Damien Duff Bio Send To Friend  

The left-sided winger began his career with Blackburn Rovers and proved to be a quality performer with the Irish national team as well as with Rovers, before making his name as an attacking force at Chelsea.

Skillful and pacy, he always makes himself available for the ball, even on off days, and has a trademark of scoring spectacular goals.

His first full season in the Rovers team, 1997-98, saw him tear apart some of the best full-backs in the league and he went on to light up the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan with Ireland with some delightful performances. That had Europe's big boys circling, forcing Rovers into contract talks with the player.

Liverpool had already made one offer of £12m and seemed poised to increase their original bid. However, Duff pledged his future to Rovers at the end of August 2002 by signing a new four-year contract.

The summer of 2004 saw rumours of a transfer surface once again, with Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea all in the hunt. Chelsea had already had two bids rejected before an offer of £17m triggered a release clause in the star's contract and he moved in July 2003 to become Chelsea's record signing.

Despite being frustrated at rarely completing 90 minutes in the early months of the season, often being replaced by Joe Cole, Duff's form was inspirational and one of the main reasons behind the Blues' fine start to the season.

He never really recovered after dislocating his shoulder though, and his loss of form led to surgery that ended his season in April and resulted in him missing pre-season.

Bouncing back, Duff was a vital player in 2004-05 as Chelsea won the Premiership and the League Cup. He missed only eight league games, scoring a total of 10 goals in all competitions, but over the course of the next season it was becoming clear that manager Jose Mourinho was not exactly happy with Duff's contribution and in many ways it was no surprise when he was sold, even if the price of £5m raised eyebrows.

Newcastle looked to have pulled off one of the coups of the summer when signing Duff in the summer of 2006. But a succession of injuries and Newcastle's injury problems robbed the Irish international of both fitness and the ability to make an impact at St James' Park.

He was never able to hit the heights of his time at Chelsea and moved to Craven Cottage in August 2009, to be reunited with the man who gave him his debut for Blackburn - Roy Hodgson.