James Beattie (footballer)

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James Beattie
Personal information
Full name	James Scott Beattie
Date of birth	February 27, 1978 (age 29)
Place of birth	Lancaster, England
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Nickname	Beat(t)s
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Everton
Number	9
Youth clubs
1995-1996	Darwin United Blackburn Rovers
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1996-1998 1998-2004 2005-	Blackburn Rovers Southampton Everton	004 0(0) 161 (68) 069 (13)
National team2
2003	England	005 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 12:05, 25 March 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 23 July 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

James Scott Beattie (born February 27, 1978 in Lancaster) is an English football player for Everton.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Career 2.1 Blackburn Rovers 2.2 Southampton 2.3 Everton 2.4 International career 2.5 Career stats 3 Trivia 4 Honours 5 External links

[edit] Early career

At age 14, James Beattie attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Blackburn and was a budding swimmer, rated second in the country at the 100 metres freestyle. A shoulder injury led him to drop swimming and take up football.

He went on to represent his school and play for Blackburn Schools, before joining Blackburn Rovers as a trainee in August 1995.

[edit] Career

[edit] Blackburn Rovers

Beattie had only just broken into the first team at Blackburn Rovers when he moved to Southampton in July 1998 as part of a deal that saw Kevin Davies move in the other direction.

[edit] Southampton

Manager Dave Jones signed Beattie for a fee of £1,000,000 to bring Beattie to The Dell.

A series of injuries meant he struggled to make an impact at first with the Saints, but that all changed in November 2000 when he began a long goalscoring run. After 18 months without a goal, he scored ten in ten games, lifting Southampton into a comfortable position to secure their place in the Premiership for next season. However, his form dropped off after that and he scored only two goals in the rest of the season.

Beattie went 17 games without scoring towards the end of the 2000-01 season and the start of the next campaign. However he was awarded a new four-year contract in March 2001.

Once again though, he found form, but in the match against Manchester United in January 2002, he suffered an ankle injury which kept him on the sidelines for two months. By the end of the season he had scored an impressive 14 goals.

His time at Southampton was marred by a conviction for drink driving in 2002.[1]

He joined Everton in January 2005 from Southampton for a fee of £6m.

[edit] Everton

Beattie's £6 million transfer to Everton involved the largest transfer fee the Merseyside club has ever paid for a player, breaking the record amount paid for Nick Barmby in 1996. This has since been broken by the £8.6 million capture of former Crystal Palace striker Andy Johnson. Initially Beattie found it difficult at Everton. A mixture of injuries and suspensions meant his contribution during the latter half of the 2004-05 season was limited, due to a mix of poor temperament (a headbutt in an Everton-Chelsea fixture resulting in suspension) and subsequent injuries. The 2005-06 season saw an improvement. He was Everton's top scorer with 11 goals in the 2005-06 season.

During the 2006-07 season, Beattie found himself out of favour with Everton boss, David Moyes. Beattie has recently become an understudy to young striker Victor Anichebe and Andrew Johnson. Amid growing fan discontent with his attitude and fitness, Beattie has most recently been linked with a move to his home town club of Blackburn Rovers for a reported £2.5 Million. On December 26, after the match against Middlesbrough, David Moyes announced on Everton's official website that Beattie would be going nowhere in the near future.

[edit] International career

Beattie earned his first senior England cap against Australia in February 2003 after a prolific period during the 2002-03 season. The game was not a success, with England losing 3-1, which caused a controversy over the management of Sven-Göran Eriksson. Beattie scored 24 goals that season, with 23 in the Premiership and one in the FA Cup, with Saints losing in the final to Arsenal.

However, it was clear that Beattie did not fit into Eriksson's strategy, and he has not appeared for England since the Denmark match of November 2003.

[edit] Career stats

All-Time Club Performance

Club	Season	Domestic League		Domestic Cup1		European Competition		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Blackburn	1996-97	1	0
	1997-98	3	0
	Total	4	0
Southampton	1998-99	35	5
	1999-00	18	0
	2000-01	37	11
	2001-02	28	12
	2002-03	38	23
	2003-04	37	14
	2004-05	11	0
	Total	204	65
Everton	2004-05	11	1
	2005-06	32	10
	2006-07	26	2	2	0	-	-	28	2
	Total	69	13	2	0
Career Totals		279	78

¹ Includes all Domestic Cup competitions

[edit] Trivia

• When Beattie was team mates with John Beresford in their Southampton days, the latter nicknamed him 'Thunder Boots' due to his shooting power.^{[citation needed]}
• He married his fiancee Sarah Rendle in Manchester in May 2006. They had a baby son, James Samuel, on September 6, 2006. [2]
• Beattie topped the Gay Football Supporters Network's annual "Lust List" in 2003.[3]

James Beattie also looks like Volkswagen Mechanic Warren Guest.

[edit] Honours

Southampton

• FA Cup finalist 2003

[edit] External links

• James Beattie career stats at Soccerbase
• Official James Beattie website
• FootballDatabase provides James Beattie's profile and stats

Everton F.C. - Current Squad
1 Wright | 2 Hibbert | 3 Naysmith | 4 Yobo | 6 Arteta | 7 Van der Meyde | 8 Johnson | 9 Beattie | 11 McFadden | 15 Stubbs | 16 Lescott | 17 Cahill | 18 Neville | 19 Valente | 21 Osman | 22 Vaughan | 23 Pistone | 24 Howard | 26 Carsley | 28 Anichebe | 30 Ruddy | 36 Boyle | 37 Fernandes | 38 Anderson | 41 Viðarsson | Manager: Moyes