­tory, how­ever, when he be­came the fir­st play­er ever to be ordered off the field dur­ing an FA Cup Fi­nal. Wi­th less than fif­teen min­utes re­maining of nor­mal time in the FA Cup Fi­nal be­tween Ever­ton and Man­chester Uni­ted at Wemb­ley on the 18th of May 1985, the all-ac­tion de­fender was con­tro­ver­sially han­ded the red card by of­fi­cial Pe­ter Wil­lis for a pro­fes­sion­al foul on Good­ison Park mid­fielder Pe­ter Re­id. But des­pite be­ing down to ten men, Atkinson´s Uni­ted ev­entually ma­naged to edge out the al­ready crow­ned Fir­st Di­vi­sion Cham­pi­ons by the nar­row score of 1-0 cour­tesy of a late stop­page time goal from North­ern Ire­land in­ter­na­tion­al Nor­man White­side fol­low­ing 110 min­utes of in­tense ac­tion. As a res­ult of the send­ing off, Mor­an had his win­ners´ medal with­held from him, but he was al­lowed to re­ceive it a few days af­ter the fi­nal. As the de­fens­ive brick wall rea­ched the wrong si­de of thirty, his form dipped slightly dur­ing the lat­ter part of the 1980s, but he nev­er­the­less re­mained a dy­nam­ic and spec­tac­u­lar per­former who­se fierce drives struck ter­ror in­to even the bravest of goal­keep­ers. He would spend eight un­for­get­table sea­sons wi­th Uni­ted dur­ing which time he ap­peared in 231 Fir­st Di­vi­sion mat­ches, tho­ugh his name will al­ways be in­ex­tric­ably linked wi­th the 1985 FA Cup Fi­nal where he was giv­en his march­ing orders.

Kev­in Mor­an was ul­ti­mately gran­ted a free trans­fer by Man­chester Uni­ted boss Al­ex Fer­guson, who had be­en ap­poin­ted by the club on the 6th of Nov­ember 1986, and sub­sequently left Man­chester for Span­ish Primera Di­vi­sion si­de Re­al Sport­ing Gi­jon at the end of the 1988-89 cam­paign. Two years la­ter, tho­ugh, Mor­an re­turned to the Uni­ted King­dom where he help­ed Sec­ond Di­vi­sion club Black­burn Rov­ers clinch pro­mo­tion to the new Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue in the 1991-92 sea­son. A seni­or in­ter­na­tion­al for the Re­pub­lic of Ire­land, he re­ceived his de­but for The Boys in Green in a 2-0 friendly fix­ture tri­umph ag­ainst Switzer­land at Lans­downe Road in Dub­lin on the 30th of April 1980, and went on to amass a total of 71 ap­pear­ances for his home­land. Ar­gu­ably, the high­light of his in­ter­na­tion­al ca­reer ar­rived in the 1-0 suc­cess ag­ainst Eng­land at Neck­ar­sta­di­on in Stut­tgart in the UEFA Euro­pean Cham­pi­on­ship Fi­nals in West Ger­many on the 12th of June 1988. The Ir­ish, who were coach­ed by for­mer Leeds Uni­ted and Eng­land de­fender Jack­ie Charl­ton, star­ted the clash wi­th The Three Li­ons on a bright note when Mor­an sent a free kick from his own ha­lf to Shef­field Wed­nesday wing­er To­ny Galv­in who­se cross ev­entually fou­nd Liverpool´s John Ald­ridge who ma­naged to nod the ball on to fel­low An­field team­mate Ray Hough­ton and his loop­ing head­er went in­to the back of the net. Mor­an was also a mem­ber of the squad which qual­i­fied for at the FIFA Wor­ld Cup in Italy in 1990, as well as the FIFA Wor­ld Cup in the Uni­ted States in 1994. Kev­in Mor­an Play­ing Ca­reer: Bo­hemi­ans, Man­chester Uni­ted, Sport­ing de Gi­jon, Black­burn Rov­ers. Play­ing Hon­ours: Eng­lish FA Cup 1983, 198, Eng­lish FA Char­ity Shield 1983.

Kevin Moran Quickfacts

Af­ter ma­king his re­tire­ment from the ro­und ball ga­me at the end of the 1993-94 sea­son, Kev­in Mor­an be­came one of the founder mem­bers of mar­ket­ing com­pany Pro­act­ive Sports Management.

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