Andrew Johnson (footballer, born 1981)
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Andrew Johnson | ||
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) | ||
| Position(s) | Striker | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Everton | ||
| Number | 8 | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 23:47, 8 September 2007 (UTC) | |||
Andrew "Andy" Johnson (born 10 February 1981 in Bedford) is a professional English footballer who plays for Everton F.C. in the Premiership as a striker. His previous clubs are Birmingham City and Crystal Palace. He has won several full caps for England.
Club career
Birmingham City
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 Premier League. 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.
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 a hat-trick in the 5-0 demolition of deadly 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 Freedman with Neil Shipperley, while Johnson was left to play the role of support striker. 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 dropped.
Under the aegis of new manager and coach Iain Dowie, Johnson's all-round game improved. Now partnering Shipperley, Johnson ended the season as top scorer in the 2003-04 Football League First Division season with 32 goals. Palace reached the playoffs and were promoted to the Premier League for 2004-05 after beating West Ham United 1-0 in the final - five months after they had occupied 19th place in the league.
Despite Palace's relegation back to the Championship the following season, Johnson was the highest scoring English player with 21 goals and the second highest overall in the Premiership. Although Johnson's detractors noted that eight of these came from penalties rather than open play (a record for the Premier League), he himself won seven of the penalties.
Palace were relegated at the end of 2004-05 and Johnson requested a transfer prompting much speculation as to which club he might move to. However, on 2 August 2005, Johnson signed a five year contract with Palace for an improved wage (believed to be around £24,000 a week, making him one of the highest-paid players ever to play outside the English top flight) and pledged to help them regain their place in the top flight. Palace 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 £4.25m 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 £2.25m 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 in the playoffs failed to recover from a first leg defeat at the hands of Watford, being beaten on aggregate in the semi-finals. Johnson scored 15 goals in the Championship that season.
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, he is now the only member of the team still actively playing on a professional basis.
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 Premier League 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 suggested he was in fact on equal pay with former Everton 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. He stated that his reason for moving to Everton was the size and stature of the club and the size of the club's fanbase.
Johnson netted his first goal for Everton in his debut on 19 August 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 playoff defeat of Palace. He has continued a good start to his Everton career by scoring against Tottenham Hotspur away to end a 21-year victory drought there and then scoring twice in the 3-0 derby victory against Liverpool. His hand gesture indicating 3-0 is seen by Evertonians as a Iconic memory and every season ticket holder for the 2007-08 season received a free poster of this gesture. Johnson was Everton's top scorer in the 2006-07 Premier League campaign with 11 goals to his name (and one in the FA Cup). However, Johnson was allegedly affected by allegations of simulation,[citation needed] going 13 games without scoring a goal at one stage.
After a league match with Chelsea on 17 December 2006, then Chelsea boss José Mourinho branded Johnson "untrustworthy" following a challenge with Chelsea goalkeeper Hilário. Everton issued a statement threatening legal action and calling on Mourinho to apologise,[1] which he has since done.[2] Mourinho is not the first to air such sentiments about Johnson; former Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock also having accused Johnson of resorting to "gamesmanship" to win a penalty in a Premier League match between the two clubs.[3]
Everton manager David Moyes took the unusual step of contacting the Professional Game Match Officials Board in order to counter these accusations. The board's general manager Keith Hackett agreed that Johnson was being treated harshly and had been denied several clear penalties. On 20 September 2007, Johnson missed two penalties in a 1-1 draw against Metalist Kharkiv.
On 6 November, 2007, Johnson signed a new five-year contract with Everton.[4]
In December 2007, Johnson, along with a host of other players, including Marcus Bent, Gabriel Agbonlahor & Titus Bramble, started celebrting goals by making an 'A' with his hands. It was later revealed that this was in fact the players' way of signalling the start of a new football-based community project scheme - The A-Stars! With its motto being "if you dream it, you can achieve it", the idea is to enable young people to use the talents they have for good, in sporting work places. The Co-founder of the Charity is Queens Park Rangers defender Fitz Hall, who played with Johnson at Palace.[citation needed]
During the new season, Johnson has scored some vital goals for Everton, including a Premier League winner away at West Ham. He scored Everton's first goal in the 2-1 away victory against Wigan Athletic, and was bizzarely denied a the winning goal at Blackburn Rovers, incorrectly adjudged to have been offside.
Johnson scored in Everton's 6-1 thrashing over SK Brann in the UEFA Cup. He scored Everton's second and sixth goal and the last goal was a driven shot from outside the box. Some have said it is the best goal he has scored for the Merseyside club. Johnson also scored in Everton's Round of 16 tie against Fiorentina. Johnson picked up a groin injury in Everton's match at the Craven Cottage against Fulham.
After a mixed season, he is seen with mixed views, to many he is still a cult figure after the 3-0 merseyside derby win in 2006. His undoubted hard-work and pressure football often spearheads many Everton victories by setting the agenda in big matches.
In July 2008, Everton accepted an offer of "an eight figure sum" from Fulham for Johnson.[5]
International career
Johnson was first capped for England at U20 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 2004-05 season, as the top English goalscorer in the Premier League, there were many calling for him to be selected for the full England squad. Midway through the season, Johnson revealed that he would accept a call-up to the Poland squad, which hurried England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson into giving Johnson his first call-up, to face the Netherlands on 9 February 2005, and he made his first appearance in that game, replacing Wayne Rooney in the 61st minute.
A second cap came when Johnson made his full debut for England, in a 2-1 friendly win over the United States, during England's tour of America in the summer of 2005.
On 9 May 2006, Johnson was put on standby by 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.
When Steve McClaren was installed as England coach, Johnson got further opportunites to play for his country in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Johnson made substitute appearances against Andorra (at Old Trafford on 2 September 2006) and away to Macedonia (on 6 September 2006). Johnson then made his first competitive start for England in the Euro 2008 qualifier with Israel.
References
- ^ "Everton want Mourinho retraction". BBC Sport. 2006-12-18. Retrieved 2006-12-18.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Mourinho makes apology to Johnson". BBC Sport. 2006-12-20. Retrieved 2006-12-20.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Warnock wages war on ref and AJ". Yahoo. 2006-10-22. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Premier League - Johnson pens new deal - Yahoo! Eurosport UK
- ^ Scott McLeod (2008-07-28). "Blues accept AJ offer". Everton F.C. Retrieved 2008-07-29.
External links
- Andrew Johnson at Soccerbase
- Andrew Johnson profile at Everton F.C.'s web site
- Andrew Johnson statistics, honours, timeline at footballdatabase.com
- Andrew Johnson official website at Icons.com