Phil Babb Professional Footballer, Liverpool and Republic of Ireland
Phil Babb playing in a friendly in 2017 Full name Philip Andrew Babb
Date of birth 30 November 1970 Place of birth Lambeth, England
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) Playing position Centre back
Youth career
–1989 Millwall
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1989–1992 Bradford City 80 (14)
1992–1994 Coventry City 77 (3)
1994–2000 Liverpool 128 (1)
2000 → Tranmere Rovers (loan) 4 (0)
2000–2002 Sporting CP 37 (0)
2002–2004 Sunderland 48 (0)
Total 374 (18)
Phil Babb Professional Footballer, Liverpool and Republic of Ireland
National team
1994–2002 Republic of Ireland 35 (0)
Teams managed
2013–2015 Hayes & Yeading United
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only
Phil Babb made over 370 league appearances during his career, most notably spending six Premier League seasons with Liverpool, and also playing in the top flight for Coventry City and Sunderland. He also played in Portugal for Sporting Clube de Portugal and in the Football League for Bradford City and Tranmere Rovers. Babb represented the Republic of Ireland at the 1994 World Cup, playing in 35 internationals. He was born in Lambeth, London, Babb came through the youth ranks of Millwall, before beginning his senior career in 1990 with Bradford City. He moved to Coventry City in July 1992 for a fee of £500,000, where he spent two seasons before moving to Liverpool on 1 September 1994 for £3.6million, which made him the most expensive defender in Britain at the time. Babb only scored once during six Premier League years and 170 appearances in all competitions for Liverpool, incidentally against his former club, Coventry, in September 1996.[5] Whilst at Liverpool he played in the victorious 1995 Football League Cup Final. In January 2000 he joined Tranmere Rovers on a month's loan and helped them reach the 2000 Football League Cup Final, however his loan spell ended before the final itself and he was unable to take part. He moved to Portugal with Sporting Clube de Portugal on a free transfer in 2000, appearing in 38 official games in his second season – one goal against FC Midtjylland in the UEFA Cup (3–0 away win, 6–2 on aggregate)– as the Lions conquered both the league and the domestic cup. Babb ended his career at the age of 33 with Sunderland, suffering top level relegation in 2003, and helping the Black Cats to a Football League Championship play-off semi-final.
International career Having chosen to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally, Babb earned 35 full caps, including four matches at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.[12] In August 2000, he and Ireland teammate Mark Kennedy were sent home from training camp Babb's final game for Ireland was in UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying against Russia in Moscow, on 7th September 2002: having come into the game in the 85th minute, his first touch of the ball was diverted behind Irish goalkeeper Shay Given for an own goal.
League
League FA Cup Europe Total Cup Club Season League App Goal App Goal App Goal App Goal App Goals
1990–91 34 10 – – – – 34 10 Phil Babb Professional Footballer, Liverpool and Republic of Ireland
Bradford Third
1991–92 46 4 – – – – 46 4
City Division
1992–93 34 0 – – – – 34 0 Coventry
1993–94 40 3 – – – – 40 3
City 3 0 – – – – 3 0
1994–95 34 0 6 0 7 0 47 0 Premier
1995–96 28 0 4 0 4 0 4 0 40 0
League
1996–97 22 1 1 0 3 0 5 0 31 1
Liverpool
1997–98 19 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 22 0
1998–99 25 0 1 0 0 0 4 0 30 0
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1999–00 − Tranmere First 4 0 – – – – 4 0
Rovers Division
2000–01 10 0 – – – – – – 10 0 Sporting Primeira
CP Liga
2001–02 27 0 – – – – – – 27 0
Premier
2002–03 26 0 – – – – 26 0
League
Sunderland First
2003–04 22 0 – – – – 22 0
Division
International career Eire
Year Apps Goals
1994 12 0
1995 7 0
1996 2 0
1997 2 0
1998 3 0 Phil Babb Professional Footballer, Liverpool and Republic of Ireland
1999 3 0
2000 5 0
2001 0 0
2002 1 0
Total 35 0