Marcus Bent

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Personal information
Marcus Bent

Full name	Marcus Nathan Bent
Date of birth	May 19, 1978 (1978-05-19) (age 30)
Place of birth	Hammersmith, London, England
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Wigan Athletic (on loan from Charlton Athletic)
Number	23
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1995–1998 1998–1999 1999 1999–2000 2000–2001 2001–2004 2003–2004 2004–2006 2006– 2007–	Brentford Crystal Palace Port Vale Sheffield United Blackburn Rovers Ipswich Town → Leicester City (loan) Everton Charlton Athletic → Wigan Athletic (loan)	67 0(7) 28 0(5) 23 0(1) 48 (20) 37 0(8) 61 (21) 33 0(9) 55 0(7) 46 0(4) 31 0(7)
National team²
	England U21	02 0(1)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:53, 12 May 2008 (UTC). ² National team caps and goals correct as of 15:15, 17 December 2007 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Marcus Nathan Bent (born May 19, 1978 in Hammersmith, London) is an English footballer who has played for several different professional sides during his career. He currently plays for Wigan Athletic on loan from Charlton Athletic, but has represented ten different clubs in a twelve year period.

1 Club career
2 Personal life
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Club career

He attended St Paul's College in Sunbury-on-Thames and graduated through the Brentford F.C. youth ranks, usually playing as a forward. He played his first senior game at Bury on August 17, 1996, and scored his first senior goal on 10 September the same year, helping Brentford achieve a 3-2 victory over Blackpool. He was almost ever-present in a successful season that saw Brentford reach the Football League Second Division play-offs in May 1997, only to be beaten by Crewe Alexandra.

In January 1998, he moved to Crystal Palace for £300,000. Almost exactly a year later, in 1999, he went on to become a Port Vale player for £375,000, but stayed only nine months before being released and joining Sheffield United. After 56 appearances for the Blades, he was sold for £2,050,000 to Blackburn Rovers in November 2000.^[1] A year later he was sold to Ipswich for £3 million.^[2]

Bent played a season for the Suffolk side, but did not establish himself and went on loan to Premiership side Leicester City for the 2003–04 season during which they were relegated to the Football League First Division. Before the start of the 2004–05 season, Bent transferred to Everton for a fee of £450,000.^[3] He became a regular starter at Everton in the lone centre forward role, and proved to be an exceptional asset to the club, and although he only managed seven goals, proved to be an excellent team player who proved key in securing draws at Southampton and at home to Aston Villa, as well as winning goals against and Manchester City.

In January 2006, it was announced that Bent had signed for Charlton Athletic in a deal worth £2.3 million,^[4] re-uniting him with his former teammates Hermann Hreiðarsson (from Ipswich and Palace) and namesake Darren Bent (from Ipswich). Everton manager David Moyes said "It represents a good profit for us for an average player". Bent had only cost the blues £450,000 from Ipswich Town. He scored on his debut as a substitute against league champions Chelsea in a 1-1 draw.

He had been stuck on 99 career goals since November 2006 until he netted in Charlton's first game of the 2007–08 season against Scunthorpe in August 2007. He joined Wigan on the August 31, 2007 on "deadline day" on a season long loan move.^[5]

Bent scored a hat-trick, his first in the Premier League, against Blackburn in a 5-3 win, on December 15, 2007.

Bent has been relegated with four different teams in his career (with Crystal Palace, Ipswich Town, Leicester City and Charlton Athletic).

Bent is the only player to have scored in the premiership for eight different clubs.

[edit] Personal life

Bent had been engaged to Kelly Clark, the mother of his two-year-old daughter, but after their relationship had broken down he met actress Gemma Atkinson at a party and a relationship blossomed. He later had a relationship with Danielle Lloyd which ended in June 2007.^[6] It has since been reported he has returned to Atkinson.

Bent is a semi-pro DJ and rapper going by the stage name 'MC Bender'. He was an honorary member of the former UK Garage outfit So Solid Crew, where he won widespread critical acclaim for his freestyle lyrics ("Jus coz me namez Bent don't make me a batty boy...")^{[citation needed]}