| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | David Anthony Johnson | ||
| Date of birth | 15 August 1976 | ||
| Place of birth | Kingston, Jamaica | ||
| Height | 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1992–1994 | Manchester United | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1994–1995 | Manchester United | 0 | (0) |
| 1995–1997 | Bury | 97 | (18) |
| 1997–2001 | Ipswich Town | 131 | (55) |
| 2001–2006 | Nottingham Forest | 148 | (46) |
| 2002 | → Sheffield Wednesday (loan) | 7 | (2) |
| 2002 | → Burnley (loan) | 8 | (5) |
| 2005 | → Sheffield United (loan) | 4 | (0) |
| 2007 | Hucknall Town | 8 | (4) |
| Total | 403 | (130) | |
| National team | |||
| 1998 | England B | 1 | (0) |
| 2003–2005 | Jamaica | 5 | (1) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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David Anthony Johnson (born 15 August 1976 in Kingston, Jamaica) is a retired footballer.
He is now working behind the scenes at Nottingham Forest. In March 2007 he signed for Conference North side Hucknall Town.[1] In the summer of 2007 he was forced to quit all football due to injury.[2]
Johnson started his career off with Manchester United as a trainee, but was released in 1995 after helping them win the FA Youth Cup. With United did not make a first team appearance, but did feature as an unused substitute in the Champions League against Galatasaray.
He then moved to Bury, where he began his professional career. He scored 25 goals in just over 80 appearances before being bought by Ipswich Town for £1 million. During his time at Gigg Lane, he helped Bury win two successive promotions which took them from Division Three to Division One.
He scored 24 goals in his first season with the club. He continued to score on a regular basis for them until David Platt then purchased him for Nottingham Forest in 2001 for £3.5 million[3].
Johnson only managed three goals in his first 19 appearances for the Reds, but in his second season (2002–03) with the club, he scored 29 goals in 46 games. This goalscoring feat helped propel Forest into the play-offs (where they eventually lost out to Sheffield United).
He went on to score another eight goals in 17 appearances before he suffered a career threatening injury when he broke his leg in two places. It kept him out of action for almost a year.
When he returned to action, he only managed six goals over 30 appearances which saw him drop down the pecking order. Gary Megson put him on the transfer list when Forest where relegated to League One. Unlike the other four who were put on the list with him, Johnson managed to return to the first team and scored three goals in 12 starts. Then, just after he scored his 50th goal in a Forest shirt, he sustained another career threatening injury.
This time it was for a back problem in which he had to have two operations. It was a dislodged spinal disk in his back that had also trapped a nerve and it kept him out of action since early December and did not play for the rest of the season. He scored 50 goals in just under 120 appearances for Forest. He has had a variety of different hair styles during his time at Forest, including short hair, dreadlocks, afro, shaven and even bleach blonde but his most recent is the dreadlocks tied back in a pony tail.
Despite there being doubts over his Forest career, he was on the road to recovery and was reassured by the club that he will see out the rest of his contract. He was forced to retire, due to the advice of the doctors, after the back problem continued.
Johnson later played for and coached East Midlands Counties League club, Dunkirk.
His international career has been notable by the fact that he played for Jamaica against United States, before being invited to join the Welsh squad. Injury prevented him from playing, and in the meantime he pledged his future to Scotland before it was confirmed he was ineligible to play for them. He was also considered to play for England during his Ipswich days, making one appearance for the England B team.
Johnson, along with former Nottingham Forest player James Beaumont now works for Umbro in sports sponsorship helping pro footballers tie up sponsorship deals with them.
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