Place of Birth :Birmingham
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Lee Carsley (born February 28, 1974 in Birmingham, England) is a professional football player for Everton, and who represents the Republic of Ireland internationally (his grandmother is from Dunmanway, County Cork).
He was acquired by the Merseyside club for £1,950,000 from Coventry City in 2002. Prior to playing for Coventry, Carsley also played at Blackburn Rovers (top scorer for the club in 1999/2000) and Derby County.
Carsley enjoyed mixed fortunes during his first two seasons at the club, however the 2004/05 season saw him become an increasingly important player within the team. He was a regular started in the 4-1-4-1 formation, with him being the sitter just in front of the defence and just behind the midfield. At this time Claude Makélélé was getting so many plaudits playing this role for Chelsea, Lee Carsley was Everton's Claude Makélélé.
In December 2004, Carsley scored the winner in the 200th Merseyside derby between Everton and Liverpool and instantly became something of a cult figure amongst the Goodison faithful. The win took Everton to 2nd in the Premier League.
Carsley continued to perform well and Everton ended up finishing 4th that season thus gaining entry to the 3rd Qualifying stage of the Champions League.
4 minutes from the end of the 04/05 season during the game against Bolton Wanderers, Carsley was stretchered off in serious pain with a twisted knee.
He was fit to resume pre-season training but was injured again at the start of the 2005-06 campaign in a pre-season friendly away to Fenerbahçe S.K. keeping him out for a further 5 months.
Everton acted to extend Carsley's contract another year to keep him at the club until June 2007.
Lee Carsley returned to the Everton first team for the 0-0 away draw with Charlton Athletic in April 2006. He played in the next game against Tottenham Hotspur and lined up against Chelsea also. 46 minutes into that game Carsley received a dubious straight red card for his foul on Didier Drogba, thus meaning a 3 match suspension and ending his season.
Carsley has amassed 29 caps for the Republic of Ireland. In 2004 he declared he was going to take a break from the international scene to focus both on getting back in the Everton side and on his family.
In September 2005, Carsley announced that "As soon as I am playing again, I will be straight on the phone saying I want to be considered for the Ireland squad" and, although he was controversially left out of the squad for a humiliating 5-2 defeat away to Cyprus, he showed he could still perform at the highest international level with a solid display against Czech Republic at Lansdowne Road in October 2006.
Carsley is affectionately nicknamed 'Harry Hill' by Evertonians due to his uncanny resemblance to the TV Entertainer.
Courtesy Wikipedia Enclylopedia
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Debut:11 Oct 1997 Romania
Clubs: Derby County, Blackburn Rovers, Coventry City, Everton
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