Kevin Davies

Kevin Davies
Kevin Davies in the Bolton Wanderers jersey (2011)
Personnel
Surname	Kevin Cyril Davies
birthday	March 26, 1977
place of birth	Sheffield ,  England
size	183 cm
position	Storm
Juniors
Years	station
	Sheffield United
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1993-1997	Chesterfield FC	129 (22)
1997-1998	Southampton FC	25 0(9)
1998-1999	Blackburn Rovers	24 0(1)
1999-2003	Southampton FC	82 (10)
2003	→  Millwall FC  (loan)	9 0(3)
2003-2013	Bolton Wanderers	351 (73)
2013–	Preston North End	0 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1997-2000	England U-21	3 0(0)
2010	England	1 0(0)
1 Only league games are given. Status: end of season 2012/13

Kevin Cyril Davies (born March 26, 1977 in Sheffield ) is an English football player . The very powerful and body-hugging striker with a classic character has been under contract with Preston North End since summer 2013 . At the advanced age of 33 he made his debut for the English senior team in October 2010 , making him the oldest debutant of the “Three Lions” since 1950.

Athletic career

Chesterfield FC (1993–1997)

Davies played for Sheffield United while he was in school in his hometown, and although he had always been shown progress, those responsible in the youth department decided against further employment when he was 15 years old. With the lower-class Chesterfield FC , however, a new club was quickly found and only a few months later he made his league debut. At the age of 16 years and 176 days he was the second youngest league debutant of the "Spireites" and four days later by substitution the youngest player in the league cup . Shortly after his 17th birthday, Davies signed his first professional contract. Despite his inexperience, the style of play appeared extraordinarily mature in the first few seasons and in his powerful offensive runs he exuded a self-confidence that talent scouts from the Premier League quickly became aware of.

In the 1994/95 season, Chesterfield FC rose to the third-class Second Division with "top scorer" Davies . A stubborn pelvic inflammation caused several compulsory breaks in the 1995/96 season and everyday life in the league also proved difficult, as Chesterfield was one of the weaker teams overall and higher ambitions were unrealistic. The sad climax here was the 2-1 loss to Plymouth Argyle on February 22, 1997 , when he was one of five players who were sent off by red card. The highlights were to be found in the cup games. In 1997 Davies and his team surprisingly catapulted themselves into the FA Cup semi-finals. He attracted particular attention with his three goals for a 3-2 away win against his future employer Bolton Wanderers - the entry into the final then failed despite a 2-0 lead after 60 minutes against Middlesbrough FC , because "Boro" still equalized and held the upper hand in the replay with 3-0.

By the end of the 1996/97 season, Davies had scored 22 goals in 129 league games. The comparatively low goal rate was due to the fact that he was mostly in the outer positions in midfield and rarely near goal. Nevertheless, the general interest of higher-class clubs continued unabated. The beginning of the transfer request was made by Bristol City , which placed a bid of 700,000 pounds. Davies refused this immediately, especially since a 1 million offer from the first division club Southampton FC was rumored at the same time . When the club from the south coast had finally secured relegation, the clubs involved finally agreed in May 1997 on the transfer and a transfer fee of 750,000 pounds - when the contract expired at the end of 1996/97 Davies could have made a transfer free of charge.

Southampton FC, intermittently (1997-2003)

Southampton's then coach Graeme Souness awarded the newcomer early praise and certified him a great potential and talent, although he considered the training as not yet completed. Davies was quickly considered a "bargain" in the 1997/98 season and, in addition to his debut in the U-21 national team, he won the award for best Premier League player of the month in November 1997 - together with Andrew Cole from Manchester United . In 25 league appearances he scored nine goals and in the election for England's Footballer of the Year he finished second behind Michael Owen in the category of the best young professional .

Within a year, Kevin Davies' market value had increased tenfold, as reflected in his joining the Blackburn Rovers in June 1998 for £ 7.5 million and an alleged wage of £ 20,000 a week . The hopes for the next career step at the club, which had won the championship three years earlier, were not fulfilled. In a disappointing 1998/99 season, Davies only scored once and was not even in the starting lineup in half of his 24 appearances. Part of the reason for this setback was a serious throat infection that had to be treated as an inpatient and after which he did not find his way back to the original formation. When Blackburn then even relegated to the second division and the high player costs were disproportionate, the club negotiated a "return" with ex-club Southampton. As part of an exchange deal, Egil Østenstad moved from Southampton to Blackburn.

The positive continuation of his career in a well-known place turned out to be more difficult than expected. His form was changeable and at the same time he had to struggle with the frequent changes in the coaching position. In 82 league games he was in the starting line-up 59 times and ten goals meant that he was well below expectations. When he was loaned to the second division FC Millwall for two months in September 2002 , his first division career seemed to be drawing to a close. Virtually "out of nowhere", the free transfer Davies then received an offer from Bolton Wanderers in July 2003 , which shortly before had just secured the first division class.

Bolton Wanderers (since 2003)

In Bolton coach Sam Allardyce , Davies found a sponsor who immediately placed great trust in him. In each of the 38 Premier League games he was in the starting line-up and with ten competitive matches he regularly found the opposing body again in the 2003/04 season. This also included the connection goal for the 1: 2 final in the lost league cup final against FC Middlesbrough in Cardiff .

Under Allardyce, who is considered to be the "old school" coach, Davies - as later under Gary Megson and Owen Coyle - from then on developed his game as a strong center forward . As a side effect of this body-hugging style, he increasingly collected records for fouls and warnings. Between 2003 and 2008 he had committed the most fouls in three seasons and in the two remaining seasons he was “only” second in this statistic - at the same time he himself is regularly one of the most fouled players.

The steadily growing importance of the "Trotters" in the 2008/09 season was that he achieved the best yield to date and in January 2009 he took over the captain's armband from Kevin Nolan who had migrated to Newcastle United . With his attributes he was repeatedly a key player in the relegation battle in a club with a comparatively low budget. Also in the following season 2010/11 Davies succeeded with Bolton the ultimately safe relegation, although he came with seven goals again a modest goal rate compared to the other Premier League center forward.

English national team

Davies played three caps for the English U-21 team between 1997 and 2000 ; a planned participation in the tournament of Toulon in 1998 failed due to a knee injury.

For many years, the striker stayed away from international football before a possible eligibility to play for the Scottish senior team was determined at the end of the 2009/10 season , but was finally rejected by Davies himself. Instead, he unexpectedly got his chance in the English senior national team in autumn 2010 . As a substitute for Peter Crouch , he made his debut in the second half in the game against Montenegro on October 13, 2010 , making him the oldest debutant since Leslie Compton a good 60 years earlier at the age of 33 .

Web links

• Kevin Davies in the database of weltfussball.de
• Kevin Davies in the database of transfermarkt.de
• Kevin Davies in the soccerbase.com database
• Kevin Davies , international match statistics on englandfootballonline.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Striker Kevin Davies is ready for his England chance" (BBC Sport)
2. ↑ ^{a b} "Kevin Davies"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Chesterfield FC)  
3. ↑ "Bolton don't play proper football, says Van Persie" ( Memento of the original from January 14, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Evening Standard) 
4. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2009-10 . Mainstream Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84596-474-0 , pp. 108 .
5. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who 2010-11 . Mainstream Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84596-601-0 , pp. 108 .
6. ^ "Davies rejects Scotland offer" (The Bolton News)
7. ↑ "Euro 2012 qualifiers: England 0-0 Montenegro" (BBC Sport)