29 Facts About Ray Houghton

Raymond James Houghton was born on 9 January 1962 and is a former professional footballer and current sports analyst and commentator with RTE Sport.

Ray Houghton briefly played top flight football for both West Ham United and Crystal Palace with spells in the Football League for Fulham, Oxford United and Reading, before retiring with non-league Stevenage Borough.

Ray Houghton was born in Castlemilk, Glasgow, but began his professional career in London at West Ham United, after moving to London at the age of 10, where he came through the ranks and signed professional forms as a 17-year-old on 5 July 1979.

Ray Houghton's endeavour failed to make any impact at Upton Park and after 3 years, in which he made just one appearance as substitute, he was on the move.

Ray Houghton then added Houghton to the side that would try to keep the Cottagers in the second division.

One of the most memorable sequences of matches that happened whilst Ray Houghton was at Fulham was the League Cup third round tie against Liverpool in 1983.

When he left in 1985, his replacement, Maurice Evans, looked to Ray Houghton to help solidify their place in the league.

Ray Houghton had played 145 times for Fulham and scored 21 goals.

The deal was done and Ray Houghton took the place of Craig Johnston on the right side of Liverpool's midfield, unusually wearing the No 9 shirt which striker John Aldridge, his former Oxford teammate who had made the Anfield move himself a year earlier, had asked not to wear because of the pressure of replacing Ian Rush.

Ray Houghton was added to the new acquisitions of Aldridge, Peter Beardsley and John Barnes to form one of the most exciting forward lines in the club's history.

Liverpool went on to coast to the League title, with Ray Houghton contributing some memorable displays as a marauding creator from the flank.

However, Souness allowed Ray Houghton to leave at the end of the season, partly due to the emergence of Steve McManaman.

Ray Houghton did come close to collecting another title medal in his first season at Villa Park, as Villa had led the league at several stages of the campaign, but were eventually pushed into runners-up place by Manchester United, who were crowned champions by a 10-point margin.

Ray Houghton played a total of 117 times for Villa, scoring 11 goals.

On 23 March 1995 Ray Houghton left Villa to join Crystal Palace.

Ray Houghton was at the heart of everything Palace did, and scored a goal in the 38th minute.

Ray Houghton spent just over two years at Palace, playing 87 times and scoring 8 goals.

Ray Houghton signed for Reading on a free transfer on 15 July 1997.

Ray Houghton spent a season at Elm Park and another at Reading's new home, the Madejski Stadium, which saw him rack up 56 appearances in which he scored just once, against Manchester City.

Ray Houghton signed for Stevenage on 24 September 1999 but only made three appearances before he retired from the game on 31 May 2000.

Ray Houghton qualified to play international football for the Republic of Ireland through his father, who was born in Buncrana in Inishowen, County Donegal, in Ulster.

Ray Houghton was selected for the Irish squad which qualified for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.

Ray Houghton was selected in the Irish squad for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States and was the goalscoring hero in a shock victory.

Ray Houghton had represented Ireland 73 times scoring 6 goals.

Ray Houghton has now taken up post as an ambassador for the Football Association of Ireland.

In 2008, Ray Houghton was part of the three-man team along with Don Givens and Don Howe appointed to head-hunt the new international manager.

Ray Houghton joined actor Tim Brooke Taylor and former Olympic swimmer Adrian Moorhouse in collecting degrees.

Ray Houghton contributed to RTE Sport's coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Ray Houghton was part of RTE Sport's coverage of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, as a co-commentator, and of UEFA Euro 2016 and UEFA Euro 2020.