Born on this day 55 years ago is former Sunderland forward David Kelly. The Birmingham born forward signed for the lads in September 1995 for fee of £900,000. Kelly was signed by Sunderland after an impressive 1994/95 season in which he scored 22 goals in 54 appearances for Graham Taylor’s Wolves.
Kelly had previously played in the North East, scoring 35 times in 70 appearances for Newcastle under Ozvaldo Ardiles and Kevin Keegan, and even scoring against the lads in Tyne/Wear derby.
However, the form which he enjoyed at our neighbours North of the Tyne would not be replicated whilst playing on Wearside. Kelly suffered an ankle injury after signing, which restricted him to only scoring 2 goals in 10 games in first season at the club. He would be a regular in the matchday squads of the 1996/97 campaign, but was used as a right sided midfielder, rather than his usual role as a striker. Kelly left Sunderland in the summer of 1997 and signed for John Aldridge’s Tranmere Rovers in August - for a fee of £350,000.
Kelly spent the best part of three years at Prenton Park and would score a consolation goal in the league cup final of 2000. After failing to agree a new deal with Tranmere, Kelly would spend the last two years of his career moving between Sheffield United, Motherwell, Mansfield Town, before finishing off his career with Derry City in Northern Ireland.
Whilst being born in England, Kelly was eligible to play for the Republic of Ireland because his father was born in Dublin. The attacker scored 9 goals in 26 appearances for Ireland and would feature in Jack Charlton’s squads for the 1988 European Cup, 1990 World Cup and 1994 World Cup.
