Chris Sutton

This article describes the footballer Christopher Roy Sutton ; for the cyclist of similar name, see Christopher Sutton .

Chris Sutton
Personnel
Surname	Christopher Roy Sutton
birthday	March 10, 1973
place of birth	Nottingham ,  England
position	Striker , central defender
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1991-1994	Norwich City	103 (35)
1994-1999	Blackburn Rovers	131 (50)
1999-2000	Chelsea FC	28 0(1)
2000-2006	Celtic Glasgow	130 (63)
2006	Birmingham City	10 0(1)
2006-2007	Aston Villa	8 0(1)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1997	England	1 0(0)
1 Only league games are given.

Christopher "Chris" Roy Sutton (born March 10, 1973 in Nottingham ) is a former English football player . During his career he played for Norwich City , Blackburn Rovers , Chelsea FC , Celtic Glasgow , Birmingham City and Aston Villa . In the 16-year career he scored more than 150 goals in over 400 championship games, won the English Premier League championship and was three-time champion in the Scottish Premier League . For the English national team , however, he only came to a single international match.

Sutton acted both as a defender, in midfield and on the offensive, but was mostly known for his achievements as a striker . The primarily physically strong scorer was in the 1997/98 season together with Dion Dublin and Michael Owen top scorer in the English Premier League.

Athletic career

Norwich City (1991-1994)

A good two years after he played for the first time in the youth of Norwich City against Millwall in April 1989 , he started his professional career at the age of 18 in May 1991 - in the final phase of the 1990/91 season - against the Queens Park Rangers the club for which his father Mike Sutton had already played 54 games between 1963 and 1966. He was initially used in central defensive positions, but later the coach Dave Stringer, who was responsible for the "Canaries" at the time, turned him into a striker. In the 1992/93 season he was one of the top performers in the team that led the Premier League for a long time and ended up in third place.

He celebrated his final breakthrough on the English and international stage in the 1993/94 season . In 41 championship games he scored 25 goals, although he should not surpass this season performance in the further course of his further career. Sutton's total of 28 goals in this first division season - based on all competitive games - had also not been scored by any other player for Norwich City before. He made a name for himself across Europe when he and his team defeated FC Bayern in Munich and only failed in the round of 16 after two 0-1 defeats at eventual winners Inter Milan .

In July 1994, Sutton, famous for his headball strength, moved to the Blackburn Rovers for five million pounds as the most expensive football player in English football up to that point . The day before he signed his contract in Blackburn, he made headlines by spending the night in a prison cell after a violent argument in Norwich - his temperament, which was often difficult to control, was to get in his way even more often in the later years of his career.

Blackburn Rovers (1994-1999)

In his first season at Ewood Park he immediately formed an extremely successful storm partnership with Alan Shearer , which from then on was to celebrate great fame in the local media as "SAS" ("Sutton and Shearer"), the term SAS being an abbreviation for Special Air Service refers to a special unit of the British Army . Sutton contributed 15 goals to Shearer's 34 goals and was able to win the championship - the Rovers' first since 1914 - with his new club - due to a draw by direct rivals Liverpool FC - despite a defeat on the last day of the game.

Injury problems in the 1995/96 season finally ensured that Sutton only made 13 league games in which he also did not score a single goal. During the two years that followed, he continued to perform well, although from 1996 he had to do without the Shearer who had migrated to Newcastle United . At the beginning of the 1997/98 season he scored three goals at Villa Park to beat Aston Villa 4-0 and after further good performances - including a 7-2 win over Sheffield Wednesday - speculation about an imminent transfer to FC increased Arsenal , where he would replace the aging Ian Wright . He also came on November 15, 1997 against Cameroon for his first international match for the selection of England . He finished the 1997/98 season after 18 goals - together with Dion Dublin from Coventry City and Michael Owen from Liverpool FC - as top scorer.

At the beginning of 1998, a nomination of the versatile Chris Sutton for the upcoming World Cup in France seemed only a formality before coach Glenn Hoddle surprisingly ignored him in February for the friendly against Chile and instead "demoted" to the B-Elf - instead of Sutton, Dion Dublin and Michael Owen from Liverpool FC found their way into the English national team for the first time. Since Sutton refused to run for the B-team, Hoddle refrained from further nominations in the future. When the Rovers left the Premier League in the direction of second division after the end of the 1998/99 season - just four years after the league title - the club management sold Sutton to Chelsea for £ 10 million - of which £ 500,000 to the predecessor club Norwich City went.

Chelsea FC (1999-2000)

His only one season with Chelsea was not a good star. Already in the pre-season he looked like a foreign body in the team. Sutton could not withstand the high expectations due to the high transfer fee and only scored one goal in 28 championship games throughout the season. Above all, George Weah's loan from AC Milan in January 2000 increasingly worsened Sutton's prospects at the club, and he was not taken into account in the FA Cup final, which Chelsea won against Aston Villa.

After Martin O'Neill of Celtic Glasgow had already expressed interest in signing Sutton in February 2000, Sutton finally moved to the Scottish Premier League for six million pounds in the summer , making it the most expensive player purchase by a Scottish football club to date.

Celtic Glasgow (2000-2006)

On his debut on July 30, 2000, Sutton scored the winning goal to make it 2-1 against Dundee United and in his first "Old Firm" game against Rangers he scored the first and last goal in a 6-2 win - the highest Celtic league victory since 1938 went down in Scottish football history as the "Demolition Derby" and was also spectacular because the Rangers, trained by Dick Advocaat , had won the championship the previous year by 21 points.

With the help of Sutton's goals, Celtic won three championships, two FA Cup editions and a league cup trophy in Scotland - he also reached the UEFA Cup final in the 2002/03 season . As in Blackburn, he was part of a very productive storm partnership in Glasgow - now with the Swede Henrik Larsson . After completing the 2003/04 season, his fellow Scottish players voted him Footballer of the Year . Sutton made negative headlines at the end of the 2002/03 season when he accused the club Dunfermline Athletic of having "rested" on the final day of the game against the Rangers (1: 6) in order to prevent another championship title from Celtic - the Rangers won the championship against Celtic only because of the one goal better goal difference. For his statement, Sutton received a ban for a competitive game.

Birmingham City (2006)

Sutton moved to Birmingham City free of charge in January 2006 , where he only made eleven missions due to an injury - he only scored one goal. After the descent of the "Blues" he was given permission to move again, as they did not want to continue paying him the comparatively high salary in the second division.

Aston Villa (2006-2007)

On October 3, 2006, Sutton signed a contract with Aston Villa until the end of the 2006/07 season , which was now looked after by his former Celtic trainer Martin O'Neill. He scored on his debut on November 11, 2006 against Everton , but that goal would be the last of his professional career. In December he complained of "blurred vision" during a game against Manchester United and subsequently consulted several specialists. Since the consequences of continuing his career remained unmanageable, Sutton resigned on July 5, 2007 as a football player.

family

Chris Sutton is the son of former soccer player Mike Sutton , and brother of the still active John Sutton .

successes

• English champion : 1995
• FA Cup winner: 2000
• Scottish Champion : 2001 , 2002 , 2004
• Scottish Cup Winner : 2001 , 2004
• Scottish League Cup Winner : 2001
• Top scorer in the Premier League : 1998
• Scotland's Footballer of the Year : 2004

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Sutton gets further ban" (BBC Sport)
2. ^ "Eye injury forces Sutton to quit" (BBC Sport)

Web links

• Chris Sutton in the soccerbase.com database
• Sutton's career in pictures (BBC Sport)
• Chris Sutton (Flown from the nest) biography

predecessor	Office	successor
Barry Ferguson	Scotland's Footballer of the Year Player's Choice 2004	John Hartson , Fernando Ricksen