Dion Dublin

Dion Dublin (born 22 April 1969) is an English former professional footballer, television presenter and pundit. He is a club director of Cambridge United.

As a player he was a centre-forward, notably playing in the Premier League for Manchester United, Coventry City and Aston Villa. He also had spells in the Scottish Premiership with Celtic, in the Conference with Wycombe Wanderers, and in The Football League with Cambridge United, Barnet, Millwall, Leicester City and Norwich City. He was capped four times for England.

Following his retirement from football, Dublin moved into the entertainment business. He is also an amateur percussionist, and invented a percussion instrument called "The Dube". In 2011, he accompanied Ocean Colour Scene in a gig at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. In 2015, he joined the presenting team on the BBC One daytime show Homes Under the Hammer and has appeared as a regular pundit for BBC Sport on Football Focus, Match of the Day and Final Score. He also occasionally provides co-commentary on live televised FA Cup games.

Dublin was born in Leicester. While at school he played for several Leicestershire youth teams, including Wigston Fields and Thurmaston Magpies. He then went on to begin his professional footballing career with Norwich City after leaving school in 1985, but never made a first-team appearance and was released by the club in 1988.

In August 1988, Dublin joined Cambridge United on a free transfer, as a centre-forward, which had been his position at Norwich City. However, due to injuries he had to make a number of appearances at centre-half.^{[citation needed]} His prolific goalscoring helped United to successive promotions. During the 1988–89 season, Dublin was then loaned out for short spells in the Conference with Barnet and Wycombe Wanderers. The 1989–90 season saw Cambridge promoted from the Fourth Division via the play-offs, when Dublin became the first ever scorer in a Wembley play-off final.

In the 1990–91 season, the club were champions of the Third Division, and the club also reached the quarter-final of the FA Cup in both seasons, with Dublin scoring at Arsenal in 1991. In the 1991–92 season, he played a big part in helping Cambridge to their highest ever finishing position in the football league, by finishing in fifth place in the last season of the old Second Division, but when Cambridge failed to win promotion to the new Premier League via the play-offs, Dublin was put up for sale. He has since spoken many times of his affection for Cambridge United.

Having scored against them in a League Cup tie the previous autumn, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson signed Dublin for £1 million on 7 August 1992, fighting off competition from Chelsea and Everton. Dublin was something of a surprise purchase for United, after Ferguson had tried to sign Alan Shearer from Southampton but lost out to Blackburn Rovers.

He scored in United's fourth Premier League game of the 1992–93 season, a late winner in United's first Premier league victory as they beat Southampton 1–0 at The Dell. However, on 2 September, he suffered a broken leg against Crystal Palace in a 1–0 win at Old Trafford, after a tackle by Eric Young, and was out of action for six months. By the time he had recovered, however, United had signed Eric Cantona and the Frenchman was firmly established as first choice strike partner to Mark Hughes. United won the league that season for the first time since 1967, but Dublin failed to make the 10 Premier League appearances required to automatically gain a title winner's medal. However, he was given a medal as a result of special dispensation from the Premier League.