Niall John Quinn (honorary MBE;[3] born 6 October 1966) is an Irish former professional footballer, manager, businessman and sports television pundit.

[11] He started his career in association football as a youth for Irish club Manortown United and then Lourdes Celtic in Crumlin, Dublin 12.

[15] Quinn found himself playing under a new manager for the following season, as George Graham was appointed in place of Don Howe.

[17] However, after Arsenal signed another target man, Alan Smith, in the 1987 close season,[18] Quinn struggled to get into the team.

[13] Manchester City manager Howard Kendall signed Quinn for £800,000 in March 1990, shortly before the transfer deadline.

[23] A cruciate ligament injury sustained in a match against Sheffield Wednesday in November 1993 caused Quinn to miss the majority of the 1993–94 season, and prevented him from playing in the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

He returned at the start of the 1994–95 season, but the partnership forged by Uwe Rösler and Paul Walsh in his absence meant he was not always a starter.

In an attempt to reduce the wage bill, Manchester City tried to sell Quinn in the 1995 close season, but a proposed move to Lisbon club Sporting fell through after failure to agree contractual terms.

In March 1999, Quinn again had to play in goal, this time replacing the injured Thomas Sørensen in a game against Bradford City.

In similar circumstances to when playing for Manchester City against Derby County in 1991, Quinn scored and then went in goal, and kept a clean sheet to help his side win.

Quinn played in the qualifiers for the 1986 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship, and made his Irish international debut at under-17 level against Northern Ireland at Seaview in a 6–1 friendly win in January 1985, the first ever fixture between the two nations.

[citation needed] Quinn made his senior debut as a substitute against the host nation in the Iceland Triangular Tournament in 1986.

[29] Quinn was also a member of the Irish squad that participated in the 1988 European Championship playing just once, as a substitute in the Republic of Ireland's 1–0 win over England in Stuttgart.

Quinn scored the equaliser against the Netherlands in the 1990 FIFA World Cup which allowed the Republic to progress to the second round of that tournament.

In the qualifiers for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he scored against Cyprus on his 35th birthday to break the all-time goalscoring record, then held by Frank Stapleton.

[33] The book is not structured chronologically, but rather in the context of Quinn's career swansong, the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.

A large portion of the proceeds from Quinn's 2002 testimonial match were donated to City Hospitals Sunderland to help fund the building of a new children's centre.

[34][35] Heading the Drumaville Consortium of wealthy Irish businessmen, in June 2006, Quinn successfully brokered a deal to buy a controlling stake in Sunderland.

Quinn stepped to one side (to continue in his role as Sunderland chairman) paving the way for Roy Keane to take charge.

Quinn made substantial amounts of money available for buying new players, as he had a declared ambition to establish Sunderland as a top club.

[citation needed] In 2008, he received the James Joyce Award of the Literary & Historical Society in University College Dublin.

[44] In January 2020, Quinn was appointed as interim deputy chief executive officer of the Football Association of Ireland, choosing to go without salary until the financial future of the organisation could be secured.

There had been a bust-up with City team-mate Steve McMahon and Quinn had removed his torn and bloodied shirt and was dancing with Rick Holden wearing just a pair of cut-off jeans.

He was "hardly aware" that there were a group of hardcore City fans watching and they treated him to "the first performance of the song that will follow me till the end of my career.