Players who played for Manchester United and Sunderland

Which footballers have played for both Manchester United and Sunderland? It's exactly the kind of link that wins rounds of The Connection, our football trivia game. Every player below has been checked against his career record, including loan spells.

Quick quiz: how many can you name before you look? There are 18 in our list.

Show all 18 players

Player	Country	Manchester United	Sunderland
Jimmy Nicholl	Canada / Northern Ireland	1974–1982	1982 & 1982–1983
Peter Barnes	England	1985–1987	1989
Wes Brown	England	1996–2011	2011–2016
Danny Higginbotham	England / Gibraltar	1997–2000	2007–2008
Dwight Yorke	Trinidad and Tobago	1998–2002	2006–2009
David Healy	Northern Ireland	1999–2001	2008–2011
John O'Shea	Republic of Ireland	1999–2011	2011–2018
David Bellion	France	2003–2006	2001–2003
Kieran Richardson	England	2002–2007	2007–2012
Phil Bardsley	England / Scotland	2003–2008	2008–2014
Liam Miller	Republic of Ireland	2004–2006	2006–2009
Louis Saha	France	2004–2008	2012–2013
Darron Gibson	Northern Ireland / Republic of Ireland	2005–2012	2017–2018
Danny Simpson	England	2006–2010	2007 loan
Fraizer Campbell	England	2006–2009	2009–2013
Jonny Evans	Northern Ireland	2006–2015 & 2023–2025	2006–2007 & 2008
Adnan Januzaj	Belgium	2013–2017	–
Paddy McNair	Northern Ireland	2014–2016	2016–2018

Quick facts

18 players in our verified list have played for both Manchester United and Sunderland.
The most common countries are England (7), Northern Ireland (4), Republic of Ireland (2).
The earliest in our list is Jimmy Nicholl; the most recent is Darron Gibson.
1 player made the link through a loan spell, including Danny Simpson.

Test yourself

In The Connection you get two clubs and a country, and the first to name a player who links them wins the point. Try it with your mates, or take on today's daily.

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