'My club!' - Kieran Richardson explains his lasting love for Sunderland AFC

It's more than ten years since Kieran Richardson left Wearside, but he still calls Sunderland 'we.'

Michael Graham | Jan 25, 2023

'My club!' - Kieran Richardson explains his lasting love for Sunderland AFC /

Kieran Richardson says Sunderland is ‘his club’ and the passion of the fans surpasses any other he has ever known.

Richardson played 149 games for Sunderland during a five-year spell on Wearside, and he is still loved today for his stunning Wear-Tyne derby winner against Newcastle in 2008.

It was an especially bright moment in what was a fine Sunderland career, and Richardson says the club have left a lasting impression on him.

"I've always said that Sunderland is the best team I've ever played for, the best club in my career - my favourite club by a country mile,” Richardson said on the SAFC Unfiltered Podcast.

"Even though Manchester United is a massive club, a bigger club, it wasn't my favourite club. I felt like Sunderland was my club.

"The fans, the love they have for the club, the passion, it's superior to any other club I have been at."

Richardson left in 2012, long before Sunderland started their depressing slide into League One. Like anyone who loves the club, it hurt to watch for Richardson, but he is confident the club are now on their way back to where it belongs.

"I didn't like seeing that,” Richardson said. "You see your club as a Premier League club and then they are down there in League One but it happens - it's happened before to massive clubs.

“Hopefully now we are on the right track to come back."

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Published Jan 25, 2023

MICHAEL GRAHAM

Michael Graham is a professional sports writer with more than ten years of industry experience. After pursuing football writing by helping establish the Roker Report Sunderland AFC fansite, Michael moved to Planet Sport to cover football. Michael has since worked on many of the sports sites within the Planet Sport network, including Football365, TEAMtalk and Planet Football before leaving to join 90min. As well as football, Michael is an accomplished tennis writer and has been regularly featured on Tennishead, TennisBuzz and Tennis365. It is football that is his first love, though, with Sunderland AFC his particular passion. Contact: michael@buzzpublishing.co.uk