Jermain Defoe
February 24th, 2010 by FrankO
Jermain Defoe is a striker who plays for English side Tottenham and England. Defoe was discovered as a 14 year old by scouts from Charlton Athletics and joined their youth squad. At 16 Defoe decided to join West Ham, where he was given the chance to turn professional. He was in West Ham’s U-19 team winning the 1999-2000 Premier League Academy title, scoring twice in the final against Arsenal. He got his first team debut that same season, where he was the match winner in a 1-0 win against Walsall. Then West Ham manager, Harry Redknapp, sent Defoe on loan the following season to Second Division club Bournemouth, to gain more league experience. Defoe put on some exceptional performances and he was back at West Ham again for the 2001-02 season. He finished as West Ham’s top scorer, despite their new manager mainly playing him as a substitute.
In January 2004 Defoe signed for Tottenham. He kept scoring at his new club and was chosen as Player of the Year by the Spurs fans. In January 2008 Defoe left Tottenham for Portsmouth, where he joined up again with manager Harry Redknapp. Because he was cup-tied with Spurs he was not allowed to play in Portsmouth successful FA Cup campaign. By leaving Spurs he also missed out on winning the League Cup with them. After Redknapp took over as Tottenham manager in the middle of the 2008-09 season, he went ahead and signed 5 players in the January transfer window. Three of them were ex Spurs-players returning; Pascal Chimbonda from Sunderland, Robbie Keane from Liverpool and Defoe back from Portsmouth. (The other two signings were Carlo Cudicini and Wilson Palacios.) The following season of 2009-10 was Spurs’ most successful in the league for years and they qualified for the UEFA Champions League. Defoe was Tottenham’s top scorer of the season. He scored a hat-trick in their 5-1 win away at Hull and he scored five goals in their 9-1 thrashing of Wigan at White Hart Lane. Redknapp stated that Defoe was the best finisher in England and should be a regular starter for his national team.
Defoe made his senior debut for England in March 2004. He was not picked for the 2006 FIFA World Cup but was in the 2010 squad going to South Africa. He scored in England’s 1-0 win against Slovenia in the group stages, which took them to the Round of 16. In the Euro 2012 qualifyer against Bulgaria on 3 September 2010 Defoe scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 win.
- 6 Comments »
- Posted in England, Tottenham Hotspur
April 24th, 2011 at 6:57 pm
Congrats on 100 goals for Spurs, Jermain! Another brilliant finish! Harry needs to keep starting Defoe and Pav, not only his darlings Crouch and VDV!!
May 2nd, 2011 at 10:34 am
Defoe hasn’t had his best season but he is still one of England’s best strikers! Spurs supporters should not forget that! He was in brilliant form before he got injured and I’m sure he’ll be good again next season.
June 19th, 2011 at 9:19 pm
I’m Jermain Defoe’s biggest fan!!!!! visit his webpage http://www.iamjermaindefoe.com
July 19th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
I’m hoping for Defoe to shine today and Spurs to do better in their second South African pre-season match! All the players looked rusty on Saturday, when they lost to Kaizer Chiefs. Orlando Pirates today.
March 6th, 2012 at 11:40 am
Oh why Spurs don’t play Defoe more? His talents and stats are fantastic!
April 22nd, 2012 at 4:11 am
Andy B Spurs copying Arsenal? That’s peeiclrss.Who followed whom to North London? Come on, if you wanna defend this ludicrous copying line. Riddle me that one.Secondly, it can strongly be argued that Arsenal are copying the Spurs tradition of beautiful football something Spurs pretty much trademarked in the 50s-60s, and have stuck with on and off ever since. Fact. Look it up if your Arsenal bias won’t accept this. What was it Arsenal used to be known as? Boring, Boring Arsenal ring any bells? Probably not if you’ve only been supporting them during the Wenger years, as your ill-informed comments seem to suggest. Finally, copying you on the stadium? ALL modern stadiums are bowl-shaped, if you’d care to remove your Arsenal-tinted spectacles for a few minutes while looking at them. This includes ones built long before the Emirates what gives you the impression your mob originated/somehow hold the copyright on bowl shaped stadiums? This is typical bitterness and jealousy from an Arsenal fan, throwing his toys out of the pram that we’ll shortly have a better stadium than them.In summary, thanks for giving me the biggest laugh of the day. Spurs copying Arsenal? Do me a favour.