Jimmy Smith (English footballer)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the current English footballer. For the former Scottish footballer who played for Rangers, see Jimmy Smith (footballer born 1911). For the former Scottish footballer who played for Newcastle, see Jimmy Smith (footballer born 1947).

For other persons named Jimmy Smith, see Jimmy Smith (disambiguation).

Personal information
Jimmy Smith
Full name	James Dean Smith
Date of birth	January 7, 1987 (1987-01-07) (age 21)
Place of birth	Newham, England
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Chelsea
Number	46
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2003- 2006-2007 2007	Chelsea → Queens Park Rangers (loan) → Norwich City (loan)	01 (0) 29 (6) 09 (0)
National team
2002-2003 2003-2004 2005-2006	England U16 England U17 England U19	01 (0) 03 (1) 07 (2)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19:53, 1 January 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

James Dean "Jimmy" Smith (born 7 January 1987 in Newham, England) is a Chelsea professional footballer.

Jimmy has an ear defect on both ears which was caused by being slapped in the head too much as a child when he didnt score a goal for his primary school team.

Smith is an attacking-midfielder by trade and made his first appearance for the Chelsea first team in the last game of the 2005-06 Premiership season, coming on as a substitute for Ricardo Carvalho against Newcastle United.

He had been part of the Chelsea Academy for nearly three years when he was first called into the First Team, and José Mourinho has stated that he wishes for more young players to follow in Smith's footsteps and become part of the main squad. On September 27, 2006 Jimmy joined Queens Park Rangers F.C. on loan for an initial month.

In that month Smith impressed, scoring twice in his first two games including a goal on his home debut at Loftus Road in the 3-3 draw with Norwich City. He impressed the QPR management team enough that it was announced in October 2006 his loan spell would be extended for a further two months. Later on in the year, QPR announced they had extended the loan until the end of the season.

On 4 November 2006 Jimmy Smith scored two goals against Crystal Palace at Loftus Road to help QPR win 4-2, the first goal was particularly good, a volley after a good chest control on the edge of the area. He got the second with a neat header.

On 19 July 2007, he signed on loan for Championship side Norwich City, a deal that will run until the end of December.^[1] However, on 25 July 2007, Smith sustained a worrying calf injury in Norwich's pre-season friendly with FC Zwolle, which kept him out of action for almost three months.

Smith finally made his competitive debut for Norwich on 23 October 2007, as a substitute in a 2-1 defeat to Burnley at Turf Moor.

The final appearance of his loan spell with The Canaries came in their 1-1 home draw vs Wolverhampton Wanderers on December 29, 2007. Smith has largely disappointed in his loan spell, however, he has been played out of position on the right of a four man midfield for much of his time at the club. After the game with Wolves, Norwich manager Glenn Roeder confirmed he had been in talks with Chelsea sporting director Frank Arnesen and that his club hoped to extend Smith's time there until the end of the season. Norwich however failed to reach a deal for the extension of Smith's loan contract and so on the 4 January 2008, he returned to Chelsea,^[2] where he has since been a regular feature of the reserves team. He is likely to leave at the end of the season due to unsufficient first team action and his own lack of quality. A move back to the championship is his most likely destination.