Steven Fletcher (footballer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Steven Fletcher (born March 26, 1987, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire) is a Scottish professional footballer who currently plays for Hibernian in the Scottish Premier League.

Fletcher was born into an army background and spent much of his early years living on military bases in England and Germany where his Liverpudlian soldier father was based. His father died from cancer when Fletcher was aged only 10, prompting his mother to relocate to Hamilton, Scotland to be closer to her family. When she failed to settle and returned south, Fletcher decided to stay on in Scotland with his uncle. Hibs youth coach Donald Park, also from Hamilton, spotted his footballing talent and the young Anglo-Scot joined the Leith side's youth network aged 13. ^[1]

Fletcher made his debut for Hibs towards the end of the 2003-04 season in a 3-0 win over Kilmarnock. However his big breakthrough came in the 2004-05 season when he became a regular, playing 26 times and scoring 5 goals. He made his debut for Scotland under-21s in the same season. In the 2005-06 season, Fletcher scored 10 goals in just 1,966 minutes on the pitch, which approximates to a goal every other game.

Fletcher was the top scorer in the Scotland U-19 side which reached the final of the 2006 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship, losing to Spain in the final. Following the well acknowledged achievements of the U-19 side, Fletcher is seen as a hot prospect for the future. He was named by The Scotsman as one of the "ten to watch" in 2007.^[2]

He is no relation to Manchester United and Scotland star Darren Fletcher.

[edit] References

^ Easter Road call-up spared Fletcher a soldier's life, Jonathan Coates, The Scotsman, 25 November 2006.
^ Young, gifted and Scots: ten to watch in 2007, Jonathan Coates, The Scotsman, 1 January 2007.

[edit] External link

Steven Fletcher career stats at Soccerbase

Hibernian F.C. - Current Squad
1 Simon Brown \| 2 Whittaker \| 3 Murphy \| 4 Zemmama \| 5 Jones \| 6 Stewart \| 7 Scott Brown \| 9 Killen \| 10 Benjelloun \| 12 Martis \| 14 Beuzelin \| 15 Hogg \| 17 Sproule \| 18 McCluskey \| 19 Sowunmi \| 20 Fletcher \| 21 Baillie \| 22 Shiels \| 25 McCann \| 26 Stevenson \| 27 Lynch \| 28 Campbell \| 32 Ayre \| 33 Chisholm \| 41 McNeil \| 42 Grof \| -- Haji \| Manager: Collins