Wayne Hennessey

Wayne Robert Hennessey (born 24 January 1987) is a Welsh professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Crystal Palace and the Wales national team.

Wayne Hennessey
Hennessey playing for Wales in 2016
Personal information
Full name Wayne Robert Hennessey[1]
Date of birth (1987-01-24) 24 January 1987[2]
Place of birth Bangor, Wales
Height 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)[3]
Position(s) Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team
 Crystal Palace
Number 13
Youth career
0000–2003 Manchester City
2003–2006 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2006–2014 Wolverhampton Wanderers 152 (0)
2006 → Bristol City (loan) 0 (0)
2007 → Stockport County (loan) 15 (0)
2013 → Yeovil Town (loan) 12 (0)
2014– Crystal Palace 110 (0)
National team‡
Wales U17 6 (0)
Wales U19 7 (1)
2005–2009 Wales U21 6 (0)
2007– Wales 94 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 21:06, 24 June 2020 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 22:00, 14 October 2020 (UTC)

Hennessey's first professional games saw him set a new League Two record for consecutive clean sheets while on loan at Stockport County. He played 166 times for Wolverhampton Wanderers over eight seasons, including three years at Premier League level. After several injury setbacks, he moved to join Crystal Palace in 2014.

A full international since 2007, Hennessey has earned more than 90 caps for Wales.

Early life and career

Hennessey is a cousin of Terry Hennessey, who earned 39 caps for Wales from 1962 to 1972.[4] Born in Bangor, Gwynedd and raised in Beaumaris, Anglesey, Hennessey speaks Welsh[5] and was educated at Ysgol David Hughes but switched to Connah's Quay High School as it was easier to travel to Manchester.[6] Hennessey began as a trainee at Manchester City but was released in 2003, whereupon he joined the youth academy at Wolverhampton Wanderers. After progressing through the ranks, he signed his first professional contract in April 2005.

After remaining in Wolves' reserve and youth teams during the 2005–06 season, Hennessey was sent on trial with Bristol City in July 2006[7] with a view to a loan move to gain first team experience but was recalled to Wolves after an injury to their first-choice goalkeeper Matt Murray. He did go back to Bristol City in August 2006, however, on a one-month loan deal,[8] but he did not make an appearance and returned to his parent club early due to an arm injury.[9]

Club career

Stockport County

To gain first-team football, Hennessey joined League Two side Stockport County in January 2007 on a one-month loan.[10] On his senior debut against Boston United, he kept a clean sheet and after keeping another five clean sheets in successive matches, his loan spell was extended by an extra month.[11]

He went on to set a Football League record of nine successive clean sheets and wins.[12] Stockport broke the 119-year-old record,[12] when they beat Swindon Town 3–0 on 3 March 2007.[12] After this accomplishment, he was named the League Two Player of the Month for February 2007.[13] His feat also means he now holds County's record for the longest period without conceding a goal, beating Harry Hardy's 85-year-old record. His record now stands at 857 minutes, from the start of his competitive club debut, against Boston United on 13 January 2007, until Oliver Allen of Barnet scored on 10 March 2007. He therefore did not concede in his first nine-and-a-half matches of competitive club football.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Hennessey was recalled by Wolves in April 2007 after another injury to first-choice Matt Murray,[14] and found himself on the substitutes bench for several games. When Murray broke his shoulder on the eve of Wolves' Championship play-off semi-final first leg against local rivals West Bromwich Albion, Hennessey stepped in to make his Wolves debut.[15]

With Murray sidelined for the whole of the 2007–08 season with yet another injury, Hennessey became firmly established at the club's number one, being an ever-present in the league and signing a new extended contract.[16] At the end of the season he was named in the 2007–08 PFA Championship Team of the Year as well as being named Wolves' Player of the Season.[17] FourFourTwo magazine ranked him 22nd in their Top 50 Football League Players list.[18]

The 2008–09 season saw a strong start for Hennessey and Wolves with eight victories out of the first nine league games. This fine run ended against promotion rivals Reading with a 0–3 loss begun by an own goal from Hennessey.[19] Soon after manager Mick McCarthy dropped him to the bench, citing mental fatigue as the reason.[20] Reserve keeper Carl Ikeme deputised and impressed enough to leave Hennessey on the sidelines until an injury ruled him out for the majority of the season. Hennessey then regained and kept his place in goal for the remainder of the season which culminated with promotion to the Premier League as champions after a five-year absence.[21]

Hennessey began the club's 2009–10 Premier League campaign as first choice goalkeeper, making his 100th senior appearance for the club in a 2–2 draw at Stoke City in October 2009.[22] However, after conceding four goals in two successive games, he was replaced by the more experienced Marcus Hahnemann and remained on the bench for the rest of the season as the club finished 15th.

In July 2010, Hennessey extended his contract with Wolves to run until the summer of 2015.[23] The following season began with Hahnemann retaining the number one spot until his own loss of form saw Hennessey return to the starting line-up in November 2010. He then held on to the spot for the remainder of the campaign as the club narrowly avoided relegation on the final day.

During the 2011–12 season, Hennessey was part of the Wolves defence that went a club record of 30 consecutive league games without a clean sheet. They finally ended this with a goalless draw at Sunderland in April 2012, but by then the team was rooted to the bottom of the table.[24] Despite the game halting this run, it brought bad news for Hennessey as he suffered a torn cruciate knee ligament during it that was due to keep him sidelined until Autumn 2012.[25] After completing several reserve games during his comeback he re-injured the knee during training in November 2012 which kept him out of action for the remainder of the 2012–13 season.[26][27]

He made his return to the Wolves goal during pre-season ahead of their 2013–14 campaign – with the club now in League One having suffered two relegations since Hennessey's initial injury – but he was not selected to start the club's opening fixtures.[28] On 12 August 2013 it was agreed for the goalkeeper to spend a month on loan at Yeovil Town as he recovers from his long-term injury problems.[29] However, before this deal was officially concluded Hennessey suffered a hamstring problem while on international duty with the Welsh national team and so the proposed loan was scrapped.[30] Although, on 21 August 2013, after an injury to Yeovil's replacement goalkeeper Sam Johnstone Hennessey officially joined Yeovil Town on an initial one-month loan which was eventually extended until 17 November 2013.[31][32] He made his Yeovil debut in a 0–3 loss to Derby County on 24 August 2013.[33] In his penultimate home match Hennessey received the man of the match award after the Glovers achieved their first ever home win at Championship by defeating Nottingham Forest.[34]

After his loan spell at Yeovil ended, Hennessey returned to Wolves but did not displace Carl Ikeme in goal. When Ikeme suffered an injury in January 2014, Hennessey declined to play in the following fixture against Gillingham, launching speculation that he wanted a move away from the club.[35] Although he subsequently apologised for his refusal to play,[36] he did not play again for Wolves and negotiations were later entered into with Premier League team Crystal Palace.

Crystal Palace

On 31 January 2014, Hennessey joined Crystal Palace on a three-and-a-half year deal for an undisclosed fee, with media speculation suggesting it to be an initial £1.6 million, with add-on clauses.[37][38] Hennessey made his debut for the Eagles in the team's final match of the Premier League season, a 2–2 draw with Fulham on 11 May 2014.[39]

Hennessey's first appearance of the 2014–15 season came a 3–0 win at Walsall in the Football League Cup second round.[40] On 25 October, he made his first Premier League appearance of the season as a substitute for injured first choice goalkeeper Julián Speroni in a 2–2 draw at West Bromwich Albion.[41] He ended the season starting in Palace's final two league fixtures, wins against Liverpool and Swansea City, keeping his first Premier League clean sheet for the club in the latter match.[42][43]

After starting in Crystal Palace's 2015–16 Football League Cup second and third round matches, Hennessey was selected to start the Premier League fixture against Watford in place of Alex McCarthy. He kept a clean sheet as Palace won 1–0 at Vicarage Road and has retained his place as the team's first choice goalkeeper, making five consecutive league appearances.[44]

In 2018–19, Hennessey competed with new signing Vicente Guaita to be the starting goalkeeper.[45]

International career

Hennessey was capped for Wales at under-17, under-19 and under-21 level. He once scored for the under-19 side with a 40-yard free kick against Turkey.[46]

He made his full international debut for Wales in a 2–2 friendly draw against New Zealand on 26 May 2007 and has since established himself as his country's first-choice goalkeeper.[47] Hennessey made his 50th appearance for Wales on 3 September 2015, keeping a clean sheet in a 1–0 away win over Cyprus in UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying.[48]

Hennessey played in all ten of Wales' qualifying matches for UEFA Euro 2016, conceding just four times, as they reached their first major international tournament since the 1958 FIFA World Cup. He was named in Wales' 23-man squad for the tournament as first choice goalkeeper but was forced to miss the opening game of the tournament, a 2–1 victory over Slovakia, after suffering a back spasm prior to the match, being replaced by Danny Ward.[49] Hennessey started the remaining matches as Wales progressed to the semi-finals of the tournament before losing to Portugal.[50]

On 3 September 2020, Hennessey reached his 35th clean sheet with Wales in a 1–0 UEFA Nations League win over Finland, to break the previous record held by Neville Southall.[51]

Personal life

In January 2019, an investigation was launched by the FA after Hennessey was pictured making what appeared to be a Nazi salute in a group photo posted on Instagram by teammate Max Meyer. Hennessey denied making the salute, claiming that "any kind of resemblance to that kind of gesture is absolutely coincidental" and provided photographs of him making similar gestures during matches to attract the attention of team-mates.[52] In April 2019, the FA said there would be no further action after the charge was "not proven".[53] Hennessey argued that he did not know what a Nazi salute was and the FA panel noted that "when cross-examined about this Mr Hennessey displayed a very considerable - one might even say lamentable - degree of ignorance about anything to do with Hitler, Fascism and the Nazi regime".[54]

Career statistics

Club
As of match played 15 September 2020
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2006–07[55] Championship 0000002[lower-alpha 1]020
2007–08[56] Championship 4603000—490
2008–09[57] Championship 3502010—380
2009–10[58] Premier League 1303000—160
2010–11[59] Premier League 2400030—270
2011–12[60] Premier League 3400000—340
2012–13[61] Championship 000000—00
2013–14[62] League One 0000000000
Total 15208040201660
Bristol City (loan) 2006–07[55] League One 0000000000
Stockport County (loan) 2006–07[55] League Two 150000000150
Yeovil Town (loan) 2013–14[62] Championship 1200010—130
Crystal Palace 2013–14[62] Premier League 1000000010
2014–15[63] Premier League 3020200070
2015–16[64] Premier League 290603000380
2016–17[65] Premier League 290101000310
2017–18[66] Premier League 270101000290
2018–19[67] Premier League 180200000200
2019–20[68] Premier League 3010100050
2020–21[69] Premier League 0010000010
Total 110013090—1320
Career total 2890210140203260
  1. Appearances in Championship play-offs

International
As of match played 14 October 2020.[70]
International statistics
National teamYearAppsGoals
Wales
200770
200870
200990
201060
201190
201330
201460
201570
2016120
201760
201870
2019100
202050
Total940

Honours

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Crystal Palace

Individual

References
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