Peter Ramage

Football player infobox
playername = Peter Ramage


fullname = Peter Iain Ramage
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1983|11|22|df=y
cityofbirth = Ashington
countryofbirth = England
height = height|ft=6|in=1
currentclub = Queens Park Rangers
clubnumber = 15
contractend =
position = Defender
youthyears = 1996–2002
youthclubs = Newcastle United
years = 2004–2008
2008–
clubs = Newcastle United
Queens Park Rangers
caps(goals) = 51 (0)
08 (0)
nationalyears =
nationalteam =
nationalcaps(goals) =
pcupdate = 4 October 2008
ntupdate =

Peter Iain Ramage (born 22 November 1983 in Ashington, Northumberland) is an English footballer, primarily played as a central defender. He currently plays for Queens Park Rangers. Ramage started his career at Newcastle United, working his way up from the youth ranks to the first team. He left the club in 2008 to join Queens Park Rangers.

Early life

Ramage is the son of Iain Ramage, a former semi-professional rugby union player and international RFU referee, who was Scotland's representative at the 2003 World Cup. He grew up in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, but moved to the Newcastle area at the age of twelve and attended Valley Gardens Middle School before going to Whitley Bay High School.fact|date=May 2008 It was then when he began playing for local youth team Cramlington Juniors and began to take a more serious interest in football.fact|date=May 2008 He joined the Newcastle United school of Excellence aged just 13 years old.fact|date=May 2008 Originally playing as a striker, he changed to defender due to there already being too many forwards in the squad.fact|date=May 2008

Club career

Ramage played in the same youth team as Michael Chopra and Steven Taylor under Alan Irvine, before later being coached by former Newcastle players Kenny Wharton and Peter Beardsley. In the reserve team he was coached by another former United player, Tommy Craig. In March 2003, Ramage won the Jackie Milburn Trophy, given each year to the rising star of north-east football. He worked his way through Newcastle's youth system and captained the Newcastle reserve side before making his breakthrough to the first team squad. Ramage made his first team debut as a substitute in Newcastle's UEFA Cup round-of-16 match second leg against Olympiakos Piraeus on 16 March 2005.

His first league start at Old Trafford in the 2–1 defeat to Manchester United on 24 April 2005. He followed this up with several first team starts due to injuries to other defenders in the Newcastle squad.

Ramage was a first team regular in the 2005–06 season, appearing in twenty-nine games. The injury to team-mate Stephen Carr allowed him to play a larger amount of games for the Magpies, as he made a good impression on both Graeme Souness and Glenn Roeder, who replaced Souness as manager in early 2006. As a result of these performances he allegedly caught the eye of former Scotland coach Walter Smith. [cite web|title=A bit of a balls up|work=Sunday Herald
url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20061119/ai_n16855837 | accessdate=March 17 | accessyear=2007] Ramage is eligible to play for Scotland or England.

Ramage only made two appearances in the 2007–08 season, when he was hampered by injury, but also losing out to the new defensive recruits made by the then new manager Sam Allardyce. He was also not to be a first choice of the next manager Kevin Keegan, who replaced Allardyce in the middle of the season.

Ramage's Newcastle contract expired at the end of the season, and despite Keegan's stated desire to retain Ramage, he was unable to guarantee first team football, therefore Ramage made the decision to move on. [cite news
date=2008-05-06
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/7385865.stm
title= Keegan to release Newcastle trio
publisher=BBC
accessdate=2008-05-13] He subsequently signed for Championship side Queens Park Rangers on a three year contract. [cite news
date=2008-05-13
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/q/qpr/7398350.stm
title= QPR seal Ramage and Cerny deals
publisher=BBC
accessdate=2008-05-13]

References

External links

* [http://www.qpr.co.uk/page/ProfilesDetail/0,,10373~30605,00.html Peter Ramage player profile] at qpr.co.uk
* [http://www.nufc.co.uk/page/Profiles/0,,10278~30605,00.html Peter Ramage player profile] at nufc.co.uk
*soccerbase|id=39173|name=Peter Ramage
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/shared/bsp/hi/football/statistics/players/r/ramage_297235.stm Peter Ramage BBC profile]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/juniorfootball/features/interviews/peter_ramage.shtml BBC Tyne Peter Ramage Interview]

Persondata
NAME = Peter Ramage
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Footballer
DATE OF BIRTH = 22 November 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH = Ashington, England
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =