Darren Anderton

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Darren ANDERTON
Personal information
Full name	Darren Robert Anderton
Date of birth	3 March 1972
Place of birth	Southampton, England
Height	1.85m
Nickname	Sicknote, Shaggy, Dazza
Position	Right Midfield
Club information
Current club	Bournemouth
Number	25
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1990-1992 1992-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-	Portsmouth Tottenham Hotspur Birmingham City Wolverhampton Wanderers Bournemouth	62 (7) 305 (37) 20 (3) 24 (1) 8 (1)
National team
1994-2001	England	30 (7)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Darren Robert Anderton (born March 3, 1972 in Southampton) is an English football player currently playing on a pay-as-you-play basis for Bournemouth.

Renowned as a player of huge potential, Anderton's career has been constantly frustrated by injury earning him the nickname "Sicknote". He began his career at Portsmouth, earning praise for his performances for Jim Smith's attacking side of the early 90s. His performances soon drew the attention of bigger clubs and the winger joined Tottenham Hotspur for £1.75 million in 1992. After a slow start Anderton settled at Tottenham, forming part of an exciting attacking trio along with Teddy Sheringham and the young Nicky Barmby.

Two years later Terry Venables gave Anderton his England debut against Denmark in 1994. Anderton soon became a regular in the national side and turned down a move to Manchester United in the summer of 1995 following an exciting season spent playing with the likes of Jurgen Klinsmann at Tottenham. Despite missing most of the 1995/6 season through injury, Anderton played a huge part in the Euro 96 team that reached the semi-finals and included famous compatriots like Paul Gascoigne, Alan Shearer and Steve McManaman.

Injuries and the challenge of the emerging David Beckham then limited Anderton's international appearances considerably. He missed most of the 1997/8 season but was recalled for Glenn Hoddle's squad for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, starting above Beckham for the first 2 matches, and playing both his and Beckham's preferred right-midfield position with Beckham playing in the centre of midfield for the remaining matches. He scored against Colombia in that tournament, but again injuries meant he couldn't claim a regular place in the side.

After being sidelined during Euro 2000, an extended run of fitness saw Anderton vying for a permanent place in the national team again. He played in England's 1-1 draw away to France in September 2000 and also featured against Italy the following November.

One amazing statistic about Anderton's England career is that his last five caps were given to him by five different managers. These were: vs Czech Republic (18/11/98) by Glenn Hoddle, vs France (10/02/99) by Howard Wilkinson, vs France (02/09/00) by Kevin Keegan, vs Italy (15/11/00) by Peter Taylor and vs Sweden (10/11/01) by Sven-Göran Eriksson.

Anderton's form during the early part of the 2001/02 season earned his first call-up to Sven-Göran Eriksson's England squad for a friendly against Sweden in November. However, that game spelled the end of the player's international career, as Eriksson failed to select him again.

Meanwhile, Anderton continued to struggle badly with injuries, missing more games than he played for his club. That led to his release at the end of his contract in the summer of 2004. In all, he appeared in 364 games for Spurs, scoring 51 goals.

Birmingham City swooped to sign Anderton on a free transfer for the 2004/05 season. However, he failed to impress, and continued to struggle with injuries. He joined Wolves at the start of the 2005/06 season again for a free transfer. However, after just one season in which he played 20 times, Wolves released the 34 year old. On September 8, 2006 he joined Bournemouth on a pay-as-you-play basis, scoring a spectacular 40-yard freekick on his first team debut against Scunthorpe.

	England squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Seaman | 2 Campbell | 3 Le Saux | 4 Ince | 5 Adams | 6 Southgate | 7 Beckham | 8 Batty | 9 Shearer | 10 Sheringham | 11 McManaman | 12 Neville | 13 Martyn | 14 Anderton | 15 Merson | 16 Scholes | 17 Lee | 18 Keown | 19 L. Ferdinand | 20 Owen | 21 R. Ferdinand | 22 Flowers | Coach: Hoddle

A.F.C. Bournemouth - Current Squad
1 Moss | 2 Young | 3 Purches | 4 Browning | 5 Broadhurst | 6 Maher | 7 Cooke | 8 Cooper | 10 Fletcher | 11 Foley | 12 Hollands | 14 Hayter | 16 Gowling | 17 Platt | 18 Khalil | 20 Howe | 21 Hart | 22 Allen | 23 Ainsworth | 24 Stewart | 25 Anderton | 26 Pitman | 28 Cummings | 29 Bertrand | 30 Gillett | 31 Cork | 34 Connolly | Manager: Bond