Lee Sharpe
Lee Sharpe began his footballing career at Torquay United under the guidance of Cyril Knowles the former Tottenham defender. In his first season and after only 16 games, Manchester United and their manager Alex Ferguson noted his potential and swooped to sign him for £200,000, a record fee at the time for an YTS player.
He made his debut for Manchester United in 1988 and finished his first season having made 22 appearances. During his 8 years at the club he went on to win 3 Premier League Titles, 2 FA Cup, the League Cup and European Cup Winners Cup and at the end of the 1990/91 season was named PFA Young Player of the Year. He also went on to be capped 8 times by England and only his history of injuries probably prevented him gaining more caps.
Despite his injury history, Leeds United signed him for £4.5 million in the summer of 1996, making him their record signing. However he was restricted to 26 Premiership appearances in 1996–97, and then a pre-season knee injury ruled him out for the entire 1997–98 season after which he was unable to regain his place in the team.
In the autumn of 1998, he was loaned to Italian Serie A side Sampdoria until early 1999, and then went on loan to Bradford City helping in securing the club`s promotion to the Premiership after 77 years outside the top division. He then joined Bradford on a permanent deal during the summer and helped preserve the club`s Premiership status in the 1999–2000 season.
In 2003 at the early Age of 32 Lee announced his retirement from professional football and started to develop a career in television as a pundit on various football programmes. He also appeared in a number of reality TV shows including ITV’s Celebrity Wrestling, Celebrity Love Island, Dancing On Ice, Saturday Night Takeaway and Superstars on Channel 5 as a member of the winning team captained by Sir Steven Redgrave.
For many years he has been one of the most sought after speakers on the after dinner circuit with his numerous entertaining stories from his time in football and the many characters he has encountered.
Lee also does talks and discussions from a motivational angle for companies and organisations. He speaks about his life in football from his early days at Torquay to the move to Old Trafford and being part of a team of top quality players that went on to become so successful under the guidance of Sir Alex Ferguson. He can talk about the different characters and strong personalities within the dressing room, the teamwork ethics and the leaders on the field and apart from the many good times in his career, there was also the difficulty of having to deal with the injuries he sustained that kept him out the game for periods.
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