The 10th UCD Soccer Alumni Awards Night
Radisson Blu St. Helen’s Hotel
Friday, May 28th 2010
This year’s dinner the club will launch a new Tony O’Neill Scholarship Trust to generate further funds for the scholarship system.
The MC for the evening will be Darragh Maloney of RTE Sport with the guest speaker former Republic of Ireland midfielder, Matt Holland.
In recent months the club has won the First Division Championship, the Under 20 Championship, the Harding Cup (Fresher’s Universities), the Collingwood Cup (Senior Universities) and the Third Level Colleges and Universities League.
Under manager, Martin Russell, UCD AFC have made a good start to the 2010 season in the Premier League and are currently in sixth place.
Matt Holland
Matthew Rhys "Matt" Holland was born on April 11th 1974 and represented Republic of Ireland at international level playing in the 2002 World Cup.
Initially rejected by Arsenal for being 'too small' Holland went to West Ham United where he moved up the ranks of the Academy but never played for the first team. In order to gain first team football, he joined Bournemouth in January 1995 where he played a total of 116 games scoring 18 goals at Dean Court becoming team captain along the way.
In the summer of 1997, Matt joined Ipswich Town for a fee of £800,000 where he captained the club into the Premier League by winning the First Division play-offs in 2000. In the first season in the Premier League the club finished in fifth place finish and qualified for the UEFA Cup in 2001. Although a year later Ipswich were relegated Holland stayed with the club after turning down a £4.5 million move to Aston Villa.
His spell at Ipswich is most remembered for the consistency he showed playing 223 consecutive games and only missing one league match (due to international duty) in the six years he was at Portman Road.
After Ipswich failed to win promotion in 2003, Holland moved back to the Premier League by joining Charlton Athletic for an initial £750,000 fee which later rose to £900,000. Again with this move he assumed the captain's armband and was ever-present in his first season for the club. Holland became one of the longest-serving Charlton players.
In 2007 Holland was were relegated from the English Premier League to The Football League Championship with Charlton after seven seasons at top-flight.
International career
Matt Holland qualified to play for Ireland through his grandmother who hailed from County Monaghan making his debut in October 1999 for the Republic of Ireland against FYR Macedonia.
He went with Republic of Ireland to the 2002 World Cup scoring the equaliser against Cameroon in their opening game.
Ireland were eliminated from this tournament in a Second Round penalty shootout against Spain. Matt Holland was selected to take a penalty, but missed it.
Following Ireland's failure to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, he announced his retirement from international football in early February 2006 having made 49 appearances and scoring 5 goals.
Media Career
Matt Holland has been a summariser for BBC Radio Five Live during the 2006 World Cup and has also on the BBC TV programme A Question of Sport and the radio quiz Fighting Talk.
Holland also works as a pundit on ESPN & Sky Sports and as a presenter for the Eastern England edition of the BBC regional football show Late Kick Off.
Matt Holland is a columnist with the Mail on Sunday.
He is also a regular for RTE Sport and will be a co-commentator during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa this summer.
Investec
Investec in Ireland comprises Investec Ireland Limited and Investec Bank plc (Irish Branch) for regulated activities. Investec Ireland Limited is regulated by the Financial Regulator. Investec Bank plc is authorised and regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority.
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