Alan Fettis

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Alan Fettis
Personal information
Full name	Alan William Fettis
Date of birth	1 February 1971 (1971-02-01)
Place of birth	Newtownards, Northern Ireland
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper, Striker
Club information
Current club	Manchester United (goalkeeping coach)
Senior clubs
Years	Club	App (Gls)
		00 00()
National team
		00 00()

Alan William Fettis (born 1 February 1971) is a Northern Ireland former professional footballer and Academy goalkeeping coach at Premier League side Manchester United.

As a player he was as a goalkeeper from 1988 to 2007. He notably played for Hull City and York City having also had spells with Glentoran, Ards, West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest, Blackburn Rovers, Leicester City, Sheffield United, Grimsby Town, Macclesfield Town and Bury.

Club career

Born in Newtownards, County Down, Fettis started his career with Glentoran before playing for Ards from 1988 to 1991, making 65 appearances in all competitions for the club. He was a firm fans' favourite whilst at Hull City, and on occasion found himself playing as a striker due to injuries at the club, and bagged himself a couple of goals in the process. He later rejoined his manager at Hull, Terry Dolan at York City, where his saves were credited by many fans with keeping York in the league during a period in which they struggled financially. He was sold back to Hull by new manager Chris Brass in 2003; York dropped out of the league a year later, returning for the 2012–13 season.

Fettis was signed by Bury on a 12-month deal in June 2006, but broke his right arm in a League Cup defeat against former side Sheffield United on 19 September. He was released by Bury at the end of the 2006–07 season.

Coaching career

Fettis was appointed as assistant goalkeeping coach at Derby County in July 2007.

In November 2008, Fettis became the new goalkeeping coach and chief scout at Cheltenham Town. In July 2009, Fettis became the new goalkeeping coach at Sunderland. He joined Manchester United in January 2011 as a goalkeeping coach for the club's Academy teams. In July 2011, Fettis made an appearance for Manchester United Reserves after both reserve keepers fell ill before a match against Shrewsbury Town.

In August 2016, former Barcelona goalkeeper Víctor Valdés stated that without Alan's help he would have given up on football in 2015. "It's difficult to explain, but it was hard being alone. The easy way out would have been to end my career." "I want to say in a public way thank you to the U21 coach Alan Fettis - without him I may have given up football. He made me keep going and stopped me when I was thinking about bringing my career to an end." "I feel like a professional goalkeeper again after all those hard days in Manchester," he added. "But I don't have any bad words for Van Gaal or Manchester United.

International career

Fettis was capped by Northern Ireland at schoolboy, under-16, under-17, under-18, B and senior levels.

External links

• Alan Fettis profile at Soccerbase
• Alan Fettis at National-Football-Teams.com