34 Facts About Tony Adams

Tony Alexander Adams was born on 10 October 1966 and is an English former football manager and player.

Tony Adams is considered one of Arsenal's greatest ever players, and is included in the Football League 100 Legends.

Tony Adams won 66 caps for England between 1987 and 2000, and played at four major tournaments.

When his playing career finished, Tony Adams went into football management, spending periods in charge of Wycombe Wanderers, Portsmouth, Azerbaijani side Gabala and Spanish side Granada.

From early in his career Tony Adams was an alcoholic off the field, and after crashing his car was sentenced to four months in prison for driving while four times over the limit for blood alcohol.

Tony Adams signed for Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1980, and made his first-team debut on 5 November 1983 against Sunderland, aged 17.

Tony Adams accidentally put his shorts on back-to-front before the match.

Tony Adams put the ball into the opponents' net, but the goal was disallowed.

Together with Lee Dixon, Nigel Winterburn and Steve Bould, Tony Adams was part of the "famous back four" that lined up in Arsenal's defence, which under George Graham was renowned for its well-disciplined use of the offside trap.

Tony Adams was reportedly often involved in fights in nightclubs, and on 6 May 1990 crashed his car into a wall in Rayleigh; his blood alcohol level was found to be more than four times the legal drink-drive limit.

Tony Adams reflected in 2020 that Wenger understood his psychology, and knew of the dangers of alcohol, as his parents ran a pub.

Tony Adams played 674 matches for Arsenal and was the most successful captain in the club's history.

Just before his retirement as a player, Tony Adams had applied to become manager of Brentford after the resignation of Steve Coppell, but his application was rejected.

In 2004, Tony Adams was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in recognition of his impact on the English game, and in 2008 he was placed third in the 50 Greatest Gunners poll on the club's website.

Tony Adams made his debut for England against Spain in 1987, and played in UEFA Euro 1988.

Tony Adams was the first player to represent England who had been born after the 1966 World Cup win.

Tony Adams was surprisingly left out of the 1990 FIFA World Cup squad by manager Bobby Robson, missed UEFA Euro 1992 due to injury, whilst England failed to qualify for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Later that year, he made headlines for several statements in his autobiography Addicted, criticising manager Glenn Hoddle for his management of David Beckham and Paul Gascoigne, and for making Alan Shearer captain instead of Tony Adams; he called Gascoigne an alcoholic, which was denied by the player's representatives.

Tony Adams was the first, and remains to date the only, England player to make tournament appearances in three separate decades.

Tony Adams took over the team that were in last place in the Football League Second Division.

Tony Adams resigned from Wycombe on 9 November 2004, with the club in 17th, citing personal reasons.

Tony Adams later had a short spell seconded to Utrecht as a first team trainee coach in January and February 2006.

Tony Adams joined Portsmouth as assistant manager to Harry Redknapp in June 2006, a position left vacant by the departure of Kevin Bond.

Tony Adams was appointed caretaker manager of Portsmouth in October 2008, alongside Joe Jordan, following the departure of Harry Redknapp to Tottenham Hotspur.

Tony Adams was sacked in February 2009 after just 16 games in charge in which Portsmouth picked up only 10 points.

In May 2010, Tony Adams signed a three-year contract to manage Azerbaijani club FC Gabala of the Azerbaijan Premier League.

In October 2012, Tony Adams returned to Gabala in the capacity of Sporting Director.

Whilst sporting director at Gabala, Tony Adams suffered from acute chest pain whilst exercising.

Tony Adams lost all seven games as manager and was sacked.

Tony Adams married Jane Shea in 1992, after they met at a nightclub in Islington; the couple had two children together, a son and a daughter.

In September 2000, as a result of his own experiences with alcoholism and drug addiction, Tony Adams founded the Sporting Chance Clinic, a charitable foundation aimed at providing treatment, counselling and support for sports men and women suffering from drink, drug or gambling addictions.

Tony Adams is a patron of the National Association for Children of Alcoholics, The Forward Trust, School-Home Support, and Saving Faces, a facial surgery research foundation.

In December 2018, Tony Adams was named as the 29th President of the Rugby Football League, replacing politician Andy Burnham; he was succeeded in the honorary role by broadcaster Clare Balding a year later.

Tony Adams took part as a celebrity contestant in the twentieth series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2022.