Andrew Johnson (footballer, born 1981): Difference between revisions
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''There is also an [[Andy Johnson (Welsh footballer)|Andy Johnson]]; a [[Wales national football team|Welsh]] midfielder who plays for [[Leicester City F.C.|Leicester City]].'' |
: ''There is also an [[Andy Johnson (Welsh footballer)|Andy Johnson]]; a [[Wales national football team|Welsh]] midfielder who plays for [[Leicester City F.C.|Leicester City]].'' |
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'''Andrew Johnson''' (born [[February 10]] [[1981]] in [[Bedford]]) is an [[England|English]] [[football (soccer)|footballer]] who plays for [[Everton F.C.|Everton]] in the [[FA Premier League|Premiership]]. He is a right-footed [[striker]]. |
'''Andrew Johnson''' (born [[February 10]] [[1981]] in [[Bedford]]) is an [[England|English]] [[football (soccer)|footballer]] who plays for [[Everton F.C.|Everton]] in the [[FA Premier League|Premiership]]. He is a right-footed [[striker]]. |
Revision as of 22:52, 3 October 2006
File:Andyjon.jpg | |||
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Andrew Johnson | ||
Height | 5 ft 8 1/2 in / 1.74 m | ||
Position(s) | Striker | ||
Team information | |||
Current team | Everton | ||
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of September 06, 2006 |
- There is also an Andy Johnson; a Welsh midfielder who plays for Leicester City.
Andrew Johnson (born February 10 1981 in Bedford) is an English footballer who plays for Everton in the Premiership. He is a right-footed striker.
Johnson at Birmingham
Initially, Johnson's career was held back by the perception that he was too small to prosper as a top level striker. He began his footballing career at Birmingham City, where he suffered a set-back, missing a deciding penalty, in the 2001 Worthington Cup Final shootout defeat, to Liverpool.
After only a few noteworthy appearances, he was sold to Crystal Palace in 2002, following the Blues' promotion to the Premiership. Johnson was used as the makeweight in a transfer deal for Clinton Morrison, taking the value of £750,000 for the purposes of the transaction.
Johnson at Crystal Palace
Whilst his arrival was not greeted with any real excitement at Palace, the transfer turned out to be an excellent move for both Johnson and Palace. He soon made himself very popular with Palace fans with an hat-trick in the 5-0 drubbing of the Eagles' arch-rivals, Brighton & Hove Albion, on 26 October 2002, and then another, in the very next game, at Walsall.
However, manager Trevor Francis continued to play his preferred main strike partnership of Ade Akinbiyi and Dele Adebola, keeping both Johnson and Palace legend Dougie Freedman on the left-wing and bench, respectively. When Francis was dismissed, and with the Eagles mid-table, he was replaced by Steve Kember, who decided to partner Johnson and Freedman. The new strike partnership initially worked well, with Palace winning their first three games and topping the table. However, the good start to the season did not continue and, with Palace languishing in 20th place in November, Kember was sacked.
Under the aegis of new manager and coach Iain Dowie, Johnson's all-round game improved. Now partnering Neil Shipperley, Johnson ended the season as top scorer in the English First Division (now the Football League Championship) in the 2003-04 season with 32 goals. Palace reached the Playoffs and were promoted to the Premiership for 2004-05.
Despite Palace's relegation back to the Championship the following season, Johnson was the highest scoring English player with 21 goals. Although Johnson's detractors noted that 11 of these came from penalty kicks rather than open play (a record for the Premiership), he himself won 7 of the penalties. Regardless of the proportion of goals that were penalties, Johnson's tally was seen as an impressive achievement for a player in their first season of Premiership football.
In the summer of 2005, with Palace having been relegated, Johnson requested a transfer prompting much speculation as to which club he might move to. However, on August 2 2005, Johnson signed a five year contract with Palace for an improved wage (believed to be around £20,000 a week) and pledged to help them regain their place in the top flight. Chairman Simon Jordan blamed Johnson's agent Leon Angel for pressurising Johnson into handing in the transfer request.
Johnson was soon playing alongside Clinton Morrison, who had rejoined Palace from Birmingham for a fee of £2m (three years after Birmingham had bought him in a deal for £3.75m plus Johnson). Morrison was reported as saying that he had returned to Palace specifically to play alongside Johnson, much to the amusement of many Eagles fans, who saw the irony of the deal, Birmingham having effectively paid Crystal Palace £1.75m to take Andy Johnson. The two transfers took place between the Eagles and the former Palace manager Steve Bruce, who had been seen by fans as having betrayed the club by defecting to the Midlands side.
However, due to injury to Johnson, and Morrison's lack of form, the pairing was limited in the early part of the season. With a return to fitness and form, the two soon became Dowie's first choice pairing as the season progressed, with Dougie Freedman adding experience to the strike force.
Palace comfortably made it into a top-six position but failed to recover from a first round defeat at the hands of Watford, being beaten on aggregate in the semi-finals.
In 2005, Johnson was voted into Palace's Centenary XI, the only player at the club at the time to be selected, and, following the retirement of Nigel Martyn (a player who would have one of Johnson's future teammates), he is now the only member of the team still actively playing on a professional basis.
A New Challenge: Johnson at Everton
After Crystal Palace's failure to return to top-flight football, speculation about Johnson's future at the club began with a transfer to a Premiership club seeming highly likely. However, when an initial bid from Everton of £7.25 million was rejected, it looked more likely that the club would be able to keep Johnson for a further year after all. Nevertheless, the controversial departure of manager Iain Dowie only increased the likelihood of Johnson's departure, and, on 24 May 2006, Palace accepted an £8.5million bid from Wigan Athletic for Johnson. This bid was matched by fellow Lancashire club Bolton Wanderers, a day later, which was also accepted.
With Johnson having indicated a preference for a move to Merseyside, Everton, prompted by the two other bids, improved their offer to £8.6 million the following day. On 30 May, he passed his medical and completed the move to Goodison Park, signing a five-year contract. He is believed to be Everton's highest paid player on £40,000 per week, although some reports suggest he is in fact on equal pay with fellow striker James Beattie at around £30,000 a week. Johnson's move set new club transfer records, both as Everton's most expensive purchase and Palace's most expensive sale.
Johnson netted his first goal for Everton on his debut, August 19th 2006, in a 2-1 win over Watford, a goal which he celebrated in front of the Hornets fans. In his programme notes, he stated he had "unfinished business" with Watford, following their play-off defeat of Palace. He has continued a good start to his Everton career by scoring against Tottenham away to end a 21 year victory drought there and then scoring twice in the 3-0 derby victory against Liverpool, taking his tally to 4 goals in his first 4 competitive games. Johnson once again scored against Wigan the following week taking his Everton tally to 5 goals in 5 games.
Johnson's International Career
He was first capped for England at U-20 level, being selected in the team for the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship alongside Stuart Taylor, Ashley Cole, Peter Crouch and Matthew Etherington. The team finished bottom of their group, losing all three games without scoring.
In the 2004/2005 season, as the top English goalscorer in the Premiership, there were many calling for him to be selected for his nation. He got his first call-up against the Netherlands on February 9 2005, replacing Wayne Rooney in the 61st minute. Bizarrely, however, England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson elected to play Palace's lone striker out of position on the right wing (similar to Trevor Francis playing him on the left wing), where he gamely fought to impress, but was clearly out of position.
A second cap came when Johnson made his full debut for England, in a 2-1 friendly win over the United States, during the England team's tour there, in the summer of 2005. Johnson played well, without ever excelling.
On 9 May 2006, Johnson was put on stand-by by Sven-Göran Eriksson in his squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, in Germany. He was also an unused substitute in the England B game against Belarus and the first team's wins over Hungary (who included former Palace team-mates Gábor Király and Sándor Torghelle in their side) and Jamaica.
With Steve McClaren now installed as England coach, it is thought that Johnson may get more of a chance to play for his country. When McClaren named his squad for the EURO 2008 qualifiers against Andorra, at Old Trafford and away to Macedonia (which took place on the 2nd and 6th of September), Johnson received another call-up. However, it should be noted that his selection has been made after injuries to Michael Owen and Dean Ashton plus the suspension of Wayne Rooney after his red card in the 2006 FIFA World Cup defeat to Portugal.
Name
Johnson was often called 'Andy Johnson' by commentators, but 'Andrew Johnson', rumoured to be his preferred name, became common during the 2000s. Partly, this is to distinguish him from the Welsh player Andy Johnson, as both players sharing a name became particularly confusing during a match between Palace and West Bromwich Albion (the Welsh Andy Johnson's club at the time).