Andrew David Townsend (born 23 July 1963) is a former professional footballer and sports co-commentator for Premier League Productions and

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

. As a player he was a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

who notably played in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

for Chelsea, Aston Villa and

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

. He also played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

for

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, Norwich City and West Bromwich Albion. Prior to his professional career he had spent four years in Non-League with Welling United. Despite being born in England, Townsend played in World Cups for the Republic of Ireland national team, making 70 appearances and scoring seven goals. Following retirement, Townsend moved into sports commentary and was ITV Sport's co-commentator for all of their major coverage of games until 2015. He has also commentated for BT Sport, Talksport and BBC Radio 5 Live.

Early life

Townsend was born in

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, l ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, but grew up in Bexley, where he attended Upton Primary School in Bexleyheath, followed by Bexleyheath School. He is the son of former Charlton Athletic and Crystal Palace footballer Don Townsend.

Club career

He began his playing career in August 1980 with Welling United in the Athenian League, while working as an ICL computer operator for

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

Borough Council in south-east London. After making 105 appearances for Welling, he was signed by Weymouth in March 1984 for £13,500. In January 1985, he was signed by Lawrie McMenemy at

for £35,000 and made his professional debut at home to Aston Villa on 20 April 1985 as Southampton qualified for Europe, only to be banned in the aftermath of the Heysel Stadium disaster. Over the next season, he was in and out of the team (then managed by

Chris Nicholl Christopher John Nicholl (12 October 1946 – 24 February 2024) was a professional footballer who later worked as a coach and manager. A centre-back, Nicholl began his playing career at Burnley, but moved to Witton Albion after failing to br ...

) but broke his leg in a pre-season friendly against his old club Weymouth in August 1986. He fought his way back to fitness and rejoined the side the following January. In the 1987–88 he was a virtual ever-present, playing alongside

Jimmy Case James Robert Case (born 18 May 1954) is an English retired professional association football, footballer who played as a midfielder. He gained national prominence with Liverpool F.C., Liverpool in the 1970s and early 1980s. Early life Case wa ...

and Glenn Cockerill in the Southampton midfield. He was a hard-tackling, hard-working

with an eye for goal. It was a shock, therefore, when Nicholl sold him to First Division rivals Norwich City in August 1988, for a fee of £300,000. He made his debut as a substitute against

on 3 September 1988, before replacing the suspended Trevor Putney for his first full appearance in a 3–1 win over '' Spurs'' on 22 October. He retained his place in the Norwich midfield and ended the season with 36 league appearances (5 as substitute) with five goals. He also made six FA Cup appearances with two goals against Port Vale in the Third Round on 7 January 1989. Under manager Dave Stringer, he was a member of the ''Canaries 1988–89 side that finished fourth in the top flight and reached the

semi-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

. At the season's end, Townsend was shortlisted for the PFA Players' Player of the Year award, which was won by

Mark Hughes Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh association football, football coach and former player who is the head coach of club Carlisle United F.C., Carlisle United. During his playing career he usually operated as a Forward (asso ...

. Norwich made a handsome profit when they let Townsend join Chelsea for £1,200,000 in July 1990. After making a total of 138 appearances for Chelsea, scoring 12 goals but winning no trophies (they never finished higher than 11th in the league while he was there), he transferred to Aston Villa in July 1993 for £2.1million. He finally won some silverware when Villa won the

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

League Cup, beating

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

3–1. He captained Villa when they reclaimed the trophy in 1996 with a 3–0 victory over Leeds United. In August 1997, just after the start of the 1997–98 season, he transferred to Bryan Robson's

for £500,000 having made 134 league appearances for ''the Villans'', scoring eight league goals. He made 37 appearances in his first season on Teesside, scoring twice as ''Boro won promotion to the

. In the 1998–99 season, he formed a useful partnership with Paul Gascoigne as Middlesbrough finished comfortably in mid-table in their first season back in the Premier League. In the following season, he found it harder to get into the first team and on 17 September 1999 he moved down a division to West Bromwich Albion for £50,000. Townsend's high wage demands prevented a move back to Norwich or a loan spell with non-league Boston United. In his one season at West Bromwich Albion he only made 17 league appearances before a recurrent knee injury forced his retirement in July 2000, after a season in which Albion narrowly avoided relegation to Division Two. On 21 April 2016, Townsend joined

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

as a consultant.

International career

His contribution to Norwich's successful season saw Townsend selected for the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

, making his debut against

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in February 1989. He qualified for Ireland due to his Irish family heritage.' He played in the next year's World Cup, in Italy, where he played in all five of Ireland's matches. They reached the quarter-finals, the country's strongest ever campaign. The Irish drew their three group matches – against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. Scoring a penalty in the shoot-out with

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, his country were eventually sunk by a Salvatore Schillaci goal for the hosts. They had conceded just three goals in those five games. They had scored just two goals in those five games. He was captain of the Ireland squad for the 1994 World Cup. All four teams of Group E finished on four points, they got their revenge on the Italians, but were defeated by

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and drew with

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Ireland lost 2–0 to the Dutch at the Citrus Bowl in the knock-out stage. On 22 March 2015, Townsend was inducted into the FAI Hall of Fame.

Broadcasting career

ITV Sport

Townsend's most prominent role was as part of ITV Sport's live Champions League,

and England internationals coverage. He took over from

Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939) is an English former football player and manager. Nicknamed "Big Ron", he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits in the 1990s and early 2000s. Nicknamed "The Tank" during his ...

as the channel's lead co-commentator, forming a long-running partnership with main commentator Clive Tyldesley, as well as appearing as a studio pundit. He co-hosted talkSPORT's ''Weekend Sports Breakfast'' on Sundays with Mike Parry, and hosted the station's drive-time show on Fridays. He also hosted the mid morning discussion on talkSPORT from 10am to 1pm from Monday to Friday, having replaced Jon Gaunt, who was sacked for calling a guest a

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

. He left the station because he no longer wanted to commute from his Midlands home to the London studio. He also hosted ITV1's regional programme ''Soccer Night'', alongside Peter Beagrie. Between 2001 and 2004, Townsend was part of ITV's coverage of the Premier League after they won the rights from the BBC to show top flight football on Saturday evening. In January 2015 ITV confirmed that Townsend, along with presenter Adrian Chiles, would not be retained by the broadcaster after the expiry of his contract in the summer of 2015, with the channel having lost Champions League broadcasting rights.

BT Sport

After leaving ITV in 2015 he joined BT Sport as a co-commentator for their coverage of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

and

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. He made his co-commentating debut on 15 February 2015, co-commentating on

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the FA Cup fifth round alongside Ian Darke.

Other work

He has also presented BBC Radio 5 Live and written columns for the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

''. He has also been the commentator on several EA football games with Clive Tyldesley including ''

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

'', '' UEFA Champions League 2006-2007'', ''

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA ( ...

'', '' 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa'', ''

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th UEFA European Championship, European Championship for List of men's national association football teams#UEFA (Europe), men's ...

'', '' 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil'' and most recently ''

FIFA 12 ''FIFA 12'' (titled ''FIFA Soccer 12'' in North America) is a football simulation video game developed by EA Canada and published by Electronic Arts worldwide under the EA Sports label. It was released in September 2011 on consoles for PlayStati ...

'' to this game '' FIFA 17''.

Personal life

He is the son of former Charlton Athletic and Crystal Palace defender Don Townsend.

Business interests

Townsend was a consultant for Harlequin Property, where he helps set up football schools at their

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

resorts. The company's proposed investment into Port Vale had set in motion plans for him to become a football advisor at the club, though nothing was to come of these talks.

Charitable activities

He is patron of the George Coller Memorial Fund. He ran in the Great North Run in 2007, finishing in a time of 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Honours

Aston Villa *

Football League Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

: 1993–94, 1995–96 Middlesbrough *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

runner-up: 1997–98 *Football League Cup runner-up: 1997–98 Individual * Norwich City Hall of Fame * PFA Team of the Year: 1988–89 First Division, 1990–91 First Division, 1991–92 First Division * Chelsea Player of the Year: 1991 * FAI Hall of Fame: Inducted 2015 * FAI Senior International Player of the Year: 1995

References

External links

* *
Republic of Ireland profileProfile
at talkSPORT
Profile
at The Gordon Poole Agency {{DEFAULTSORT:Townsend, Andy Living people 1963 births English association football commentators Footballers from Maidstone Footballers from the London Borough of Bexley People from Bexleyheath Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's international footballers Republic of Ireland men's B international footballers Welling United F.C. players Weymouth F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1994 FIFA World Cup players English people of Irish descent English Football League players Premier League players Daily Mail journalists English radio personalities Men's association football midfielders 20th-century Irish sportsmen