09. Darren Bent
Position: Striker Date of Birth: 6th February 1984 Place of Birth: London, England Caps: 10* Height: 180cm
Darren Bent joined Ipswich Town at the age of 14 in 1998 and progressed through their youth set-up. Despite considering a career in Athletics, Darren signed his first professional deal three years later and went on to make his first team debut in the Uefa Cup in a 3-1 victory over Helsingborgs IF. He scored his first professional goal against Newcastle United on 27th November 2001 in a 4-1 league cup defeat.
Bent’s first season in professional football saw him play 7 games, scoring 2 goals. However, it wasn’t the ideal season for him to break into the first team as Ipswich were relegated that season. He went on to score 56 goals in 141 games for the Tractor Boys before moving to London in the 2005 summer.
Charlton Athletic announced the signing of Darren Bent on 1st June 2005, for a fee of £2,500,000 which could rise to £3,000,000 based on add-ons and the two years he spent at the Valley was where the striker really started to make a name for himself.
Bent scored 2 goals on his debut against Sunderland and went on to be named player of the month for August. Darren finished the season as the highest scoring Englishman in the Premier League with 18 league goals (22 overall). As you would expect he was also named player of the season that year for the Addicks. At the end of the 2006-07 season Bent was to be relegated for the second time in his career despite scoring 13 league goals that year.
Despite many call ups for the national side, Bent eventually made his International debut on 1st March 2006 when he started against Uruguay in a friendly at Anfield.
29th June 2007, Tottenham completed the signing of the striker for £16,500,000 with add-ons. He went on to score his first goal for Spurs in a 4-0 win over Derby County in August of that year. Bent didn’t have the best of times at Tottenham despite scoring 25 goals in 79 appearances. While at the club then manager Harry Redknapp slated Bent for a miss in front of goal claiming that his wife would of scored the chance.
Sunderland opened negotiations for the player in July 2009 and with the deal taking a long time to go through, Darren used the power of Twitter when he blamed Spurs chairman Daniel Levy of disrupting the move. Bent did apologise and soon signed for the Mackams for a fee of £10,000,000.
He continued his fantastic record of scoring on his debut when he scored the winner in a 1-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers. He finished the 2007-08 season with 25 goals in 40 games.
After scoring 11 goals in 23 games in the first half of the 2008-09 season amid reports of interest from Aston Villa, Bent handed in a transfer request and soon signed a four year deal after Villa splashed out £18,000,000 rising to £24,000,000 with add-ons.
Darren Bent became an instant hero at Villa Park helping them to rescue what could only be described as a very poor season and his 9 goals in 16 games helped Villa to finish 9th, inluding another debut goal in 1-0 victory against Manchester City at Villa Park.
Honours:
League Cup Winner 07-08 (Tottenham Hotspur)
(*-as of 1st May 2011)
