David Anthony O'Leary (born 2 May 1958) is a football manager and former player. The majority of his 20-year playing career was spent as a central defender at Arsenal, where his tally of 722 appearances stands as a club record. He played 68 times for the Republic of Ireland from 1976 to 1993, and was part of the squad that reached the quarter-finals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
O'Leary retired as a player after two years at Leeds United, and began managing the club in 1998. He built a team of young talents, and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League in 2000–01 before being dismissed the following year. He also managed Aston Villa for three Premier League seasons and had one year in charge of Al Ahli Dubai.
O'Leary was born in Stoke Newington, London, on 2 May 1958, and moved to live in Dublin in 1961.
O'Leary had two weeks on trial at Manchester United before signing for Arsenal as an apprentice in 1973. He made his debut against Burnley on 16 August 1975 in a 3–3 draw, and despite being only 17, went on to make 30 appearances that season. The following year, he signed a professional contract. For the next 10 years, he played more than 40 matches a season (except for 1980–81, when he was out with an ankle injury and only played 27).
A calm and collected central defender, O'Leary was noted for his good positioning and elegant style of play. He won his first major honour with Arsenal when he played in their 3–2 win over Manchester United in the 1979 FA Cup final. He also played in the 1978 and 1980 Cup finals, and the 1980 European Cup Winners' Cup final, all of which Arsenal lost. The same year, he was nominated for the Ballon d'Or. In 1982, O'Leary became club captain but relinquished it to Graham Rix 18 months later.
In 1981, O'Leary rejected a move to Manchester United and signed a four-year extension at Arsenal. He missed the loss to Luton Town in the 1988 Football League Cup final due to an Achilles tendon rupture. O'Leary broke numerous appearance records at Arsenal; he was the youngest person to reach the 100- and 200-match milestones, and he made his 400th appearance while still only 26. He passed George Armstrong's all-time record of 621 first-team games in November 1989. By this time, O'Leary was no longer automatic first choice (with the partnership of Tony Adams and Steve Bould at the centre of George Graham's defence), but he still made over 20 appearances as Arsenal won the 1988–89 First Division title due to a 2–0 win at Anfield on the final day of the season.
O'Leary won another league title in 1991 and an FA Cup and League Cup double in 1993, though by this time he was mainly used as a substitute. He holds Arsenal's all-time record for appearances, with 722 first-team games, in a 20-year-long association with the club. In a poll to compile the list of the club's greatest-ever players, O'Leary was voted 14th. O'Leary assumes the role of a club ambassador for Arsenal.
O'Leary joined Leeds on a free transfer in 1993 after 19 years at Highbury. He retired due to another Achilles injury in 1995, after only 12 appearances. O'Leary was never sent off in a professional match.
O'Leary's international debut with the Republic of Ireland came as a teenager in a 1–1 friendly draw with England on 8 September 1976. Following the appointment of Jack Charlton, O'Leary was frozen out of the international setup for two years. After being left out of a squad for a mini tournament in Iceland in May 1986, O'Leary booked a family holiday, which he decided not to cancel when he was eventually asked up to the squad following several withdrawals. O'Leary did not feature until November 1988, thus missing out on Euro 88.
The highlight of his 68-cap international career came in the 1990 World Cup. With Ireland in a penalty shootout with Romania, Packie Bonner saved Daniel Timofte's last penalty. O'Leary then stepped up to take the decisive final penalty to win the shootout 5–4 to take Ireland to the quarterfinals. O'Leary's strike has since been voted as the greatest moment in Irish footballing history.
On 17 October 1990, O'Leary scored his only goal for the Republic of Ireland in a 5–0 win over Turkey in a Euro 92 qualifier. O'Leary was captain in his final international game on 17 February 1993, but was injured in the opening minutes of the 2–1 friendly win over Wales at Tolka Park.
When the former Arsenal manager George Graham was put in charge at Leeds United in September 1996, O'Leary was installed as his assistant. He remained in this position for two years.
On 29 September 1998, in Graham's last match as manager, O'Leary was sent off for arguing with match officials in a UEFA Cup first-round game away to C.S. Marítimo, which Leeds won on penalties. Graham left for Tottenham Hotspur, and on O'Leary's debut as caretaker on 3 October, Leeds lost 1–0 at home to Leicester City, managed by Martin O'Neill who was linked with the Leeds job. After a goalless draw with Chelsea at Elland Road on 25 October, chairman Peter Ridsdale gave the job permanently to O'Leary on a 21⁄2-year deal for a salary of £600,000, then one of the highest salaries for managers in England.
At the end of the 1998–99 season, Leeds finished fourth in the Premier League and qualified for the UEFA Cup. Their 1999-2000 UEFA Cup campaign ended in the semifinal with defeat to the Turkish side Galatasaray, following the murders of two Leeds fans during violence the night before.
On the domestic front, Leeds finished third in the Premier League and qualified for the Champions League. It was their first campaign at this level since the 1992–93 season. In August 2000, O'Leary signed a six-year contract, for which he would earn £10 million.
Leeds reached the semifinals of the Champions League in 2000-01, where they lost to eventual runners-up Valencia. Their Premier League form also dipped slightly and O'Leary's men had to settle for a UEFA Cup place, finishing fourth in the last season before the Champions League qualification spots for the English Premiership expanded from the top three to the top four. Although there was little indication of this at the time, this was a serious failure for the club because Ridsdale had borrowed £60 million against future gate receipts, budgeting for prolonged Champions League involvement.
The 2001–02 season began well for Leeds. They frequently topped the table during the first half of the season and were Premier League leaders on 1 January 2002, but a loss of form in the second half of the season had them slump into fifth place, again just outside the Champions League qualification spots, meaning that they would again have to settle for a UEFA Cup place.
Leeds players Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer were charged in an incident in Leeds city centre in January 2000, in which a man was beaten in what he believed was a racially motivated attack. In December 2001, Woodgate was convicted of affray and received 100 hours of community service, while Bowyer was acquitted. In January 2002, O'Leary wrote a book, Leeds United on Trial. In it, he revealed that the club hired private investigators in the Bowyer and Woodgate affair, and said that he felt the police wanted to "put one over the club"; he also criticised The Football Association for freezing the pair out of England squads until the end of the trial. He also alleged that Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink refused to play unless he could be the highest-paid player at the club.