Biography

Born in Salford, Greater Manchester, on October 10th 1970 Dean Kiely can be classed as ‘one that got away’ having been on Albion’s books as a schoolboy. His ongoing career came full circle in January 2007 when Tony Mowbray brought the former Republic of Ireland international back to The Hawthorns.

At the age of 14, Dean signed schoolboy forms with Albion having used to train at the Old Spring Road training ground. He was later forwarded for trials at Lilleshall, the FA School of Excellence, where he made the grade and spent the next two years trying to carve out a career as a professional footballer.

Dean really enjoyed his time at Lilleshall, where he was capped 13 times by England schoolboys, and got a lot out of working with elite coaches and making the best use of the facilities available to him. Dean also felt he had an advantage over everybody else as he had a two year apprenticeship from the age of 14 to 16, while others would normally get it at the age of 16 to 18.

During his two years at Lilleshall the management changed at The Hawthorns and Ron Saunders took over the managerial hotseat. Things changed for Dean as Saunders was only focused on the first team XI and everybody beyond that came secondary, where as previous manager Johnny Giles accommodated the kids and made them feel part of the club.

Due to sudden attempts from Saunders to change things at The Hawthorns, Dean was pretty much forced out of Albion and he eventually decided that Coventry City was the right place to develop his career.

Dean joined the Sky Blues as a trainee and signed professional forms 3 months later. He linked up with his Coventry team-mates in time for the 1987-88 pre-season and at an exciting time for the club where they had just won the FA Cup for the first time in their history two months previous.

He progressed through the youth team and into the reserves at Highfield Road but first team opportunities were limited due to City’s number one Steve Ogrizovic. He had loan spells with Ipswich Town and York City while at the Sky Blues and after seeing no way past City’s number one, Dean felt it was right to go down the route of playing in the lower divisions if it meant playing senior football, so he joined York City in the Fourth Division.

He started the season playing reserve team football while the club were looking at him and finally got into the first team around Christmas time.

In May 1993 he won promotion to Division Three after beating Crewe Alexandra 5-3 on penalties in the old Fourth Division Play-Off Final at Wembley Stadium but the following season he missed out on another Play-Off Final date at Wembley after losing to Stockport County 1-0 on aggregate in the Second Division Play-Off Semi-Final.

The following season York finished 9th in the Second Division but the following year narrowly avoided relegation after finishing 20th. The Minstermen were on a downward slope when he was offered the chance to move to Bury by then manager Stan Ternent. Dean’s contract was running out at Bootham Crescent and Bury had just got promoted to the Second Division and in August 1996 joined Bury for £125,000.

Nine months later he won promotion to the First Division after finishing Champions, he achieved ‘God’ like status after saving a penalty away to Watford on April 26th, giving Bury the point needed for automatic promotion for the second successive season, but two years later he suffered relegation back to the Second Division despite the Shakers keeping 18 clean sheets throughout the season.

After suffering relegation, Bury had to sell the spine of the team so they could raise some extra money, and after three years at Gigg Lane Dean moved on to Charlton Athletic for a fee of £1m, a then club record fee for a goalkeeper.

During his first season at The Valley he kept 19 clean sheets throughout the season and the Addicks went up as Champions. He had equalled Nicky John’s club record of 19 clean sheets but failed to better it after losing 2-0 to Albion on the final day of the 1999-00 season.

The following season Charlton finished 9th in the Premiership and Dean had achieved a longstanding goal.

He made his Republic of Ireland debut as a 61st minute substitute in a crucial Euro 2000 play-off first-leg against Turkey on November 13th, 1999, where the game ended in a 1 all draw.

Due to his coolness under pressure and shot-stopping skills, he was called up to Mick McCarthy’s 2002 World Cup Finals squad in Japan and Korea but was understudy to Newcastle United’s Shay Given. He retired from international football in February 2003 at the age of 32 after making eight appearances for the Republic in four and a half years.

In 2004 he was voted Charlton’s Player of the Year after receiving 43 percent of the vote.

After seven years at The Valley and helping the club to become an established Premier League side, he moved to Portsmouth in January 2006 for a reported fee of £500,000.

He went into a relegation dog fight when he joined the south coast club but helped them avoid relegation to the Championship after making 15 appearances for the Fratton Park outfit but in the summer of 2006 he was replaced as number one by David James.

At 36 Dean publicly stated he wanted first team football and in November 2006 he went out on loan to Championship outfit Luton Town and during his two month spell at Kenilworth Road made 11 appearances for the Hatters including playing in Luton’s 3-2 defeat to Albion at The Hawthorns on January 12th. His loan spell ended a week before he signed for Albion and he returned to Fratton Park.

In January 2007 Tony Mowbray brought Dean back to The Hawthorns on a free transfer from Portsmouth. He signed an 18 month contract completing a full circle of his footballing career.

He boasts an impressive career record of 219 clean sheets in 672 appearances.

On signing the experienced keeper manager Tony Mowbray said: "We're delighted to have Dean on board. He’s enjoyed an illustrious career at the top level and brings genuine competition for places. His professionalism will only enhance the goalkeeping department".