EPL Player Profile - Aaron Hughes
Aaron William Hughes was born in Northern Ireland on 8th of November, 1979 and currently plays his football for Fulham F.C in England. Fulham was widely known as one of the mediocre clubs in the English Premier League, however with Hughes as part of their team, they begun their slow ascend towards the top half of the English League table.
Aaron can play as a right back, centre back, left back or a full back. He can also play anywhere across the midfield, which makes him a very useful and versatile player. The veteran defender is also currently captaining Northern Ireland’s national football team.
Hughes joined Newcastle’s Youth academy when he was a child, and slowly came up through the academy’s youth setup to become a fine footballer. He soon reached the time where he was given his first team debut in a match between Newcastle and Barcelona at Camp Nou on November 26th 1997. However, Hughes did not immediately impress and thus was usually used as a substitute or as a reserve team player.
Aaron’s league debut for Newcastle United came in their lead game against Sheffield Wednesday, later on in 1997-1998 season. His displays in most of the league games for Newcastle were quite solid, and therefore Hughes started to become a permanent feature in the Newcastle back four. He completely established himself in the team by the 1999-2000 season. Hughes made a total of 279 appearances for the Magpies in all competitions, and scored seven goals during these displays. He also previously held the record for being the youngest Newcastle United debutant in European Cup competitions. However, his record was battered by Andy Carroll in November of 2006.
On May 20th, 2005 Newcastle parted ways with their young defender, as Aaron Hughes was sold by the Tyneside to fellow Premier League rivals, Aston Villa for around one million pounds. Hughes’s stay at Villa was quite uneventful, as he was unable to reproduce his fine form which had propelled him to first team football at Newcastle United. Nonetheless, he made sixty-four appearances for them in all competitions but did not even score a single goal.
On 27th of June 2007, Aaron left Aston Villa and joined Fulham F.C, which is based in London. Upon signing for Fulham, Hughes stated that, he was delighted to join a club which was being managed by Lawrie Sanchez. He also went onto say that Fulham’s ambitions to become a top club excited him as a footballer. In the 2008-2009 season, Hughes made forty-four appearances for Fulham and in the 2007-2008 season, he played a total number of thirty-two games for the men in black and white.
Hughes has had a splendid time at Fulham so far; under their ex-manager Roy Hodgson, they progressed to the Europa League final but failed to beat Atletico Madrid. Recently Hodgson left Fulham to manage Liverpool F.C, and this left the London club hunting for a successor.
Hughes was instrumental for Fulham in their Europa League final season, as he made 56 appearances for them in all competitions. As far as Aaron’s international career is concerned, he played his first game for Northern Ireland on March 25, 1998 against Slovakia but his big moment in the spotlight came on April 17, 2002 when he was made captain of his native country’s international team in their match against Spain at Belfast. Hughes has been a permanent fixture in Northern Ireland’s starting line-up ever since his debut in late 1990s. He has featured in Northern Ireland’s wins over Spain, Sweden and most notably England.
Aaron is looking forward to working under Fulham’s new manager Mark Hughes, who was recently appointed for the upcoming season that starts from August 14, 2010. He will be striving to maintain his excellent form and help Fulham to grab further royals.
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