As a player Gareth Southgate gave more of his career to Aston Villa than any of his three clubs.

Some of his highest - and lowest - moments came in the claret and blue during a six year stay in which he made more than 200 appearances.

He lifted the League Cup for Villa and was lifted by them after his penalty miss in Euro 1996.

It was a huge shock when he handed in a transfer request on the eve of Euro 2000.

Now 47, the erudite Southgate has written a new chapter in the history books of English football.

Whether England progress past Sweden in the quarter final or not - the man who missed against Germany has overseen the country's first ever World Cup shoot out success.

Birmingham Live takes a close look at the man masterminding England to 2018 World Cup glory. Hopefully.

Where it started

Born in Watford and raised in Sussex, Southgate made his big break with Crystal Palace. But it wasn’t completely straightforward, he was actually released by Southampton at the outset of his journey.

But it was at Selhurst Park where he came through the ranks, slowly. He set what at the time was a record, with more than 100 games for the Eagles reserves before finally getting his shot.

Once the door opened, he eased it aside with characteristic certainty. He made his league debut in a 3-0 defeat to Liverpool in April 1991 - and was rarely out of the first team picture after that.

Aged 22 he was made captain of the first team and led Palace to promotion to the Premier League in the 1993-94 season

He also played in several positions, starting out in attacking roles, before settling at full back only to be reinvented as a defensive midfielder.

It was at Villa he evolved into an outstanding centre back, where he made most of his appearances for England.

A Villan

In the summer of 1995 he was bought by Brian Little who had a vision of where Southgate would be best deployed.

A £2.5m purchase a few days after Savo Milosevic joined, a few days before Mark Draper arrived and a few weeks before Shaun Teale moved on.

His Villa debut came in that now famous 3-1 victory over Manchester United, after which a great sage proclaimed ‘You don’t win anything with kids’.

United did indeed win something, two things in fact but Villa also had an excellent season, finishing fourth in the league and reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

1996 Coca-Cola Cup Final Aston Villa v Leeds United: Gareth Southgate and Ugo Ehiogu celebrate their win.

Southgate made 32 Premiership appearances and was a mainstay of the side which lifted the Coca Cola Cup in March 1996 after a 3-0 victory over Leeds.

He played all but six league games, in the run in he had a knee injury but returned for the final fixture to prove his fitness in time to play at Wembley, where he had Tony Yeboah in his pocket as he eased to a winner’s medal.

That opened the door to a first taste of Europe but the debut campaign was short lived with a first round away goals defeat to Norwegian part-timers Helsingborg.

All you need to know about Aston Villa now

And then

The following season Southgate was back in Europe after Villa finished fifth to qualify for the UEFA Cup again.

It was a more successful foray in 1997-98 with Southgate helping Villa past Bordeaux, Athletic Bilbao and Steaua Bucharest before being squeezed out of the quarter-finals by Atletico Madrid.

Little had quit just before that game with Villa standing 15th in the table and successor John Gregory revitalised the club’s fortunes and they finished seventh, just enough to qualify for a third successive UEFA Cup campaign.

Gregory rebuilt using the proceeds of the £12.6m sale of Dwight Yorke to Manchester United and brought in Paul Merson from Boro and Dion Dublin and with Southgate now the skipper, for a spell they topped the Premiership.

Gareth Southgate celebrates his goal with George Boateng is his Aston Villa days.

But it unravelled and Villa went out of the UEFA Cup early to Celta Vigo and amid rumblings of discontent over the manager’s abrasive man-management style they faded to sixth and missed out on Europe.

He also played in every Premier League game for Villa during the 1998-99 campaign

Southgate’s last hurrah with Villa came in 2000 as they reached the last FA Cup final at the old Wembley only to be beaten 1-0 by Chelsea.

By then the relationship had fractured.

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Nicknames

Mr Nice Guy. Someone called him this in his very early days at Palace as a youth player doing his apprenticeship, presumably to toughen him up. ‘No-one ever called me that since’ he now says.

At Selhurst Park there was also ‘Nord’ after intelligent know-it-all TV presenter Denis Norden.

At Villa the monickers abounded. The Beak ‘for obvious reasons,’ Southgate noted, an epithet which he shared with Andy Townsend and his similarly generously proportioned nasal organ.

There was ‘The Gate’ and rather more cryptically John Gregory took to naming him Harry - after a district in London called Enfield and Southgate.

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England career

Southgate made 57 England appearances over nine years before bowing out as a substitute in a 1-0 defeat away in Sweden in March 2004 - and scored two goals.

Spot kick shoot-out shame and Pizza Hut adverts will define Southgate’s England career for many.

That would be a harsh judgment on a cultured defender who won over 50 caps and was at four major tournaments - but there is no getting away from that penalty.

Southgate was left devastated as he missed the crucial final kick in a tense 12-yard face-off with old rivals Germany in the 1996 European Championship semi-final.

England went out but his consolation prize was to enter football folklore and join fellow spot kick villains Chris Waddle and Stuart Pearce in an iconic television commercial for the fast food chain.

“I live with it every day. People still go past and whisper ‘That’s the guy that missed the penalty’,” he said.

“Such is life - you play for 15 years and people remember 15 seconds of it.

“After that disappointment, I had a couple of years playing for England where I found it really difficult.

“I felt everybody would be waiting for me to make another mistake. Eventually, experience carries you through. You realise you have to get back into the flow.

“The penalty miss initially clouded my judgment as to how well things had gone up to that point.

“Looking back, I’d had a decent tournament overall - it’s just a shame I couldn’t have enjoyed it more at the time.”

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Southgate made his England debut in December 1995 when he came off the bench in the second half of a 1-1 Wembley draw with Portugal.

His first start came in March 1996 in a 1-0 Twin Towers in over Bulgaria as England started their build up to the European Championships on home soil.

He proved to be a key member of Terry Venables’ team in Euro 96 and put in towering performances in the games against Switzerland, Scotland, Holland and Spain that won rave reviews.

But he was made a back page scapegoat after the semi-final penalty miss despite being one of the better players in the fateful fixture.

In the years to come he was to establish himself in the team but injuries and some strong competition limited his pitch time in the big games.

“I was injured in the first match in France [World Cup ‘98] and lost my place in the starting XI,” he said.

“And I didn’t have much involvement in the last two tournaments either, the Euros in Holland and Belgium and the World Cup in Japan and Korea, but it was still a great experience to be there.

“I was involved with England for nine years - that’s longer than I’ve been at any club.

“I loved it. Every time I lined up for the anthems I remembered those who helped me get so far - teachers, family, friends... everybody. It’s every footballer’s dream to play for their country.”

Never afraid to speak out

Unfortunately Southgate’s time at Villa ended under a cloud.

Three weeks after the 2000 cup final defeat he told The Telegraph he felt he needed to leave.

“This is something that has been going through my mind for the last few months,” he said. “If I am to achieve in my career, it is time to move on.

“It is not a decision that has been easy but my mind is made up. I have given everything to Villa over the last five years."

Aston Villa's Gareth Southgate

“I have looked at all aspects of my position with Villa and perhaps the fans will be disappointed. But players come and go and the club will go on.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity Villa gave me and taking into consideration the profit they would make on me, I feel I have repaid them.”

Even then he played on for another season, applying himself professionally before leaving in the summer of 2001, for £6.5m.

On the international stage Southgate recalled Eriksson’s uninspiring half-time team-talk during England’s 2002 World Cup quarter-final defeat against Brazil saying: “We needed Winston Churchill. Instead we got Iain Duncan Smith!”

Always a leader

His conscientiousness, professionalism and desire to learn separated him from a very young age.

Geoff Thomas was not surprised when it was the young Southgate who replaced him as club captain when he left for Wolves.

Indeed Southgate skippered all three of his clubs, Palace, Villa and Middlesbrough.

Those leadership qualities were so well defined that according to the LMA website, Terry Venables and Martin O’Neill recommended him to Boro chairman Steve Gibson as the ideal candidate to replace Steve McClaren in 2006.

They say: “Having been McClaren’s first signing for the club, Southgate achieved the seamless transition Gibson desired after being promoted from the dressing room to take charge.”

At Boro

He was named Player of the Year award in his first season at the Riverside - which was all the more creditable in that he avoided incurring a single yellow card in the process.

He became the first Boro captain to lift a major trophy, Southgate’s final appearance for Middlesbrough was in the 2006 UEFA Cup final.

After that he replaced McClaren on the other side of the white line.

National Service

He originally joined The FA as head of elite development in January 2011 and played a key role in the opening of St. George’s Park over an 18-month period.

Having been appointed Under 21 head coach in August 2013, Southgate successfully guided his side to two U21 Euro finals – helping secure a continent record of six successive qualifications – and won last summer’s Toulon Tournament.

In November 2016 Southgate stepped into the hottest seat in English football, succeeding Sam Allardyce and his blotted copybook.

“I am extremely proud to be appointed England manager. However, I’m also conscious that getting the job is one thing, now I want to do the job successfully,” he said,

Going into the tournament he had won ten and drawn six of his 18 matches in charge having steered England through an unbeaten qualification campaign.

Who's talking about Euro 1996 now?

*With thanks to Teeside Live