Harry Kewell

Harry Kewell is an Australian football player who at the time of recording this podcard plays for Liverpool F.C. in the English Premier League. He was born in Smithfield in 1978. He was raised in Sydney by his English father and Australian mother and educated at Smithfield Public School.

At the age of 15, he travelled to England with his friend Brett Emerton to have a trial with English Premiership football club Leeds United. Kewell made his Leeds United debut in 1996 in a 1-0 home defeat to Middlesbrough while his Australia debut was in April 1996 in 3-0 defeat to Chile. The first goal he scored for Leeds came some time later, in October 1997, in a 3-1 League Cup victory over Stoke City.

Kewell plays as left midfielder and in attack. With his fellow Australian Mark Viduka he became one of Leeds' young stars and with their effort they helped Leeds avoid being relegated from the Premiership. Kewell left Leeds under bitter circumstances, in fact in an interview given to the BBC he stated that the medical staff of the club worsened his injuries and his team-mates were hostile towards him.

For the start of the 2003-4 season he moved to Liverpool and in 2005 he won the UEFA Champions League over Milan on penalties. He was selected ahead of the defensive midfielder Hamann, but the attempt proved to be unsuccessful and after an injury he was substituted. In the following year he showed that he was capable of scoring goals and plenty assists, so he confirmed that his prior performance was not due to apathy but was just the result of poor health. This year he made his comeback from almost a year out of action.

Now, let's see a bit of his private life. Kewell is married to the English actress Sheree Murphy, they met in a nightclub in 2000 and were married in Las Vegas in 2003. They have two children whose names are Taylor and Ruby. The media regard Kewell as Australia's finest football "export", despite his career being affected by injury. He is such a brilliant football player, so loved by his fans that they gave him the nickname of Kewell the Jewel, because he is a treasure! It's a good nickname. Isn't it?