Matthew Etherington

Matthew Etherington (born August 14 1981 in Truro, Cornwall) is an England football (soccer) player. Etherington, a left-sided midfielder and Winger (football), currently plays for FA Premier League club West Ham United F.C..

Club career

Peterborough United

Etherington came through the youth ranks at Peterborough United F.C. and made his League debut at 15 years and 262 days old, in a 2-1 win at Brentford on 3 May 1997. He made a further two appearances in the following season but made his breakthrough into the first team in 1998/99 when he made 33 appearances in all competitions scoring three goals. where he made 13 appearances and scored one goal. However, no transfer was forthcoming but he broke into the first team during the 2002/03 season, when he made 25 appearances In August 2003, he joined West Ham in an exchange deal plus cash for Frédéric Kanouté amid a formal complaint made to the FA by Peterborough at the valuation placed on Etherington, who would have benefited from a sell-off clause had it been greater than £500,000, the price at which Peterborough sold Etherington to Tottenham in 1999. Etherington made 51 appearances for Tottenham, 28 of these as a substitute, scoring two goals. However, he was not selected for England's 2006 FIFA World Cup squad; Stewart Downing was Sven-Göran Eriksson's left-footed midfielder of choice.

Personal

Off the pitch, he has had some success in the world of poker. On 1 December 2004, Etherington won first prize at the celebpoker.com Poker Classic Tournament, winning £17,000. However, his penchant for gambling has, by his own admission, developed into an addiction and Etherington revealed he was undergoing rehabilitation at the Sporting Chance clinic in Hampshire in February 2007.