| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Lee Michael John Camp | ||
| Date of birth | 22 August 1984 | ||
| Place of birth | Derby, England | ||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||
| Playing position | Goalkeeper | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Nottingham Forest | ||
| Number | 1 | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2002–2007 | Derby County | 91 | (0) |
| 2003 | → Burton Albion (loan) | 5 | (0) |
| 2004 | → Queens Park Rangers (loan) | 12 | (0) |
| 2006 | → Norwich City (loan) | 3 | (0) |
| 2007 | → Queens Park Rangers (loan) | 8 | (0) |
| 2007–2009 | Queens Park Rangers | 50 | (0) |
| 2008–2009 | → Nottingham Forest (loan) | 15 | (0) |
| 2009– | Nottingham Forest | 116 | (0) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2004–2007 | England U21 | 5 | (0) |
| 2011– | Northern Ireland | 6 | (0) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:45, 7 November 2011 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). |
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Lee Michael John Camp (born 22 August 1984) is an English-born Northern Irish footballer who plays for Nottingham Forest and internationally for Northern Ireland as a goalkeeper. He has also played for the England under-21's.
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He made his first appearance with Derby County during the 2002–03 season, and joined Burton Albion on loan in January 2003. At the end of the same season, he went to Queens Park Rangers for the last few games also on loan, where he helped the club reach promotion to the old Division One. In Derby's end-of-season awards he came close to winning Player Of The Season but went home with the Sammy Crooks Young Player of the Year award. He also won the Brian Clough Player Of The Year. Camp enjoyed many successes not only in the football world; he appeared on many radio shows and also participated in Goalkeeping Essentials by former Derby County coach Alex Penny.
Camp joined Norwich City on 7 September 2006, on a three-month loan with effect from 8 September, covering an injury to Joe Lewis.[1] Camp made his first Norwich City full début on the 28 November 2006 against Leicester City. He kept his place for the following match against Sheffield Wednesday where he was unfortunate to score an own goal in a 2–1 defeat.
Camp joined Queens Park Rangers ("QPR") on a three-month loan deal on 12 February 2007, having helped the club achieve promotion in 2004 in a similar loan deal. He returned to Derby early, on 25 April 2007, after a suspension to Stephen Bywater left the Rams short of goalkeepers.
Camp was transferred to QPR on 27 July 2007, after long negotiations, for a fee of £300,000. He agreed a three-year deal with the club.[2] Camp was the only QPR player to start in every league fixture of the 2007–08 campaign.
On 20 October 2008 Camp joined Nottingham Forest on a three-month loan. He played a pivotal role in helping the club climb out of the bottom three and also saved two penalties; one against Derby, his former club, and one against Bristol City. Both were in the final minutes of the games. He was allowed to go back to QPR when Colin Calderwood was sacked and replaced by Billy Davies, his former manager at Derby County.
On 2 July 2009 it was announced on Forest's official website that a transfer had been agreed and, subject to a medical examination, Camp was to complete his signing by 4 July 2009. The fee was reported to be around £100,000 but with additional payments.[3]
He made his first start as a permanent Forest player on 10 August 2009 in their league opener against Reading where they were unlucky to come away with only a 0–0 draw.[4] Camp made an excellent start as first choice Forest goalkeeper, conceding only one goal in six games and keeping a clean sheet for over 10.5 hours of football. He won the December Championship Player of the Month Award,[5] as well as helping the side up to the heights of second in the Championship by 17 January 2010.
After making such an impressive start for Nottingham Forest, Lee Camp continued to produce fine performances at the start of the 2010–11 season for Forest and was an ever-present in the Forest goal, featuring in every match of the 2010–11 season. Camp kept a total of 12 clean sheets and produced a number of fine performances that earned Forest valuable points. When Club Captain Paul McKenna was injured, Camp stepped in as the Nottingham Forest Captain. Nottingham Forest manager Billy Davies spoke of his delight at having a goalkeeper with the class of Lee Camp saying, "You talk about positives and negatives in players, but his performances have been first-class – simply outstanding." Camp kept a clean sheet in the first leg of the 2010–11 Football League Championship playoff semi final against Swansea City where he was forced to make numerous fine saves. Camp finished second in the club's player of the season award to Luke Chambers.
In the summer 2011 transfer window, Forest rejected three bids from Swansea City - the highest of which was a £1.8m bid - for the services of Camp.[6]
Camp started the first game of season against Barnsley at the City Ground and kept his first clean sheet of the 2011–12 Championship season. Camp was able to keep his second clean sheet in the Reds' first league win of the season, against Doncaster Rovers. Camp's outstanding performance which saw him make critical saves against Watford, was key to seeing Forest pick up their second win and third clean sheet of the campaign.
Camp played for the England under-21s five times, including the first (professional) match at the new Wembley Stadium. He stated that this honour was the highlight of his footballing career up to that time.[7] Camp gave up a goal mere seconds into the match, giving him the dubious distinction of being the first man to concede a goal at the new stadium.[8]
Having not earned a call-up to the full England team, Camp stated that he would be keen on playing for Northern Ireland, who he qualifies for through his Newtownards-born grandfather. Northern Ireland boss Nigel Worthington asked the Irish Football Association to start the process to make Camp available for the national side[9] and FIFA confirmed Camp's eligibility to play for Northern Ireland on 16 February 2011. He received his first call-up to the Northern Ireland squad on 14 March 2011, for the Euro 2012 qualifiers against Serbia and Slovenia,[10] and made his Northern Ireland debut in the match against Serbia on 25 March 2011.[11]
| Club performance | League | Cup | League Cup | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| England | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Total | ||||||
| 2002–03 | Derby County | First Division | 1 | 0 | - | - | 1 | 0 | ||
| Burton Albion | Conference | 5 | 0 | - | - | 5 | 0 | |||
| 2003–04 | Queens Park Rangers | Second Division | 12 | 0 | - | - | 12 | 0 | ||
| 2004–05 | Derby County | Championship | 47 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 51 | 0 |
| 2005–06 | 41 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | 41 | 0 | |||
| 2006–07 | 3 | 0 | - | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||
| Norwich City | 3 | 0 | - | - | 3 | 0 | ||||
| Queens Park Rangers | 11 | 0 | - | - | 11 | 0 | ||||
| 2007–08 | 46 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 48 | 0 | ||
| 2008–09 | 4 | 0 | - | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | |||
| Nottingham Forest | 15 | 0 | - | - | 15 | 0 | ||||
| 2009–10 | 47 | 0 | 2 | 0 | - | 49 | 0 | |||
| 2010–11 | 48 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 51 | 0 | ||
| 2011–12 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 23 | 0 | ||
| Career total | 304 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 320 | 0 | ||
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