Jamie Cureton

Jamie Cureton (born 28 August 1975 in Bristol, England) is an England association footballer who is currently a striker for Norwich City F.C. in the English Football League Championship.

Career

Early years

Cureton, a Bristol native, began his professional career with Norwich City F.C. before moving on to Bristol Rovers F.C.. An England national football team youth international, big things were expected of Cureton, but he never quite lived up to the potential. However he became a cult figure among the Norwich faithful by bleaching his hair in yellow and green colours in a derby game against Ipswich in 1996 and subsequently scoring in the same fixture. He was sold by Mike Walker (football manager) to Bristol Rovers in 1996.

Reading

The best spell of football in his career since leaving Norwich came with Reading F.C., whom he joined in 2000. He played at Reading for three years. While at the club, the Supporters Trust At Reading had a newly discovered star in the Perseus (constellation) named after him.

South Korea

Cureton then made a mid-2003 switch to K-League side Busan I'cons (now Busan I'Park). He failed to settle in the Far East however, and after being released from his contract, he returned to England and joined Queens Park Rangers F.C.. After an unsettled season at Loftus Road, he joined Swindon Town F.C. in June 2005. He failed to make his mark in his first spell at the club and subsequently joined Colchester United F.C. on loan.

Swindon Town

He then briefly returned to Swindon Town as they aimed to avoid relegation to Football League Two.

After Swindon's relegation to League Two, Cureton activated a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave Swindon on a free transfer, and rejoined Colchester on a permanent basis.

Colchester United

Cureton had a period of good goal-scoring form following his transfer, with the highlight being a hat-trick against Derby County F.C. on 26 August 2006. He also scored a hat-trick in the 3-0 away win against Southend United F.C.. His 23 goals in the 2006-07 in English football season gave him the Championship Golden Boot as the league's top scorer, and made him the first Colchester United striker since Tony Adcock to score 20 league goals in a season; the first for 22 years.

On 5 June 2007, Cureton handed in a transfer request to Colchester United, citing Colchester's ambitions differing from his own, underlined when the club failed to re-sign several key players. This inevitably fueled speculation that Cureton may return to Norwich City, the club where he began his career. Cureton himself stated that he would like to return to the club.

Colchester initially rejected the transfer request, saying that Cureton was an important part of the club's future and that they wanted to keep him., though Norwich City manager Peter Grant (footballer) confirmed that he would like to sign Cureton. Cureton moved to Norwich City for £825,00 on 29 June 2007. He was signed as a replacement for Robert Earnshaw, Norwich's top scorer of the 2006-07 season, who left for Derby County FC in a £3.5m deal the same day.

Norwich City

He scored his first goals for Norwich since re-signing against King's Lynn F.C. at The Walks Stadium. This was followed up by another goal on Norwich's pre season tour of Holland against AGOVV Apeldoorn. He then scored two in the Football League Cup against Barnet F.C. and two on his league debut for Norwich against Southampton F.C.. One of his more crucial goals came during the Canaries 1-0 win at Scunthorpe United, a victory that lifted Norwich clear of the relegation places and one which will have given Cureton a lot of confidence ahead of the Christmas and New Year fixtures. On 22 March 2008, Cureton scored his first ever hat-trick for Norwich City F.C. against former club Colchester United F.C..

Cureton's girl friend is Lisa Munday. Currently starring in workout DVD 'WAGs workout'.