Andrew Johnson (footballer, born 1981)

Andrew Johnson
Personal information
Full name Andrew Johnson
Date of birth (1981-02-10) 10 February 1981 (age 42)
Place of birth Bedford, England
Height 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m)
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
Luton Town
000–1998 Birmingham City
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1998–2002 Birmingham City 83 (8)
2002–2006 Crystal Palace 140 (74)
2006–2008 Everton 61 (17)
2008–2012 Fulham 86 (13)
2012–2014 Queens Park Rangers 20 (2)
2014–2015 Crystal Palace 0 (0)
Total 390 (114)
International career
2005–2007 England 8 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Andrew Johnson (born 10 February 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played for Birmingham City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers.

A legend at Crystal Palace, Johnson scored more than one goal per every other game in 140 appearances and helped Crystal Palace win promotion to the Premier League

He was capped eight times for England.

Club career

Birmingham City

Johnson was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire, and started his career at Luton Town's Academy.[citation needed] He moved on to Birmingham City, where he signed his first professional contract on 11 March 1998. He missed a deciding penalty in the 2001 League Cup Final penalty shoot-out defeat to Liverpool.

After making over 100 appearances for the Blues, he was sold to Crystal Palace in 2002, following Birmingham's promotion into the Premier League. Johnson was used as the makeweight in a transfer deal for Clinton Morrison, valued at £750,000 for the purposes of the transaction.

Crystal Palace

Johnson in 2005

Johnson's made a strong start to his career at Palace by scoring a hat-trick in the 5–0 thrashing of rivals Brighton & Hove Albion on 26 October 2002, and then another, in the next match, at Walsall. Despite this, he made few appearances until manager Trevor Francis was dismissed[citation needed] with the Eagles mid-table, and replaced by Steve Kember. Kember was replaced by Ian Dowie a few months into the 2003–04 season. Under the new manager, Johnson ended the season as top scorer in the 2003–04 First Division season with 32 goals. Palace reached the play-offs and were promoted into the Premier League for 2004–05 after beating West Ham United 1–0 in the final.

Despite Palace's relegation back into the Championship the following season, Johnson was the highest scoring English player with 21 goals and the second highest overall in the Premier League. his form attracted the attention of England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson. Johnson requested a transfer,[citation needed] but signed a new five-year contract with Palace in August 2005.

Johnson was soon playing alongside Clinton Morrison, who had rejoined Palace from Birmingham for a fee of £2 million, three years after Birmingham had bought him in a deal for £4.25m plus Johnson. However, due to injury to Johnson, and Morrison's lack of form, the pairing was limited in the early part of the season.[citation needed] With a return to fitness and form, the two soon became Dowie's first choice pairing as the season progressed, with Dougie Freedman adding experience to the strike force.[citation needed]

Palace comfortably made it into a top-six position but in the play-offs failed to recover from a first leg defeat at the hands of Watford, being beaten on aggregate in the semi-final. Johnson scored 15 goals in the Championship that season.[citation needed]

In 2005, Johnson was voted into Palace's Centenary XI, the only player at the club at the time to be selected, and, together with Nigel Martyn, the only members of the XI then playing on a professional basis.[citation needed]

Everton

After Crystal Palace's failure to return to top-flight football, speculation about Johnson's future at the club began with a transfer to a Premier League club seeming highly likely.[citation needed] However, when an initial bid from Everton of £7.25 million was rejected, it looked more likely that the club would be able to keep Johnson for a further year after all.[citation needed] Nevertheless, the departure of manager Iain Dowie only increased the likelihood of Johnson's departure, and on 24 May 2006 Palace accepted an £8.5m million offer from Wigan Athletic for Johnson.[citation needed] This bid was matched by fellow Lancashire club Bolton Wanderers a day later, which was also accepted.[citation needed]

With Johnson having indicated a preference for a move to Merseyside, Everton, prompted by the two other bids, improved their offer to £8.6 million the following day.[citation needed] On 30 May 2006, he passed his medical and completed the move to Goodison Park, signing a five-year contract.[citation needed] Johnson's move set new club transfer records, both as Everton's most expensive purchase and Palace's most expensive sale.[citation needed]

Johnson scored his first goal for Everton on his debut on 19 August 2006, in a 2–1 win over Watford.[citation needed] He continued a good start to his Everton career by scoring against Tottenham Hotspur away to end a 21-year victory drought there and then scoring twice in the 3–0 derby victory against Liverpool.[citation needed] Johnson was Everton's top scorer in the 2006–07 FA Premier League with 11 goals (and one in the FA Cup).[citation needed] However, Johnson was allegedly affected by allegations of simulation, going 13 matches without scoring a goal at one stage.[citation needed]

After a league match with Chelsea on 17 December 2006, Chelsea manager José Mourinho branded Johnson "untrustworthy" following a challenge with Chelsea goalkeeper Henrique Hilário. Everton issued a statement threatening legal action and calling on Mourinho to apologise, which he did two days later. Mourinho was not the first to air such sentiments about Johnson; former Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock also having accused Johnson of resorting to "gamesmanship" to win a penalty in a Premier League match between the two clubs.

Everton manager David Moyes took the unusual step of contacting the Professional Game Match Officials Board in order to counter these accusations.[citation needed] The board's general manager Keith Hackett agreed that Johnson was being treated harshly and had been denied several clear penalties.[citation needed]

On 6 November 2007, Johnson signed a new five-year contract with Everton. During the new season, Johnson scored some vital goals for Everton, including a Premier League winner away to West Ham.[citation needed] He scored Everton's first goal in the 2–1 away victory against Wigan Athletic, and was denied a winning goal at Blackburn Rovers, adjudged to have been offside.[citation needed]

Johnson scored twice in Everton's 6–1 thrashing of SK Brann in the UEFA Cup.[citation needed] He scored Everton's second and sixth goal and the last goal was a driven shot from outside the box.[citation needed] Johnson also scored in Everton's Round of 16 tie against Fiorentina.[citation needed] He picked up a groin injury in Everton's match at the Craven Cottage against Fulham.[citation needed]

Fulham

Johnson (left) playing for Fulham in 2009

In July 2008, Everton accepted an offer of "an eight figure sum" from Fulham for Johnson. It was reported that problems had arisen from his medical, prompting a possible renegotiation of the fee, but the move was completed on 7 August 2008, the player signing a four-year contract for an undisclosed fee, thought to be in the region of £10.5 million. He made his debut for the club in a 2–1 win over Bolton Wanderers at Craven Cottage on 13 September 2008. Johnson was sent off against West Ham United on 27 September 2008 for two bookable offences.[citation needed] He scored his first and second Fulham goals against Wigan Athletic on 29 October 2008.[citation needed]

Johnson finished the 2008–09 season with 10 goals helping Fulham to finish in seventh place and qualify for the UEFA Europa League.[citation needed] He made only 13 appearances for Fulham in 2009–10, scoring three goals, as he missed much of the season due to a troublesome knee problem.[citation needed] He also missed most of the early part of the 2010–11 season with injury.[citation needed] He made a good start to the 2011–12 season, scoring a Premier League hat-trick on 2 October in the 6–0 win over West London rivals Queens Park Rangers. Johnson also scored twice in Fulham's 4–1 win over Wisła Kraków on 4 November 2011, putting them on the brink of securing a place in the knockout stages of the UEFA Europa League. These goals were Johnson's seventh and eighth in the UEFA Europa League; he also scored against NSÍ Runavík, Crusaders, RNK Split, Twente and Odense.

Johnson's contract at Fulham expired in June 2012 and he was released after four years at the club.

Queens Park Rangers

In June 2012, Johnson signed for Queens Park Rangers on a two-year contract. Johnson made his debut as a substitute in the first match of the season at home against Swansea City. Johnson made his first start away at Manchester City, providing an assist for Bobby Zamora's equalising goal. On 17 September 2012, it was announced that Johnson was likely to miss the majority of the season with a cruciate ligament injury. In August 2013, Johnson scored the winning goal in Queens Park Rangers' opening fixture of the Championship season against Sheffield Wednesday. He was released on 1 July 2014 following the end of his contract.[citation needed]

Return to Crystal Palace

On 3 September 2014, Johnson signed a short-term contract with Crystal Palace on a free transfer, and was given some coaching responsibility with academy players. He left the club at the start of January 2015 when that contract expired, having made a solitary appearance in the League Cup.

On 30 March 2016, Johnson returned to Crystal Palace as an ambassador. His duties would again involve some coaching responsibility as well as involvement with the community.

International career

Johnson was first capped for England at U20 level, being selected in the team for the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship alongside Stuart Taylor, Ashley Cole, Peter Crouch and Matthew Etherington.[citation needed] The team finished bottom of their group, losing all three matches without scoring.[citation needed]

As the top English goalscorer in the 2004–05 Premier League, there were many calling for him to be selected for the full England squad.[citation needed] Midway through the season, Johnson revealed that he would accept a call-up to the national team of Poland, after being eligible through his grandfather being born in Poland. This subsequently hurried then England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson into giving Johnson his first call-up, to face the Netherlands on 9 February 2005, and he made his first international appearance in that match.

A second cap came when Johnson made his full debut for England, in a 2–1 friendly win over the United States, during England's tour of America in the summer of 2005. On 9 May 2006, Johnson was put on standby by Eriksson in his squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He was also an unused substitute in the England B match against Belarus and the first team's wins over Hungary and Jamaica.[citation needed]

When Steve McClaren was installed as England coach, Johnson got further opportunities to play for his country in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifiers.[citation needed] Johnson made substitute appearances against Andorra (at Old Trafford on 2 September 2006) and away to Macedonia (on 6 September 2006).[citation needed] Johnson then made his first competitive start for England in the Euro 2008 qualifier with Israel.[citation needed]

Post-retirement life

Johnson now runs a property company, and also works for Fortus, a business advisory firm.

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Birmingham City 1998–99 First Division 3 0 0 0 2 0 5 0
1999–2000 First Division 23 1 0 0 5 1 2 0 30 2
2000–01 First Division 34 4 0 0 7 3 0 0 41 7
2001–02 First Division 23 3 1 0 2 1 2 0 28 4
Total 83 8 1 0 16 5 4 0 104 13
Crystal Palace 2002–03 First Division 28 11 3 0 3 3 34 14
2003–04 First Division 42 27 1 0 3 4 3 1 49 32
2004–05 Premier League 37 21 1 1 0 0 38 22
2005–06 Championship 33 15 3 2 1 0 2 0 39 17
Total 140 74 8 3 7 7 5 1 160 85
Everton 2006–07 Premier League 32 11 1 1 2 0 35 12
2007–08 Premier League 29 6 1 0 2 0 7 4 39 10
Total 61 17 2 1 4 0 7 4 74 22
Fulham 2008–09 Premier League 31 7 4 3 1 0 36 10
2009–10 Premier League 8 0 1 0 0 0 4 3 13 3
2010–11 Premier League 27 3 2 0 0 0 29 3
2011–12 Premier League 20 3 1 0 0 0 13 8 34 11
Total 86 13 8 3 1 0 17 11 112 27
Queens Park Rangers 2012–13 Premier League 3 0 0 0 1 0 4 0
2013–14 Championship 17 2 1 0 2 0 0 0 20 2
Total 20 2 1 0 3 0 0 0 24 2
Crystal Palace 2014–15 Premier League 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0
Career total 390 114 20 7 32 12 33 16 475 149
  1. ^ a b c Appearances in First Division play-offs
  2. ^ Appearances in Championship play-offs
  3. ^ Appearances in UEFA Cup
  4. ^ a b Appearances in UEFA Europa League

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year
National team Year Apps Goals
England 2005 2 0
2006 3 0
2007 3 0
Total 8 0

Honours

Birmingham City

Crystal Palace

  • Football League First Division play-offs: 2004

Individual


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