Photo: Biser Todorov / CC BY 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Gary Speed's story sits heavy with me. As a Welsh footballer he was relentlessly durable, a Leeds United product who became a fixture across a long career, and as Wales manager he's widely credited with sparking the national team's revival. That makes his death in 2011 all the harder to process. I find myself dwelling on the gap between his outward steadiness and whatever he carried privately. His legacy, to me, is twofold: the pathway he laid for later Welsh success, and the way his loss pushed conversations about mental health in football into the open. Both feel important, and inseparable.
Overview
Gary Andrew Speed (8 September 1969 – 27 November 2011) was a Welsh professional footballer and manager. As manager of Wales, he was often credited as being the catalyst for the change in fortunes of the national team and as setting the pathway to future successes. Having played for the Leeds United youth team, Speed began his professional career with the club in 1988.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Gary Speed
- Name (Japanese)
- ガリー・スピード
- Reading
- がりー・すぴーど
- Born
- September 8, 1969 – November 27, 2011
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Virgo / Rooster
- Origin
- Mancot, United Kingdom
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- 178 cm
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- association football player / association football coach
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Hawarden High School
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- 2010 Member of the Order of the British Empire
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Association football player — see all → · Association football coach — see all → · More people from United Kingdom →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.