Lee Stuart Sharpe, (born May 27, 1971 in Halesowen, West Midlands), is an English football player currently playing for Garforth Town. Predominantly a left winger, Lee once played for Manchester United and was one of the most promising young players in English football, but his career went into rapid decline at an early age. He has achieved renewed fame by appearing on reality television shows.
Professional football career
Sharpe began his career at Torquay United. However, in his first season with them (1987-88), after only 16 games, Manchester United noted his potential and swooped to sign him in June for £200,000, a record fee at the time for a YTS player.
He soon broke into the first team, initially playing out of position at left back before replacing Ralph Milne as left-winger in the 1990-91 season. His performances were outstanding, and he played a key part in United’s success in the European Cup Winners’ Cup that season.
Having established himself as a fantastic left winger, Sharpe earned a call up to the England squad, although he was unable to replace John Barnes as first choice left winger. Unfortunately, he was then out of the game for long periods of time through injury and illness (he suffered from viral meningitis) and when his fitness recovered the form of Ryan Giggs meant he had to play out of position at left back or on the right wing, competing for a place with Andrei Kanchelskis. In total he played 265 games for the Red Devils during eight years there, scoring 36 goals.
Despite his injury history, Leeds United signed him for £4.5 million in the summer of 1996, making him their record signing. Unfortunately, his time at Leeds was beset by further injuries. He made 26 Premiership appearances in 1996-97, scoring five goals, but a pre-season knee injury ruled him out for the entire 1997-98 season and he was unable to regain his place in the team on recovery.
In the autumn of 1998, Lee Sharpe was loaned to Italian Serie A strugglers Sampdoria, but soon fell out of favour and in the New Year he returned to England. A £250,000 fee took him to Bradford City in March 1999 and he was a key player in securing the club’s promotion to the Premiership after 77 years outside the top division. He also helped preserve the club’s Premiership status in 1999-00.
In 2000-01, Sharpe lost his place in the Bradford team and just before Christmas went on loan to Division One Portsmouth F.C. He returned to Bradford during the 2001-02 season but when his contract expired at the end of the season he was given a free transfer. A brief spell at Exeter City then followed before he moved to GrindavÃk in Iceland. In June 2003 he announced his retirement from first class football at the age of 32.
During 2003-04, Lee Sharpe made a brief return to football in the Kidderminster Sunday League before signing for Northern Counties East Premier League side Garforth Town the following summer.
Lee Sharpe was capped 8 times by the England team between 1991 and 1995.
Clubs
* EnglandTorquay United (1987-1988)
* EnglandManchester United (1988-1996)
* EnglandLeeds United (1996-1999)
* ItalySampdoria (1998, loan)
* EnglandBradford City (1999-2002)
* EnglandExeter City (2002-2003)
* IcelandGrindavÃk (2003-2004)
* EnglandGarforth Town (2004)
After football
He appeared as a competitor in the 2005, ITV television show Celebrity Wrestling, under the name “Sharpe Shooter”.
In 2004 and 2006, he worked as a football pundit for ESPN Star in Asia, and along with Les Ferdinand, is a celebrity host on the game show Kickoff where he is also known as “Sharpy” .
In addition to his top class appearance in Celebrity Wrestling, he also appeared in Celebrity Love Island. During his time on the Island Mr Sharpe has courted the attentions of many of the show’s beautiful ladies, most notably TV presenter Jayne Middlemiss, who confessed to “never having felt like this before about someone”. Later he moved onto Abi Titmuss.
On 25 August 2005 Lee released an autobiography called My Idea of Fun about his time as a footballer and the consequent fame he achieved.
Lee Sharpe is set to appear in an episode of footballing drama Dream Team.
Lee is also a pundit on BBC’s Match of the Day 2 and Football Focus.
Lee Sharpe writing a world cup blog from Germany with video clips and photos for Yahoo.
16th November 2006 is the first year anniversary of Sharpe’s trip to York to watch a university graduation. During this trip he dined at the popular VJ’s Art Bar which has become affectionately known to residents as the Lee Sharpe bar.
Courtesy Of Wikipedia
