Stern John

Stern John (born October 30, 1976 in Trincity, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Trinidadian football (soccer) player who currently plays for Southampton F.C.. He is a striker (football).

Club 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 USL First Division 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 MLS Golden Boot with 26 goals (and also with 57 points to be named the MLS Scoring Champion Award) 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 F.C. 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 F.C., 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 in English football, 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.

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 in English football January transfer window. He scored his first goals against Southend United F.C. 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 F.C. as part of a deal that took Kenwyne Jones the opposite way.

He got his first goals in a 3-2 win against West Bromwich Albion F.C. 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 F.C. on 8 December 2007. 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 F.C., helping them to narrowly avoid relegation to League One. John was later sent off for a second bookable offence.

International career

Stern John made his international debut for Trinidad and Tobago national football team on February 15, 1995 against Finland national football team in a Friendly match at the Queen's Park Oval, scoring one goal on his debut. John has been an vital player for the Soca Warriors, currently the team's all-time leading scorer with 69 goals in 104 caps (as of June 23, 2008). He was instrumental in helping his country qualify for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and played in all three of his country's World Cup group matches at Germany 2006. He was also named Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation Player of the Year in 2002. John is currently the second most ever capped Trinidad and Tobago player.