Stan Collymore

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Stan Collymore
Personal information
Full name	Stanley Victor Collymore
Date of birth	January 22, 1971 (age 36)
Place of birth	Stone, England
Height	6'2"
Nickname	Stan the Man
Playing position	Centre forward
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1989-1990 1990-1991 1991-1992 1992-1993 1993-1995 1995-1997 1997-2000 1999 2000 2000-2001 2001	Wolverhampton Wanderers Stafford Rangers Crystal Palace Southend United Nottingham Forest Liverpool Aston Villa → Fulham (loan) Leicester City Bradford City Real Oviedo	00 0(0) 0? 0(?) 20 0(1) 30 (15) 65 (41) 63 (28) 46 0(7) 06 0(0) 11 0(5) 07 0(2) 03 0(0)
National team2
1994-1998	England	03 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of November 7, 2006. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of November 7, 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Stanley Victor Collymore (born January 22, 1971 in Stone, Staffordshire) was an English footballer who rose to fame in the 1990s.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Professional career 3 Relationship with Ulrika Jonsson 4 Post-football career 5 Possible football return 6 References 7 External links

Early career

A talented centre forward, Collymore started his career as an apprentice footballer with Walsall, and also Wolverhampton Wanderers, before being released and signing for then GM Vauxhall Conference team, Stafford Rangers, where again he caught the eye of several football league clubs by demonstrating the ability for spectacular goals before being given his chance as a full-time professional with Crystal Palace at the age of 19, when he signed for them in December 1990.

Professional career

After learning his trade as understudy to the prolific Crystal Palace partnership of Mark Bright and Ian Wright, Collymore dropped down a division to Southend United and there scored 18 goals in 31 games to help keep the club in the then First Division when the odds of relegation seemed certain.

Collymore enjoyed his time at Southend saying, "I count helping to keep Southend in the first division in my season there as one of my finest achievements." [1]

However such were the quality of his goals, usually spectacular solo efforts, Nottingham Forest bought the striker for a club-record fee that reached ₤3 million in the summer of 1993, having only been bought by Southend also for a club record fee of ₤150,000 six months earlier. Collymore's goalscoring record with Forest (50 goals in 71 games) was highly regarded, and after being the main catalyst for helping Forest to immediate promotion back to the Premiership in 1993, cemented his reputation as one of the brightest young talents in world football by finishing his first season in the top flight with 25 goals and helping a team that had been relegated only two years earlier to finish third in the Premiership,a feat now that would guarantee UEFA Champions League qualification. That prompted Liverpool to come in for him with a then British transfer record bid of ₤8.5 million at the end of the 1994-95 season.

Collymore scored a spectacular goal on his Liverpool debut against Sheffield Wednesday and began a fruitful, enigmatic, and controversial two-year spell at Anfield. He scored at a ratio of a goal every other game and created many goals in a superb partnership with Robbie Fowler, who were regarded as arguably the best strike partnership in Europe, to winning caps for England. He also scored two goals, including the winner against Newcastle United at Anfield in a game that was regarded as one of the most exciting in the history of the English Premiership. Indeed, it was voted by viewers of Sky Sports as the greatest sporting moment in the channel's first ten years.^{[citation needed]}

Collymore also helped Liverpool to third place in the Premiership, the club's highest position since winning the old First Division title in 1990. Undoubtedly a great footballer on his day, after two seasons at Anfield the striker was sold to Aston Villa in 1997 for ₤7 million, again a club record.

In the three years that he spent at the club, Collymore scored only 15 goals, having been frozen out of the squad for over a year of John Gregory's reign as manager. Highs included being only the third Aston Villa player in history to score a hat-trick in European competition (the other two being his boyhood idols Gary Shaw and Peter Withe).

Relationship with Ulrika Jonsson

Collymore spent many days on tabloid front pages in 1998, the result of the disintegration of his relationship with Swedish-born British television presenter Ulrika Jonsson after it was revealed he had hit his former girlfriend,^[1] who described Collymore as a "monster" in her autobiography. Jonsson later took out an injunction preventing Collymore from releasing a sex tape involving the two, apparently made while they were on holiday in Jamaica - the video was later destroyed by Collymore. The incident, together with his admission of having sex with married strangers around that time^[2] was widely reported.^[3]

Post-football career

Collymore contributed to his biography with Oliver Holt (2004). Stan : tackling my demons. ISBN 0-00-719807-8.  which was released to critical acclaim for its portrayal of the modern footballer. In 2005 he acted the character of Kevin Franks in the film Basic Instinct 2 alongside Sharon Stone. Collymore is seen and heard regularly on television and radio in the UK, and owns Maverick Spirit Productions, a UK Television Production Company.

Possible football return

Despite retiring from football in 2001, he was recently in advanced discussions with Australian Hyundai A-League club Newcastle United Jets,[2] after employing the services of a Sydney agent to secure a contract in Australia. He was set to join a league with an ever growing number of ex-Premiership stars, however this move was later turned down by the Australian FFA citing "concerns over his image". [3]

References

1. ^ Stan Collymore interview. BBC News Online. BBC. Retrieved on April 4, 2007.
2. ^ Tim Adams. "Stan of many parts", Observer, Guardian News, 2004-03-14. Retrieved on March 29, 2007.
3. ^ http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/021028/128/dd8xq.html

External links

• Profile at Soccerbase
• Stan Collymore at the Internet Movie Database
• BBC Nottingham : Interview