SoccerGuru
Alan Shearer was undoubtfully one of the greatest strikers of his generation. He played in various positions during his career.
What made him so famous about scoring was that he had a strong ability to score head goals. Such that 49 of his 206 goals for Newcastle were head goals.
Alan was born in August 13, 1970 in Newcastle and started playing football with his friends in the street. He then became the captain of his school team and helped them win in a tournament.
Club Career
After he started playing for the amateur club Wallsend Boys, Alan managed to draw attention from Southampton.
He joined various clubs being a teenager, such as Manchester City, Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion. After that, Southampton offered him to play at their youth squad in 1986.
Alan played for Southampton youth squad for 2 years; thus, he started professional football at the club.
Two weeks after his debut on March 26, 1988; Alan starred in a 4-2 victory over Arsenal in the 1st division. It was the game in which he scored a hat-trick and became the youngest player to do so.
Alan Shearer played for Southampton until 1992 and scored a total of 43 goals in all competitions.
Despite Manchester United’s interest to sign him, Alan transferred to Blackburn Rovers after a record £3.6 million offer.
In his 1st season Alan scored 16 goals in 21 games, since he missed many games due to injury.
When he returned for 1993-94 season, Alan helped Blackburn finish in the 2nd place in Premier League, scoring 31 goals. Doing so, he won FWA Footballer of the Year award for the 1993-94 season.
Alan Shearer joined 1994-95 UEFA Cup and scored a goal against Trelleborg in the 2nd leg of the 1st round. However, Blackburn got eliminated by Trelleborg since they lost 3-2 on aggregate.
Despite the UEFA Cup defeat, Alan led Blackburn to the Premier League title victory with 34 goals. As he became the top scorer in the league, Shearer won the Golden Boot award.
His performance in the club made him win the PFA Players’ Player of the Year in 1995.
The next season wasn’t as good as the previous season, since Blackburn dropped to 7th place in the league. However, Alan managed to become the top scorer again, with 31 goals in 35 matches.
Since Blackburn became the champion in 1994-95 season, they joined the Champions League.
Alan scored his only goal from penalty in the 4-1 win over RBK during the group stage of the competition. They finished in the 4th place and couldn’t advance to the knockout stage.
100th Premier League Goals
His 100th Premier League goal came on December 30 in the 2-1 victory over Tottenham. Alan also broke the fewest matches to score 100 Premier League goals with 124 matches.
Alan Shearer scored 112 goals in 130 competitions for Blackburn and signed with Newcastle United on July 30, 1996.
Newcastle United
Shearer earned the Golden Boot with 25 goals in his 1st season at his hometown club. Thus, he became the top scorer for 3 consecutive seasons. Alan also named the PFA Players’ Player of the Year for the 2nd time in his career.
The next season Alan suffered from a severe injury, and the Newcastle dropped to 13th place in the league. Despite the disappointment, they finished runners-up to Arsenal in 1997-98 FA Cup. Alan showed great performance in the tournament and became the top scorer with 5 goals.
Shearer became the team’s captain for the 1998-99 season and also the top scorer with 14 goals. However, Alan’s effort couldn’t save the club from finishing in the 13th place again.
Also being the top scorer with 5 goals in 1998-99 FA Cup, Shearer led Newcastle to the final of the tournament. Newcastle lost 2-0 to Manchester United, but they qualified for 1999-2000 UEFA Cup.
Alan scored 23 goals in 1999-2000 season and helped Newcastle end the league in mid-table.
They also reached the semi-finals of 1999-2000 FA Cup, but they lost 2-1 to Chelsea.
The 2001-02 season was better than the previous season, in which he had an injury and scored only 5 goals.
He managed to score 23 goals, helping Newcastle finish in the 4th place and qualify for the 2002-03 Champions League. However, they knocked out in the 2nd group stage despite Alan’s 7 goals in the tournament.
Shearer scored his 201st goal for Newcastle, on February 4, 2006. Thus, he broke the 200 goals record held by Jackie Milburn. Afterwards, Alan injured and missed the last 3 games in his final season.
Alan retired from football after scoring his 206th goal for Newcastle during the 4-1 victory, in which he got injured.
Since he spent 10 years at Newcastle, the club awarded him a testimonial match.
International Career
Alan joined the national club in 1990 as a part of the U21 squad. He scored 13 goals in 11 appearances until he started playing for the senior squad.
He became the top scorer with 5 goals in Euro 1996; however, Alan couldn’t save England from losing in the semi-finals. Yet, he got named in the UEFA Team of the Tournament.
Shearer became the captain for qualification of World Cup 1998. He scored a total of 5 goals during the qualifier and helped England advance to the next stage. However, they eventually lost the competition in the round of 16.
After scoring 6 goals during the Euro 2000 qualifier; Shearer advanced to the group stage of the tournament.
He scored a goal against Germany, and another one against Romania in the group stage. Since England lost 3-2 in the latter, they got knocked out of the tournament.
After Euro 2000, Shearer retired from international football in order to focus on his club career. The striker earned 63 caps for England and scored a total of 30 goals.
#England,#striker,#topscorer,#Southampton,#Blackburn-Rovers,#Newcastle-United,#Premier-League,#1997-98-FA-Cup,#1998-99-FA-Cup,#1999-2000-FA-Cup,#Euro-1996,#World-Cup-1998,#Euro-2000
Comments
Loading…