Wayne Bridge - Biography
Can Wayne Bridge help guide Manchester City to Premier League glory? Check out all the latest online betting odds with our partners at www.bwin.com
Wayne Bridge was born on the 5th of August 1980 in Southampton, England. Shortly after his birth, Wayne Bridge and his family moved to Winchester, where Wayne Bridge was brought up. Wayne Bridge proved to be a very keen footballer from a very early age, and like every other enthusiastic young boy, he wanted to become a professional footballer. However, Wayne Bridge was a determined person and always showed extra desire to make it and to achieve his dream. One of Wayne Bridge’s first clubs was ‘Olivers Battery F.C’ - a small club in a small town near where the left-back was raised, his first school was also located near the area.
As Wayne Bridge got slightly older, he moved to Kings’ School, a comprehensive which was renowned as one of the best Secondary schools in the area. At this time, Wayne Bridge was playing for Olivers Battery F.C, when he was spotted by footballing legend Micky Adams, and it was he whom recommended the young player move to Southampton Football Club. Wayne Bridge was successful in impressing the coaches at Southampton, and was signed up as a trainee in 1996 at the age of just 16. By this time, Wayne Bridge had left school to pursue a career in football. Things were looking positive for him and after just one year at Southampton, he made his reserve debut against Portsmouth. However, back then, he wasn’t quite the left back we know today. He started as a striker, like many young players do, wanting to emulate their hero’s goalscoring success. Wayne Bridge performed well, and a year later, in January 1998, Wayne Bridge signed his first professional contract with Southampton Football Club.
It was the opening day of the 1998-99 season when Southampton’s John Beresford had to leave the field due to a bad knee injury, which left the manager no option but to substitute Beresford for young starlet Wayne Bridge. He was asked to play as a left winger though, a fairly new position to the striker. Wayne Bridge successfully completed his debut on the left wing and he showed much promise. Wayne Bridge then continued to play as a left winger for the next few games as replacement for Beresford. However, Wayne Bridge was less than impressive and after the clubs poor start he was dropped to the bench and only played a handful of matches for the rest of the season and totaled only 15 starts for the season. Nevertheless, this was still a big season for Wayne Bridge. He had made his first team debut for the club, and had shown the Soton fans some glimpses of promise.
The next season started how the previous one had finished with Wayne Bridge making an appearance every now and again. However, due to bad form and an injury to other players, Wayne Bridge was given another opportunity. A chance to impress and prove himself to the Southampton faithful. Wayne Bridge was drafted in at left back in exceptional circumstances, and this was when his career changed for the better. Wayne racked up a total of 15 starts again this season, however he was starting to look like a promising young player. The following season Wayne Bridge established himself as a regular in the Southampton first team lineup, and put in good consistent performances as a left back and subsequently was voted the ‘Fans Player of the Year’ for the 2000-01 season. Wayne Bridge was finally starting to look the part, and continued to impress into the next two seasons. However, a massive disappointment for Wayne Bridge and co was when Southampton were defeated in the FA Cup final, with the “mighty” Arsenal coming out on top. Wayne Bridge’s consistency didn’t go unnoticed though and he was rewarded with a move to Chelsea which earned Southampton a tidy £7 million in 2003.
Despite Wayne Bridge being quite an active member in Chelsea’s first team squad for the next couple of years, some uncharacteristic form hit him. Along with this, his proneness to injury was dissatisfying his manager. Consequently, he was loaned to Fulham in January 2006. At the time, this seemed like a bad career move. However, he put in some strong performances and was picked in Sven’s World Cup squad for the summer of 2006. Since then, the Star Wars fanatic has been an active member of Chelsea’s squad. One of Wayne Bridge’s best ever moments on a football field though, was his 88th minute winner against Arsenal in the Champions League quarter finals which sent Chelsea through to the semi finals in the 2003/04 season. Generally, Bridge is viewed as an established left back, and if it wasn’t for those actions many years ago for Southampton, that goal might never had happened. That’s destiny for you…
