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Damien Duff

Having played for Leicester Celtic, St Kevins Boys and Lourdes Celtic as a schoolboy, Damien joined Blackburn Rovers as a trainee in 1996. He made his debut at the age of 18 against Leicester City on the final day of the 1996/1997 season.

The following season saw Damien score four times and give good enough performances that he was labelled as a star for the future and despite Blackburn Rovers being relegated from the Premiership the following season he ever asked them for a transfer.

In 2000/2001 Duff helped Rovers regain promotion to the Premier League and then win the Carling Cup the following season and then after an exciting world cup in 2002 he was recognised as one of the worlds biggest stars. A transfer looked on the cards but Damien signed a new four year deal with Rovers stating his happiness with the club.

In the build up to 2003/2004 Roman Abramovic put his unlimited bank account into Chelsea and a series of bids were made for Damien, finally settling at £17million. Damien needed a few days to finally decide to leave Rovers.

His first season at Chelsea, however, was plagued by injury and he missed the latter stages of the season including the Champions League semi final. Duff did score six goals that season, however, including a fine individual goal against Newcastle after intercepting a pass from Shay Given and chipping his fellow Irishman.

He was instrumental in securing the clubs highest league finish for 49 years but the arrival of a new manager in Jose Mourinho and a new winger in Arjen Robben would see Damien left out of the Chelsea squad. An initial injury to Robben made Duff the only available winger but he did not play, instead Moruinho prefering a narrow approach, when Robben returned Damien did get a game but was shifted to the right wing.

Despite this he managed to score 10 goals and have a fairly successful season, however the following season was not as good as he failed to recapture his form. During the summer of 2006 Chelsea announced that Damien was on his way to Tottenham Hotspur after a fee had been agreed but an 11th hour bid saw the winger heading to Tyneside for £5million.

He scored his first goal away at West Ham in a 2-0 victory over West Ham, incidentally this game also saw Obafemi Martins first goal for the club. Damien suffered a serious knee injury in November that kept him out for four months, Newcastle recorded a bad run of results during these months.

On April 14th 2007, Duff received another injury that kept him out until Christmas, he barely got a chance to play under Sam Allardyce but did score against Stoke City with Nigel Pearson in caretaker charge in January 2008.

Info

Full name: Damien Anthony Duff
DOB: 2nd March 1979
Place of Birth: Ballyboden, Republic of Ireland
Height: 5ft 9in
Position: Left Midfield
Signed from: Chelsea
Date signed: 24th July 2006
Debut: 10th August 2006 v FK Ventspils

Facts

Damien won a Carling Cup medal at Blackburn Rovers.

Damien has stated that he would never play for a continental club as he enjoys the cold British climate.

Damien's favourite music group is U2.