Darren Bent

Darren Ashley Bent (born February 6, 1984 in Tooting, London) is an England football (soccer) of Jamaican descent, currently playing for Tottenham Hotspur F.C.

There is some confusion over Bent's birthplace with nearly all biographies available - typically of a brief nature - saying he was born in Cambridge; however, The Football Association's profile says he was born in Tooting. This confusion may stem from the fact he moved to Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, as a child, where he attended Hinchingbrooke School.

Career

Ipswich Town

Bent is a product of Ipswich Town F.C.'s youth academy. In 2001 he reached the semi-final of FA Youth Cup, played in the reserves and earned a professional contract with the club. He made his professional debut on November 1 2001 against Helsingborg in the UEFA Cup and scored his first senior goal in a 4-1 League Cup defeat to Newcastle United on November 27 2001.

He scored his first Premiership goal on April 24 2002 grabbing the only goal of a 1-0 win over Middlesbrough F.C. and also scored a crucial winner against Slovan Liberec in the UEFA Cup but the season ended in relegation. He made his first international appearance for the England Under 21 team against Italy in February 2003. He finished the 2003-04 in English football with 18 goals and followed that up in the 2004-05 in English football as the club's top goalscorer (with 19 goals alongside Shefki Kuqi).

Charlton Athletic

He completed an initial £2.5m transfer (extra £100K paid on appearances) to Charlton Athletic F.C. in the summer of 2005 after Ipswich failed to reach the Premier League for a third successive season.

On 13 August 2005, the opening day of the 2005-06 in English football FA Premier League season, Bent had a dream debut which saw him score two goals for Charlton playing at Sunderland A.F.C.. He was named the Premiership Player of The Month.

Bent was the highest scoring Englishman in the Premiership in the 2005-2006 season, which made him 3rd highest scorer overall and was named Charlton Athletic Player of the Season award. Bent signed an extension to his contract at Charlton Athletic until 2010.

On 13 June 2007, relegated Charlton accepted a bid reported to be £16m plus the exchange of midfielder Hayden Mullins, from West Ham United F.C., for Darren Bent. The player rejected the move.

Tottenham Hotspur

On 29 June he completed a move to Tottenham Hotspur for a club record fee of £16.5million which will be payable over three years and is inclusive of add on payments. Ipswich Town are reported to have a sell-on clause giving them 20% of any profit for this prospective deal, together with two payments of £200K should he make two competitive England appearances. After Bent's transfer to Tottenham, the fee given to Ipswich was quoted as £2.58m on the Charlton Athletic website. He scored his first goal for Tottenham in a friendly match against Stevenage Borough in their first pre-season fixture of their 2007-08 in English football season. On 18 August Bent scored his first competitive Spurs goal in a 4-0 home victory over Derby County.

International

Bent was first called up to the England senior team for the August 17, 2005 friendly against Denmark national football team. He was then called into the full England squad for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Wales national football team and Northern Ireland national football team.

After being called up to the squad for a fourth time, Bent made his England national football team debut on March 1 2006, starting against Uruguay national football team at Anfield in a pre-Football World Cup friendly match (he wore the number 10 shirt). On 8 May 2006, Bent was omitted from England's World Cup squad. Since, he has been a regular in the England squad, but has only played one more game. As of 2007 he has played 2 games, scoring no goals.

Bent has also represented England at Under-19 level with 8 goals in 12 appearances, and at England national under-21 football team with 9 goals in 14 appearances. Despite having played for the senior side he was recalled to the U21 squad for the October 2006 qualification playoffs against Germany national under-21 football team. Due to an injury to Andrew Johnson (footballer) shortly after the squad's announcement, Bent was recalled to the senior squad.