Joey Beauchamp
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| Joey Beauchamp | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Joseph Daniel Beauchamp | |
| Date of birth | March 13, 1971 | |
| Place of birth | Oxford, England | |
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1989-1994 1991 1994 1994-1995 1995-2002 2004-2006 |
Oxford United → Swansea City (loan) West Ham United Swindon Town Oxford United Abingdon Town |
124 (20) 5 (2) 0 (0) 39 (3) 238 (43) ? (?) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Joseph "Joey" Beauchamp (born March 13, 1971 in Oxford) is an English football player who currently plays for Abingdon Town of the Hellenic League Premier Division.
Beauchamp plays primarily as a left-sided midfielder who played for most of his career at Oxford United but also had spells with West Ham United and Swindon Town as well as a short loan spell at Swansea City before moving into the lower leagues to play for Abingdon Town.
Beauchamp began his career with Oxford United as a youth team player, living with his mum on the New Marston estate on Headington Hill in Oxford, near the club's former home at the Manor Ground. His home was also less than half a mile from Oxford City FC's current Court Place Farm home.
Beauchamp would go on to make 124 appearances for the club in his first spell in the yellow shirt, during whch time he also made five appearances on loan at Swansea City. He was then sold to Premiership side West Ham United for a then club record (sales) fee of £1.2 million. However, Beauchamp didn't last long - having not played a single competitive game for the Hammers, Beauchamp decided he couldn't stand the traffic travelling from Oxford each day,[citation needed] and a mere 58 days later he was signed by Swindon for a club-record combined fee of £800,000, which included defender Adrian Whitbread going in the opposite direction.
Beauchamp made his debut for Town in the second league match of the season, coming on as a substitute in a 3-2 defeat at Tranmere on 20 August. He made more than fifty appearances in his first season. For his first goal, he scored the winner against Wolves in October, and ran fifty yards to jump into the arms of John Gorman. At the end of the year, Swindon were relegated for the second successive season.
By now, Steve McMahon had taken over as Town boss, and McMahon's and Beauchamp's footballing philosophies were apparently very different. As a result, Beauchamp hardly played the following season - making just one more start and three substitute appearances - one of which came against his former club, Oxford. Before the end of the season, he was back in a yellow shirt for the return game - with McMahon deciding to sell him back to Oxford in November 1995, in a deal described as being "worth £300,000"[citation needed] to the club - though the Town only received £75,000 (the rest was the saving of his wages for the remainder of his contract). Beauchamp scored against Swindon in Oxford's 3-0 victory the following March.
He would make a further 238 appearances in the yellow and blue, making him one of the club's longest-serving players. Three years after leaving the County Ground, an upturn in form saw a number of clubs again interested in Beauchamp's services, and Oxford agreed £800,000 deals with both Nottingham Forest and Southampton in November 1998. Unfortunately for Swindon, who had a 20% sell-on clause in the terms of his sale, Beauchamp failed to agree personal terms and remained at the Manor Ground, with Swindon missing out on a £145,000 bonus.
His professional career came to an end when he sustained several recurring injuries in 2002 that forced him to retire. He then joined local part-timers Abingdon Town, where he still plays today alongside his brother, Luke.
