Product Code Database
Nicholas James Weaver (born 2 March 1979) is an English football coach and former professional footballer.
He began his career as a goalkeeper in 1995 with Mansfield Town, before joining Manchester City in 1997. He would go on to be a part of the club that earned promotion from the Second Division in 1999 in which he saved the decisive penalty in the play-off final shootout with Gillingham at Wembley Stadium. He would go on to earn promotion to the Premier League the following season and in total was promoted three times with City in a ten-year spell. By the time he left the club in 2007 he had been the club's second choice keeper for a number of years and had acted as understudy to the likes of Peter Schmeichel, David Seaman and David James. He went on to appear for Charlton Athletic, Dundee United, Burnley, Sheffield Wednesday and Aberdeen. He is a former England under-21 international.
He worked for Sheffield Wednesday since retiring and has held a number of different roles including academy and first team goalkeeper coach.
Weaver remained first choice goalkeeper in 1999–2000, as City secured a second consecutive promotion by finishing in second place in the First Division. He then tasted Premier League football for the first time in the 2000–01 season, as the club was relegated in its first top flight campaign since 1996. Weaver missed almost half of City's league matches in 2001–02 through injury, as the club was again promoted back to the Premier League. Weaver's growing injury problems lead to Keegan signing veteran Peter Schmeichel for the 2002–03 season, with Weaver dropping to second choice.
Weaver did not start any games in the 2002–03, 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons. However, he did play the last fifteen minutes of the 2004–05 season, when Stuart Pearce surprisingly substituted Claudio Reyna for Weaver so the regular City goalkeeper David James could play in attack against Middlesbrough.
Weaver's return to fitness resulted in injury once again during the close season of 2005, ruling him out of the start of the season. In Autumn 2005 Weaver went on loan to Sheffield Wednesday, the team he had supported since childhood and for whom he had played as a schoolboy, in an attempt to return to full fitness.
While at Wednesday, Weaver made 14 appearances, beginning with a 2–1 victory at home to Derby County and ending with a 3–0 defeat away at Leeds United. He also played in the Steel City derby away at Bramall Lane against Sheffield United, where Wednesday were beaten 1–0. He was the only Sheffield born player in the entire fixture.
Before the 2006–07 season, Manchester City sold James to Portsmouth, bought Andreas Isaksson as a replacement and gave Isaksson the number 1 shirt. However, an injury to Isaksson meant Weaver played the first game of the season on 20 August 2006, his first senior start for the club in nearly three years and Weaver's improved form led to him starting all but one of the Manchester City games in the rest of 2006.
Weaver received his second successive Player of The Month award off the club for his performances in October. His consistent performances led to him signing a new two-and-a-half-year deal on 14 February 2011, which due to an oversight by the press office was not announced until 4 April. Weaver fell out of favour at Sheffield Wednesday following the signing of Chris Kirkland, with Kirkland inheriting Weaver's no.1 shirt. After failing to appear in any matchday squad since Kirkland's arrival, he was released at the end of the season.
| 1995–96 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | ||
| Manchester City | 1998–99 | 0 | — | 0 | ||||
| 1999–00 | 0 | — | 0 | |||||
| 2000–01 | 0 | — | 0 | |||||
| 2001–02 | 0 | — | 0 | |||||
| 2002–03 | 0 | — | 0 | |||||
| 0 | 1Appearance in UEFA Cup | 0 | ||||||
| 0 | — | 0 | ||||||
| 0 | — | 0 | ||||||
| 0 | — | 0 | ||||||
| 2005–06 | — | 0 | ||||||
| 2007–08 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 0 | 0 | |||||||
| 2009–10 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 2009–10 | Premier League | — | 0 | |||||
| 2010–11 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 2011–12 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 2013–14 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
|
|
