Neil Lennon

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Personal information
Neil Lennon

Full name	Neil Francis Lennon
Date of birth	25 June 1971 (1971-06-25) (age 36)
Place of birth	Lurgan, Northern Ireland
Height	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)
Playing position	Defensive midfielder
Club information
Current club	Celtic Coaching Staff
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1989 1989–1990 1990–1996 1996–2000 2000–2007 2007–2008 2008	Glenavon Manchester City Crewe Alexandra Leicester City Celtic Nottingham Forest Wycombe Wanderers	002 0(2) 001 0(0) 147 (15) 170 0(6) 214 0(3) 018 0(0) 009 0(0)
National team²
1994–2002	Northern Ireland	040 0(2)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 16:13, 9 March 2008 (UTC). ² National team caps and goals correct as of 16:29, 16 February 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Neil Francis Lennon (born 25 June 1971 in Lurgan, County Armagh) is a former professional footballer from Northern Ireland. He is the former captain of Celtic F.C., after leaving the club at the end of the 2006–07 campaign. On the 12 June 2007 he signed a 1 year deal with the option of a second with Nottingham Forest. On 31 January 2008, Neil moved on a free transfer to League Two side Wycombe Wanderers. On 3 April 2008 he returned to Celtic to join the coaching staff^[1].

1 Career
2 Personal
3 Honours
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Career

Lennon (bottom right) enjoying Leicester's League Cup victory in 2000

After joining Manchester City as trainee in 1989, Lennon played for Crewe and Leicester City, before moving to Celtic, in 2000 and at Celtic he became a cult hero.^[2] Lennon became Celtic captain in 2005.

When his former club Leicester City sacked Craig Levein, Lennon was linked with a return to the Midlands side in a player-manager role. He went on record saying he was flattered but wanted to captain Celtic to the SPL title.^[3]

Although he was also linked with a possible move to Crystal Palace in a player/coach role in the summer of 2006,^[4] on 23 June 2006, Celtic announced he had signed a new one-year contract. Sunderland manager Roy Keane made an attempt to sign Lennon prior to the closure of the August 2006 transfer window, but his approach for the player was rejected by Celtic. On 25 April 2007, Lennon announced he would be leaving Celtic. He ended his service for the club on 26 May 2007 by captaining the team to victory in the Scottish Cup Final against Dunfermline Athletic; Celtic’s 1-0 win clinched the League/Cup Double.

Lennon was linked with the vacant manager's job at Hibernian in Edinburgh after the resignation of John Collins.^[5] However, he lost out to Mixu Paatelainen.

Lennon has been capped 40 times, scoring two goals. He has previously captained the squad.

Lennon decided to retire from international football in August 2002 upon receiving a death threat before a Northern Ireland match against Cyprus. The threats came after his alleged claim that he wanted to play for a team representing a United Ireland.^[6] The threat was made by the Loyalist Volunteer Force, although the organisation later disputed this ^[7]. The death threat was met with widespread disgust from both sections of the community in Northern Ireland.^[8]

Lennon joined Nottingham Forest on a one year deal with an option for a second year on 12 June 2007. Lennon, however, did not join in a coaching capacity as first thought.^[9]

Lennon made his Nottingham Forest debut which he even captained a 0-0 draw at home to A.F.C. Bournemouth. He missed a week's training with Forest because of family reasons in Scotland and lost his place in the team as a consequence.

Lennon joined Wycombe Wanderers on January 31, 2008^[10], leaving on April 3, 2008 to take up the aforementioned coaching role with Celtic.

[edit] Personal

In his 2006 memoir, Neil Lennon: Man and Bhoy, Lennon revealed that he had suffered from clinical depression for seven years, and was taking antidepressants.^[11]