John Hartson

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John HARTSON
Personal information
Full name	John Hartson
Date of birth	5 April 1975
Place of birth	Swansea, Wales
Height	6'1 (185cm)
Nickname	Big John
Position	Forward
Club information
Current club	West Bromwich Albion
Number	10
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1992-1995 1995-1997 1997-1999 1999-2001 2001 2001-2006 2006-	Luton Town Arsenal West Ham United Wimbledon Coventry City Celtic West Bromwich Albion	54 (11) 53 (14) 60 (24) 49 (19) 12 (6) 146 (88) 13 (4)
National team**
1995-	Wales	50 (14)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19:49, 6 December 2006 (UTC). ** National team caps and goals correct as of August 9, 2006.

John Hartson (born 5 April 1975, in Swansea, Wales) is a professional footballer, currently playing for West Bromwich Albion. As of 2005, he had made 50 appearances for Wales in international football. On 6 February 2006 Hartson decided to retire from international football, only to take himself out of retirement in August 2006, if needed by Wales boss John Toshack. He is in the mould of a traditional Welsh centre forward. He is an excellent target player. Due to his size, he can effectively hold up opposition defenders, often with his back towards them, and creating chances for his teammates. However, he has pretty exceptional agility and amazing balance on the ball for someone of his bulk. Headers are one of his strengths.

He was raised in Trallwn, near the Llansamlet area of Swansea, son of Cyril Hartson, who played for Llanelli F.C. during the 1970s. He is bilingual, a speaker of the Welsh language, having attended Ysgol Gyfun Gwyr.

His career began in 1992 as a trainee at Luton Town F.C., and he has since played for Arsenal F.C., West Ham United F.C., Wimbledon F.C. and Coventry City F.C. before a £6,000,000 transfer to Celtic allowed him to thrive in the Scottish Premier League, he became one of the most feared strikers in Scottish football. There was a training ground incident when Hartson was playing for West Ham in 1998, where he kicked Eyal Berkovic in the head while in front of television cameras. No charges were brought forward, and Hartson has admitted in his biography that this was an error of judgement.

In March, 2004, he dropped out for the remainder of the football season for surgery to his back; however, he recovered in time for Wales' unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the 2006 World Cup.

In April 2005 he shared the Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year award with Fernando Ricksen and a short time later in May he was voted the Scottish Football Writers' Association player of the year.

On 5 April 2006, Hartson scored the winning goal against Hearts on his 31st birthday to clinch the title for Celtic. On 26th June 2006, Hartson signed a two-year contract with English Championship side West Bromwich Albion F.C. hitting a double on his league debut, following a £500,000 move. [1].

[edit] External links

• John Hartson career stats at Soccerbase

Preceded by Chris Sutton	Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year 2005	Succeeded by Shaun Maloney
Preceded by Jackie McNamara	Scottish Football Writers' Association Player of the Year 2005	Succeeded by Craig Gordon

West Bromwich Albion F.C. - Current Squad
1 Zuberbühler | 2 Watson | 3 Robinson | 4 Perry | 5 Clement | 6 Davies | 7 Quashie | 8 Greening | 9 Ellington | 10 Hartson | 11 Gera | 12 Chaplow | 13 Steele | 14 Albrechtsen | 15 Kamara | 17 Carter | 18 Gaardsøe | 19 Koumas | 20 McShane | 21 Phillips | 23 Forsyth | 25 Hoult | 27 Elvins | 28 Hodgkiss | 30 Daniels | 33 Nardiello | Manager: Mowbray