User:Thegiantfreak/sandbox

Max Heaton (footballer)

Max Heaton (born 10th August 1994) is a 30-year-old English footballer who currently plays as a striker for Borussia Dortmund.

Early Life

Heaton was born in the North Yorkshire town of Steeton, and attended Ermysted's Grammar School, Skipton. He lived in Barnoldswick, Lancashire throughout his childhood. By the time he was 16, Heaton was playing at a low level of competitive football, and at 18 captained his county football team. But at this time, he was unexpectedly spotted by a Paris Saint-Germain scout working for Carlo Ancelotti. Heaton was immediately signed for the club.

Club Career:

PSG (2012-2014)

After signing for PSG at the age of 18, rumours spread that he would become a regular feature in the side along with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ezequiel Lavezzi, forming part of PSG's attacking 3. But almost as soon as he had arrived, Heaton was loaned out for a season to Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Whilst there, he made 19 appearances, scoring 5 goals, and they finished 8th in the SPL, also reaching the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup. Upon his return to PSG, he was again loaned away, this time to Npower League One side, Sheffield United. Here, he made a larger impression, making 25 starts for the club, and scoring 10 goals, while racking up 2 assists. Sheffield United won the league in 2014 and were promoted to the Npower Championship, and it was suggested that Heaton would be bought permanently by the club, but the transfer did not materialise. Upon his return to PSG, Heaton played 1 match, his only for the club, in which he gained an assist, setting up the winning goal making PSG winners of the Trophée des Champions in the build up to the 2014-15 season.

Post-PSG Transfers (2014-2018)

Soon after this, PSG recieved and accepted a bid of £7,500,000 for Heaton from Valencia CF, which Heaton quickly snapped up, quoting lack of games as his main reason for the move, having only played 1 for PSG and being loaned out twice. During the 2014-15 season, Heaton made 14 appearances, scoring 6 goals and getting 4 assists for Valencia. The season was deemed a success with Valencia finishing 5th in La Liga, reaching the final of the Europa League and the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey.
However, at the start of the following season, Heaton made another move, this time to AC Milan, for a reported fee of £5,000,000. Here, he played 9 games, scoring only 2 goals and getting 1 assist. Milan finished 6th in Serie A and reached the final of the Coppa Italia.
Again, at the end of the season, Heaton was linked with moves away, and some even suggested he would follow the striker Alexandre Pato to Real Madrid, with offers reported from VfL Wolfsburg, and Southampton FC, but Heaton chose to transfer to Liverpool FC, reportedly one of his favourite boyhood clubs, for a fee of £7,000,000. The move occured just at the start of the 2016-17 season. Unlike at previous clubs, Heaton stayed at Liverpool for 2 years until 2018, finishing 3rd and then 6th in the Barclay's Premier League, and winning the FA Cup in 2018, and the Community Shield in the build-up to the following season. Whilst at Liverpool, Heaton made 26 appearances, scoring 10 goals and getting an assist.
However, Heaton again became uncomfortable at his club, and made his biggest transfer, as of the time, moving to the Spanish club Atlético Madrid for a fee of £9,000,000.

Atlético Madrid (2018-2022)

Following his erratic moves of the previous years, the media started to speculate that Heaton was not cut out to be a player of outstanding quality. However, it became clear upon Heaton's arrival in Madrid, that he had finally found a club at which he was happy. In his first season there, Atlético Madrid won La Liga and reached the final of the Copa del Rey. They also triumphed in the following Supercopa de España, with a victory over Madrid rivals, Real Madrid. But after this highly succesful first season at the club, its fortunes dropped somewhat. For the next three years Heaton was there, they finished 4th twice in the league and then 3rd. The semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League was the closest Atlético came to winnning another trophy. Whilst at Atlético Madrid, Heaton played 118 games, scoring 57 goals, and gaining 7 assists, as was later regarded as the semi-replacement to an ever-declining Radamel Falcao, who at the time was sliding closer and closer into retirement.
After four, apparently happy, years at Atlético Madrid, Heaton decided that a move was required, and requested transfer. Bids came, mainly from German clubs, most notably including Bayern München, but Heaton finally decided to move to Borussia Dortmund, for a fee of £13,500,000. This made him only the third player to play professionally for major clubs in five European countries (after Christian Poulsen and Florin Răducioiu): England (Liverpool), France (PSG), Italy (Milan), Spain (Atlético Madrid, Valencia), and now Germany (Borussia Dortmund).

Borussia Dortmund (2022-present)

After signing for Borussia Dortmund, Heaton settled quickly, and Dortmund finished 5th in the Bundesliga. Shortly after, Heaton was recorded as saying that he "had probably signed for the wrong German club", after Bayern, who had offered him a contract, won the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal in fine style. He later apologised for the comment. Next year, Dortmund's fortunes looked to be on the up, with them finishing 3rd in the Bundesliga, but being knocked out of the Pokal early on, playing Bayern, and losing 1-0 after a 120th minute goal. That year, Borussia Mönchengladbach unexpectedly won the Bundesliga title. The 2024-25 season looked to be the best for Dortmund after Heaton had arrived, with Dortmund a close second to Bayern going into the end of the season. With 10 games remaining, Dortmund were 8 points behind, but Heaton commented to the press, saying they had "a great fighting spirit". However, Bayern just kept on winning and with 2 games left, the gap was 4 points. However, with Dortmund winning their last two games (Heaton scoring in both) and Bayern losing and drawing, Dortmund clinched the title with 74 points to Bayern's 73, with fans invading the pitch and the streets of the city blocked with celebrations, after Dortmund's final home victory, on their title-winning final day. Heaton said soon after that it was "one of the most emotional moments" of his football career. As of the summer, Heaton has not mentioned any move away from Dortmund, saying he hopes they can go on to win more trophies. As of now, Heaton has played 83 games for Dortmund, scored 34 goals and got 13 assists. In Dortmund's 2024-25 title winning season, he was the Bundesliga's 6th highest scorer, and the highest for Borussia Dortmund.

International Career:

England

Heaton has been called up numerous time for England, and has played both in International Friendlies and World Cup and European Championship Qualifiers, but as yet has not played in a major tournament, barring the Confederations Cup, in which Heaton's England team lost to Brazil. He has played 15 games for England, scoring 10 goals and getting 2 assists.

Career Stats

Club

Club	Appearances	Goals	Assists
PSG	1	0	1
Inverness Caledonian Thistle	19	5	0
Sheffield United	25	10	3
Valencia	14	6	4
AC Milan	9	2	1
Liverpool	26	10	1
Atlético Madrid	118	57	7
Borussia Dortmund	83	34	13
Total	295	124	30

International

Team	Appearances	Goals	Assists
England	15	10	2

Career Honours

Cup/Trophy	Club	Year
nPower League 1	Sheffield United	2014
Trophée des Champions	PSG	2014
FA Cup	Liverpool	2018
Community Shield	Liverpool	2018
La Liga	Atlético Madrid	2019
SuperCup España	Atlético Madrid	2019
Bundesliga	Borussia Dortmund	2025

Max Heaton (football manager)

Max Heaton (born 10th August 1959) is a football manager, currently in charge of Premier League side Liverpool.

Early Life

Heaton was born in the North Yorkshire town of Steeton, and attended Ermysted's Grammar School, Skipton. He lived in Barnoldswick, Lancashire throughout his childhood. He was an avid fan of Liverpool and has said he "played football, but was pretty bad". He also once said his tactical mind for football was sharp but he had "the ability of a three-legged donkey".

Club Career:

Liverpool (2012-present)

Due to his lack of real footballing talent, Heaton turned early on to management, and had managed a small number of clubs by the time he had reached 50. But in 2012, at the age of 54, Heaton was recruited as the manager of Liverpool, but at this time was still a relatively unknown name in the world football management, having never been a professional player. Within his first month at Liverpool, Heaton had made some drastic changes in the make-up of the squad, selling a lot of the little-used reserve players, and buying Jesús Navas from Sevilla for £17 million. Despite this, in his first season, he failed to win any silverware and finished 5th in the Premier League, scraping into qualification for the Europa League.
Although his job was put under review by the Liverpool owners, Heaton continued his regime of transfers, selling long-time Liverpool defender Martin Škrtel to Olympique Lyon for £8 million, buying veteran Inter defender Samuel for £5.1 million. The 2013-14 season initally progressed well, but unrest grew in Liverpool as rumours began that Pepe Reina would the leaving the club. To quell these rumours, Heaton promptly bought Hugo Lloris from Tottenham for £18.5 million plus the exchange of Reina. Liverpool's form instantly picked up, with Lloris quickly becoming a Liverpool star, and with Heaton also selling Fabio Borini for £12 million, Liverpool also had some money in their pocket. Heading toward the end of the season, Liverpool won the Europa League, beating CSKA Moskva 2-1 in extra time. Liverpool eventually won the Premier League that season, beating Manchester United on goal difference, by a margin of just four goals. Heaton won 3 Manager of the Month awards, and won Manager of the Season for 2013-14. Liverpool player Oussama Assaidi won the Golden Boot award, also claiming the most assists and the Player of the Season award.
After his successes of the previous year, expectation was high for Heaton going into the 2014-15 season. His first action was to permanently buy Nuri Şahin, the Real Madrid midfielder, who had been on loan at Liverpool for two years, for £20 million. Real Madrid, on the other hand, had become interested in Liverpool star Oussama Assaidi, and offered £45 million for him, but Heaton refused, stating that Assaidi was "not for sale at any price". His first match of the season was the Community Shield, against Manchester United, which Liverpool won 4-1, with goals from Dani Pacheco, Şahin, and 2 from Assaidi. As he knew that this would be Walter Samuel's last year of football, Heaton bought Sakho from PSG for £11 million, to slowly ease him into the team, as Samuel was eased out, and into retirement. It was also announced that Steven Gerrard would be retiring at the end of the 14-15 season, but Heaton cited "lack of funds" for his reason not to buy a replacement. Liverpool also won the UEFA Super Cup against Champions League winners Barcelona, thrashing them 6-0, including goals from Şahin, Navas, Luis Suárez, and a hat-trick from Assaidi. The rest of the 2014-15 season progressed well to Heaton's plans, despite the defence taking a hard injury hit, with Daniel Agger and Sakho sustaining long-term injuries. Despite this, Liverpool won the FA Cup, beating Manchester City 2-0, both goals from Luis Suárez. Again, Liverpool won the League on goal difference, this time pipping Manchester City to the title by only 3 goals. Again, Assaidi got the most goals and assists, and won Player of the Season. And to top only Heaton's 3rd year in charge of Liverpool, they won the Champions League, defeating Tottenham 2-0 in the final. Heaton and his Liverpool side completed a famous treble, becoming only the 8th side (and only the 2nd English side (after Manchester United)) ever to do so (see Treble). For this, Heaton won the Manager of the Season award, despite only winning 1 Manager of the Month award in the 2014-15 season.
For the start of the 2015-16 season, Heaton bought Real Madrid star, Mesut Özil to replace the retired Steven Gerrard, for the huge sum of £28.5 million. Özil led the Liverpool team to win the Community Shield match, against FA Cup runners-up (as Liverpool had won the treble) Manchester City, 3-1, with a hat-trick again from Liverpool star performer, Oussama Assaidi. This was followed by Liverpool winning the UEFA Super Cup against Europa League winners Valencia, 3-0. In the January transfer window of 2016, Hugo Lloris suddenly asked to leave the club and begged for other clubs to buy him, but Liverpool blocked any possible move, offering Lloris a highly enhanced contract, which he reluctantly accepted. At the end of the season, Liverpool won the Champions League, beating Real Madrid in the final 1-0 with a goal from Luis Suárez. They also won the Premier League for the third time running, finishing 1 point ahead of Manchester City. Winnning the Premier League 3 times on the trot earned Heaton a third consecutive Manager of the Season award, having earlier won a Manager of the Month award. Luis Suárez won the golden boot for the Premier League, with Assaidi claiming the most assists, and the Player of the Season award went to Assaidi. At the end of this season, Heaton decided to renew all the contracts for his team.
For the start of the 2016-17 season, Heaton decided to make another signing. Long-term Liverpool player Glen Johnson was eventually retiring at the end of the upcoming season, so Heaton decided to sign the right-back Danilo from Udinese. The fee was reported to be £10 million, plus the exchange of Johnson, taking him "off my hands", as Heaton put it. Despite this signing, Heaton's Liverpool were suprise losers of the Community Shield in 2016, losing 4-3 on penalties to Bolton Wanderers after a 2-2 draw, and the loss drew large amounts of criticism from fans and the press alike. Apart from this hiccup, Heaton's season progressed well, with Liverpool winning the Premier League, finishing 2 points ahead of Arsenal. Liverpool also won both domestics trophies, the FA Cup and the League Cup, beating Southampton and Aston Villa respectively. However, Liverpool lost to Barcelona in the semi-finals of the Champions League, meaning they couldn't complete a "quadruple", as Heaton later said. Luis Suárez won the golden boot for the Premier League, with Oussama Assaidi claiming the most assists, and the Player of the Season award went to Suárez. This meant that in the previous four years of the Premier League, Assaidi and Luis Suárez had won the Golden Boot twice each, Assaidi had claimed the most assists each time, and the Player of the Season award had gone to Assaidi 3 times, and most recently, Suárez - Liverpool ruled the world of British football, winning the league for four years consecutively, the FA Cup and League Cup in 2017, and had won 3 major trophies in Europe, also completing a treble. Heaton, for the 4th year running, won the Manager of the Season award.
At the start of the 2017-18 season, Heaton felt a lack of goalkeepers besides Hugo Lloris was "letting his side down", so he bought Thibaut Courtois from Chelsea for £13 million. Liverpool got their season off to a good start, winning all three pre-season friendlies.

International Career:

Belguim (2012-2014)

Soon after arriving at Liverpool, the Belgian national side enlisted Heaton to be their manager, and he did so for two years. Under his management, Belgium got to the knockout stages of both the European Championships, and the World Cup, but Heaton left the post in 2014, stating overwork as Liverpool had more and more games to play.

Uruguay (2014-2015)

However, soon after this, Heaton became the manager of the Uruguayan national team. possibly with the influence of Liverpool players Luis Suárez and Sebastián Coates, both Uruguayan. Heaton managed them for a year, leading them to victory in the Copa América, but decided to leave "on a high", saying that his International management career was over, and he would be concentrating on Liverpool from now on.

Brazil (2015-present)

However, around 6 six months after leaving his post with Uruguay, Heaton accepted a contract "he couldn't refuse" with the Brazil national team. Despite causing discontent amongst Uruguayan players and officials, Heaton defended the move with a debut 3-1 win over Spain. Brazil also finished top of their World Cup qualifying group.

Career Honours

• Premier League (2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17)
• FA Cup (2015, 2017)
• League Cup (2017)
• Community Shield (2014, 2015)
• Champions League (2015, 2016)
• Europa League (2014)
• UEFA Super Cup (2014, 2015)
• Premier League Manager of the Month Award (2014 (3), 2015 (1), 2016 (1), 2017 (1))
• Premier League Manager of the Year Award (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017)

• Copa América (2015)

Max Heaton (footballer)

Max Heaton (born 10th August 1994) is a 20-year-old English footballer who currently plays as a striker for AFC Wimbledon.

Early Life

Heaton was born in the North Yorkshire town of Steeton, and attended Ermysted's Grammar School, Skipton. He lived in Barnoldswick, Lancashire throughout his childhood. By the time he was 16, Heaton was playing at a low level of competitive football, and at 18 captained his county football team. But at this time, he was unexpectedly spotted by a AFC Wimbledon scout, and Heaton was immediately signed for the club.

Club Career:

AFC Wimbledon (2013-present)

Upon his arrival at the club, there was little enthusiasm from fans, with some questioning whether he was a necessary addition to the club, despite being signed for no fee, as he was a free agent. But in the first half of his debut season, these questions seemed well-founded. Heaton's poor form meant he gained very few starts for the club, scoring his first goal in an FA Cup match near the end of November. By the end of 2013, he had scored only 2 goals, both in the FA Cup, in a total of 11 game starts. And his form didn't particularly improve; Heaton managed to rack up no goals and only a single assist in his next 7 games, taking him to the end of the season, where AFC Wimbledon narrowly missed out on a League 2 play-off place.
At the start of the following 2014-15 season, Heaton's form picked up. In September, he scored 2 goals in two games, his first goals since 2013; by the end of the month, he had scored 2 goals in 4 starts.

Career Stats

Club

Club	Appearances	Goals	Assists
AFC Wimbledon	18	2	1
Total	18	2	1

International

Team	Appearances	Goals	Assists
England	0	0	0

Career Honours

Cup/Trophy	Club	Year
None	None	None

Max Heaton (football manager)

Max Heaton (born 10th August 1960) is a football manager, currently in charge of Premier League side Liverpool.

Early Life

Heaton was born in the North Yorkshire town of Steeton, and attended Ermysted's Grammar School, Skipton. He lived in Barnoldswick, Lancashire throughout his childhood. He was an avid fan of Liverpool and has said he "played football, but was pretty bad". He also once said his tactical mind for football was sharp but he had "the ability of a three-legged donkey".

Club Career:

Liverpool (2013-present)

Due to his lack of real footballing talent, Heaton turned early on to management, and had managed a small number of clubs by the time he had reached 50. But in 2013, at the age of 54, Heaton was recruited as the manager of Liverpool, but at this time was still a relatively unknown name in the world football management, having never been a professional player. When Heaton arrived at the club, he made some unpopular decisions. Firstly, Luis Suárez was sold to FC Barcelona for £42 million and Heaton brought in younger players, including Luke Shaw from Southampton, and Isaac Cuenca from FC Barcelona. Liverpool made an unremarkable start to the season, hovering around a Europa League qualifying place. In the January transfer window, Heaton bought James Rodríguez from AS Monaco for £31 million, in the hope of improving results, but Liverpool only managed to finish 6th in the league, and didn't make significant progress in any cup competition.
Heaton continued his buying in the summer of 2014, bringing in Iñigo Martínez from Real Sociedad, Miralem Pjanić from AS Roma, Jonathan dos Santos from FC Barcelona and Memphis Depay from PSV Eindhoven. He also sold Pepe Reina, who had returned from his loan at Napoli, as well as sending out lots of young players on loan. Liverpool did well initially, climbing into the top 4 by January, and Heaton winning the Manager of the Month award for October. But during the January transfer window, Newcastle, who had recently been bought by a rich businessman, bought Daniel Sturridge for £32 million. To replace him, Heaton made a shock move, buying back Luis Suárez from FC Barcelona for £23.5 million and Suso. Liverpool fans reacted positively, but Liverpool's performances didn't pick up as Heaton wanted. Liverpool finished 6th again, and were eliminated in the semi-finals of the Europa League by Atlético Madrid.
At the start of the next summer, Heaton bought Paul Pogba from Juventus for £14 million.

Career Honours

• Premier League Manager of the Month Award (2014 (1))