Lee Sharpe Profile

Lee Stu­art Sharpe, born Halesowen, Eng­land, May 27, 1971. A de­term­ined and hard work­ing wing­er who would nev­er give Man­chester Uni­ted any­thing less than his best ef­fort, Lee Sharpe ac­cu­mu­lated well over 200 fir­st te­am ap­pear­ances dur­ing his eight sea­sons at the Old Traf­ford club. He was also a fast and ex­plos­ive per­former and very few play­ers of his day could mat­ch him for sud­den acceleration.

Lee Sharpe kick-star­ted his pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball ca­reer wi­th Fourth Di­vi­sion Torquay Uni­ted where the pre­co­ciously tal­en­ted flanker amassed four­teen Foot­ball Lea­gue ap­pear­ances for The Gulls un­der Plain­moor boss Cyril Knowles be­fore he was bought by Man­chester Uni­ted chief Al­ex Fer­guson for a trans­fer fee of £200,000 at the start of the 1988-89 sea­son. Wi­th soc­cer be­ing es­sen­tially a ga­me of short bursts of in­tense activ­ity fol­lowed by small peri­ods of rest, his greatest at­trib­ute as a foot­baller was his abil­ity to ac­cel­er­ate pa­st an op­pos­ing de­fender at the ex­act right mo­ment. Sharpe was giv­en his Man­chester Uni­ted de­but in a 2-0 Fir­st Di­vi­sion win ag­ainst West Ham Uni­ted at Old Traf­ford on the 24th of Septem­ber 1988, and made his sec­ond start un­der Fer­guson in a 1-0 Lea­gue Cup Sec­ond Ro­und Fir­st Leg vic­tory over Fourth Di­vi­sion si­de Roth­er­ham Uni­ted at Mill­moor four days la­ter. Sharpe re­gistered his fir­st Di­vi­sion One goal for Uni­ted in a 5-1 tri­umph at ho­me to Mill­wall on the 16th of Septem­ber 1989 and went on to be­come part of the ex­tremely suc­cess­ful si­de of the early 1990s. Whi­le at Man­chester Uni­ted, he con­trib­uted 36 goals in 263 ap­pear­ances in all com­pet­i­tions and won the Pre­mier Lea­gue in 1993-94, 1994-95, and 1996-97; the FA Cup in 1994 and 1996; the Lea­gue Cup in 1992; and the Char­ity Shield in 1990; as well as the Euro­pean Cup Winners´Cup in 1991.

But wi­th new tal­ents com­ing thro­ugh the ranks, Sharpe gradu­ally fou­nd his fir­st te­am op­por­tun­it­ies lim­ited and left Old Traf­ford when he was sold to old rivals Leeds Uni­ted for a trans­fer fee of £4.5 mil­lion at the be­gin­ning of the 1996-97 cam­paign. At El­land Road, the flank for­ward amassed 30 Pre­mier Lea­gue ap­pear­ances for The Whi­tes and also had a loan stint at Samp­dor­ia for whom he made three Itali­an Serie A out­ings dur­ing the 1998-99 sea­son. Fol­low­ing a loan spell wi­th neigh­bouring Brad­ford City dur­ing the spring of 1999, he sig­ned a per­man­ent deal wi­th the Val­ley Parade club at the start of the 1999-2000 cam­paign. The ima­gin­at­ive wing­man la­ter fea­tured for sev­er­al te­ams, in­clud­ing Ports­mouth, Ex­eter City, and Gar­forth To­wn. Blessed wi­th dazzling skills and ball con­trol, he col­lec­ted a total of eight full caps for his na­tive Eng­land af­ter be­ing han­ded his seni­or de­but by Gra­ham Tay­lor in a 1-1 Euro­pean Cham­pi­on­ship Quali­fier draw ag­ainst the Re­pub­lic of Ire­land at Wemb­ley Sta­dium on the 27th of Mar­ch 1991. Sharpe fi­nally be­came dis­il­lu­sioned wi­th his sport and de­cided to make his re­tire­ment in 2006, at the age of 35. Lee Sharpe Play­ing Ca­reer: Torquay Uni­ted, Man­chester Uni­ted, Leeds Uni­ted, Samp­dor­ia, Brad­ford City, Ports­mouth, Ex­eter City, Grin­davik, Gar­forth To­wn. Play­ing Hon­ours: Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue 1993, 1994, 1996, Eng­lish FA Cup 1994, 1996, Eng­lish Foot­ball Lea­gue Cup 1992, Eng­lish FA Char­ity Shield 1990, 1993, 1994, UEFA Euro­pean Cup Win­ners’ Cup 1991.

Lee Sharpe Quickfacts

Lee Sharpe re­gistered a hat-trick as Man­chester Uni­ted de­mol­ished Ar­senal 6-2 in a Lea­gue Cup Fourth Ro­und tie at High­bury on the 28th of Nov­ember 1990. Welsh in­ter­na­tion­al Clay­ton Black­more gave Uni­ted the lead af­ter just two min­utes be­fore fel­low coun­try­man Ma­rk Hug­hes ad­ded a sec­ond goal for the vis­it­ors in the 44th min­ute. Sharpe then went on to score a tre­ble for the vis­it­ing si­de whi­le ex-South­ampton wing­er Dan­ny Wal­lace sco­red their sixth goal wi­th nine min­utes left. And al­though Alan Smith ma­naged to find the back of the net twice for The Gun­ners, the hosts nev­er really stood a chan­ce in this Lea­gue Cup game.

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