Stern John
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| Stern John | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Stern John | |
| Date of birth | 30 October 1976 | |
| Place of birth | Trincity, Trinidad and Tobago | |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | |
| Playing position | Striker | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Southampton | |
| Number | 31 | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| 1995 | Mercer CC | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1996 1997 1997 1998–1999 1999–2002 2002–2004 2004–2007 2005 2007 2007– |
Malta Carib Alcons Carolina Dynamo New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers Columbus Crew Nottingham Forest Birmingham City Coventry City → Derby County (loan) Sunderland Southampton |
? (?) 5 (0) 26 (16) 55 (44) 70 (18) 73 (16) 78 (26) 7 (0) 16 (5) 40 (19) |
| National team2 | ||
| 1995– | Trinidad and Tobago | 101 (67) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Stern John (born October 30, 1976 in Trincity, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Trinidadian football player who currently plays for Southampton. He is a centre forward.
[edit] Playing career
John moved to the United States to attend Mercer County Community College in 1995. he joined the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer from the now-defunct New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers of the A-League for the 1998 season. John received a try-out with Crew based on the good word from his older cousin, Columbus Crew defender and Trinidad and Tobago international, Ansil Elcock. With the Crew, he proved to be one of the most prolific scorers in league history. John led the league with 26 goals (and also with 57 points to be named the MLS Scoring Champion) in 1998. He was named to the MLS Best XI that year as well, and tied for the lead with 18 goals in 1999.
After the 1999 season with Columbus, John was acquired by Nottingham Forest of the English First Division for a fee of £1.5 million. However, eventually financial difficulties at Forest following the team's failed bid at promotion forced John's sale to Birmingham City, then pushing for promotion to the Premier League for the sum of £100,000, having scored 18 goals in 49 starts for Forest. At Birmingham, John rarely played, having trouble breaking through an accomplished roster of forwards. However when he did play there were some memorable moments in the blue shirt of Birmingham. For example his majestic turn and finish away at West Ham in 2002, or more memorably his last minute equaliser at Villa Park in the crunch Birmingham derby. His greatest moment in a Birmingham shirt had to be his last minute goal away at Millwall which put Birmingham through to the Playoff Final in 2002. However after generally falling out of favour he was sold to Coventry on September 14, 2004. In his first season with Coventry, John finished as the team's second highest goalscorer, managing to score 12 goals despite starting in barely half of Coventry's games. At the start of the 2005-06 season, following the signing of James Scowcroft, John found himself outside of Micky Adams's first-team plans. As a result he was loaned to Derby County on September 16, 2005, he rejoined Coventry three months later. Since returning, he has found himself to be rejuvenated and increasingly improving.
John has also been an vital player for the Trinidad and Tobago national football team, currently the team's all-time leading scorer with 68 goals in 100 caps (as of October 14, 2006). He played in all three of his country's World Cup group matches at Germany 2006.
On 29 January, Stern John was transferred to Sunderland AFC for an undisclosed fee. This signing was Sunderland manager Roy Keane's sixth signing of the 2006-07 season January transfer window. He scored his first goals against Southend United in a 4-0 victory on 17 February 2007.
As of 11 August 2007 he had the surprising distinction of being the current English Premier League striker with the most international goals.
On August 29, 2007, John moved to Southampton as part of a deal that took Kenwyne Jones the opposite way.[1][2]
He got his first goals in a 3-2 win against West Bromwich Albion on 6 October 2007, scoring twice. From then on he scored regularly for "The Saints", with nine in his first fifteen appearances, including a second half hat trick against Hull City on 8 December 2007.[3] He finished the season 2007-08 as the 4th top scorer in the Championship with 19 goals for Southampton and one for Sunderland in the Premier League. John scored twice in Southampton's final game of the season (one of them the match winner) against Sheffield United, helping them to narrowly avoid relegation to League One. John was later sent off for a second bookable offence.
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