International Career
During his stay at West Brom, he won his first cap for the England U21 team on 8 February 2005 in a friendly match against Netherlands U21 team. After a series of convincing performances for West Brom, he won a late call-up for England's trip to the United States at the end of the 2004–05 season. He started the match against the USA and scored twice on his England debut, including one directly from a free kick. He earned praise from England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, who described Richardson's debut as "fantastic". He also appeared as a substitute on England's second match in the United States against Colombia.
After earning senior caps, Richardson also returned to the Under-21 squad, playing in both legs of the England U21s' European Championship qualification play-off against France U21s, which they lost 3–2 on aggregate. The decisive goal came in the 85th minute of the second leg, when Richardson brought down Lassana Diarra in the box and the resulting penalty was converted.
He then made two further substitute appearances during England's World Cup qualification against Wales in Cardiff and Austria in Old Trafford. The latter was his home England debut. However, he was not selected by Sven-Göran Eriksson in England's 2006 World Cup squad.
In 2006–07, he continued to be selected by newly appointed England manager Steve McClaren and made several substitute appearances. He went on to make further appearances for the England U21 squad, for whom he was eligible to play until the end of the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, where he made three appearances. However, he has neither started nor scored for the England senior team since his debut.
Read more about this topic: Kieran Richardson
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