Kevin Betsy

Kevin Betsy
Personal information
Full name Kevin Eddie Lewis Betsy
Date of birth (1978-03-20) 20 March 1978
Place of birth Woking, England
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1997–1998 Woking 50 (8)
1998–2002 Fulham 15 (1)
1999 → Bournemouth (loan) 5 (0)
1999 → Hull City (loan) 2 (0)
2002 → Barnsley (loan) 5 (0)
2002–2004 Barnsley 94 (15)
2004 → Hartlepool United (loan) 6 (1)
2004–2005 Oldham Athletic 36 (5)
2005–2007 Wycombe Wanderers 71 (13)
2007–2008 Bristol City 18 (1)
2007 → Yeovil Town (loan) 5 (1)
2008 → Walsall (loan) 16 (2)
2008–2010 Southend United 43 (3)
2009–2010 → Wycombe Wanderers (loan) 39 (5)
2010–2011 Wycombe Wanderers 48 (7)
2012–2015 Woking 138 (26)
Total 591 (88)
National team
1998 England C 1 (0)
2011–2013 Seychelles 7 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Kevin Eddie Lewis Betsy (born 20 March 1978) is a former professional footballer. He is now a coach for The Academy at Fulham. He started his career with Woking but went on to make a name for himself with Fulham where he became part of the squad that earned promotions in 1999 and 2002 that made the club a Premier League team. He made one appearance in the top tier of English football but became the first Seychelloise player to play in the Premier League. He then also spent time on loan with Bournemouth, Hull City and Barnsley before joining the latter on a permanent deal in 2002. Betsy made 94 league appearances, scoring 15 goals in a two-year period with the Tykes before moving to Hartlepool United. His time with Pool was short and he moved on to Oldham Athletic and then Wycombe Wanderers.[1]

In 2007, he signed for Bristol City and whilst there spent loan spells with Yeovil Town and Walsall. A year after signing for City he moved on again to Southend United before returning to Wycombe following a loan spell. In 2012, he re-signed for Woking. Despite being born in England, Betsy qualified to represent the Seychelles through his grandparents and earned his first cap in 2011.

Club career

Betsy started his career at Woking, representing England at semi professional level and being named Conference Player of the Year in 1998, before Kevin Keegan moved in to sign him for Fulham during the 1998–99 season for £150,000, describing him as one of the best young players he had seen at his age. He made his debut at Anfield against Liverpool in the League Cup[2] and spent three years at Fulham. Betsy's only goal for Fulham came in their victorious 1998–99 Division Two campaign against Millwall.[3] He made five league appearances during Fulham's 2000/01 season after which they were promoted to the Premier League.[4] He made one appearance in the Premiership for Fulham under Jean Tigana in a game against Manchester United at Old Trafford.[5] He had loan spells at Bournemouth and Hull City before Barnsley came in for him in March 2002 for a fee of £200,000. He made over 90 appearances for the club and scored 17 goals and was the club's top goal scorer in 2002–03 season with 11 goals from midfield. After a short spell at Hartlepool United (where he scored once against Huddersfield Town)[6] he signed for Oldham Athletic in September 2004 he scored 5 goals and was a key member of the team which defeated Manchester City in the FA Cup. After turning down Oldham's offer of a new contract, Betsy moved to Wycombe Wanderers in July 2005, signing a two-year contract.

Betsy in action for Bristol City.

Betsy was a regular in the Wycombe team during the 2005–06 season. He was also a regular goalscorer for the club, most notably with a hat-trick against Mansfield Town in September 2005 and in April 2006. Betsy was honoured by his fellow professionals by being named in the Professional Footballers's Association (PFA) "Team Of The Year" for League Two and helped Wycombe reach the play-offs. Betsy's last game for Wycombe was a notable one, the League Cup semi final defeat against the eventual winners Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

In January 2007, it was announced that Betsy had been signed by League One Bristol City for a fee of £200,000.[7] He was ever present in the city line up helping the Robins gain Promotion to Championship, scoring once in the process against Northampton.[8] Betsy joined Yeovil Town on loan in October 2007.[9] He returned to Bristol City on 7 November having scored once for Yeovil against Swansea City.[10]

On 31 January 2008, Betsy joined Walsall for the rest of the season on loan.[11] Betsy signed for Southend United on 7 August 2008, on a two-year contract and led the team with assists[12]

On 1 September 2009, just 188 seconds before the close of the window, Betsy re-signed on loan for Wycombe Wanderers until 2 January 2010.[13] On 15 January 2010, after a successful loan, Betsy signed for Wycombe on a permanent basis until the end of the season from Southend. Betsy also led the team in assists with eight, scoring five goals and being voted (OWWSA) Wycombe Supporters Player of the year, following which he signed a new two-year deal until 2012. Betsy was a regular in the Wycombe promotion side in 2010–11, but found first team opportunities limited in 2011–12, and left the club by mutual consent on 20 December 2011.

On 17 February 2012, Betsy re-joined Woking as a free agent until the end of the 2011–12 season. After re-joining he has made a big impact in the team and in his fourth game back, he won two penalties in the space of five minutes. He went on to win the Conference South title with Woking having beaten Maidenhead United 1–0 away. After the success at the end of the 2011–12 season, Betsy signed on for another season at Woking and remained there until the end of the 2014-15 season before deciding to stop playing football so he could focus on his coaching career.

International career

Betsy is of Seychellois descent and, after initially rejecting the chance to play for the Seychelles national team,[14] was finally called into the squad and made his international debut against a visiting French league side on 3 June 2011, scoring twice in a 3–0 friendly victory.[15] Betsy was called up to the Seychelles squad for the football tournament at the 2011 Indian Ocean Island Games.[16] He started all five of the Seychelles' games in the tournament, scoring in the final against Mauritius, which finished 1–1. Betsy scored again in the resulting penalty shootout, which the Seychelles won 4–3.

International goals

Scores and results list Seychelles' goal tally first
Goal Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 13 August 2011 Stade Linite, Victoria  Mauritius 1–0 1–1 Indian Ocean Games 2011

Personal life

In 2010 Betsy was studying for a BA Honours Degree in Professional Sports Writing and Broadcasting at Staffordshire University.[17]

References

  1. ↑ Williams, Mike; Williams, Tony, eds. (2013). Non-League Club Directory 2014. Tony Williams Publications. p. 1006. ISBN 978-1-869833-72-5.
  2. ↑ "Ince kills off Fulham's resistance". The Independent. 28 October 1998. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  3. ↑ "Fulham headache sends Millwall hangover into fourth day". The Guardian. 22 April 1999. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  4. ↑ "Games played by Kevin Betsy in 2000/2001". soccerbase.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  5. ↑ "Clockwatch: Man Utd 3–2 Fulham". BBC. 19 August 2001. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  6. ↑ "Huddersfield 0–2 Hartlepool". BBC. 16 August 2004. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  7. ↑ Robins bag Betsy
  8. ↑ "Bristol City 1–0 Northampton". BBC. 3 March 2007. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  9. ↑ "Glovers sign City's Betsy on loan". BBC Sport. 5 October 2007. Retrieved 6 October 2007.
  10. ↑ "Yeovil 1–2 Swansea". BBC. 27 October 2007. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
  11. ↑ "Betsy heads to Walsall". Bristol City F.C. 31 January 2008. Retrieved 31 January 2007.
  12. ↑ "Betsy wings into Southend". Southend United F.C. 7 August 2007. Retrieved 7 August 2007.
  13. ↑ "King Kev's Back!". Wycombe Wanderers F.C. 1 September 2009. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  14. ↑ "Betsy turns Seychelles down". BBC News. 21 February 2005. Retrieved 10 October 2007.
  15. ↑ "Kev makes Seychelles bow". Wycombe Wanderers F.C. 5 June 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
  16. ↑ "Wycombe Wanderers lose Kevin Betsy for season kick-off". bbc.co.uk. 26 July 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  17. ↑ Morris, Sam; Woodward, Ted; Fitch, Sam (19 November 2010). "Footballing classmates square up as Port Vale take on Wycombe". Staffs Live. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
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