Darren Bent

Club

_Retired Soccer

Position

Centre-Forward

Nationality

England

Date of birth

1984-02-06

Birthplace

London, England

Height

180 cm

Weight

73 kg

Darren Ashley Bent (born 6 February 1984) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He played in the Premier League and Championship for nine clubs, and at senior international level for the England national team.

Bent started his career with Godmanchester Rovers before being scouted by Ipswich Town. After progressing through their youth system, he made his first-team debut in 2001. He made 122 appearances and scored 48 goals in the league for Ipswich, before joining Charlton Athletic for a fee of £2.5 million in 2005. He was Charlton Athletic's top goalscorer for two consecutive seasons and joined Tottenham Hotspur for a club-record fee of £16.5 million in 2007. After two seasons at Tottenham, he joined Sunderland. After a successful 18 months at Sunderland, he joined Aston Villa in 2011. Bent had loans with Fulham, Brighton & Hove Albion and Derby County, and after being released by Villa in 2015, joined Derby permanently.

Bent represented England at under-15, under-16, under-19, under-21 and senior levels. He made 14 appearances and scored 9 goals for the under-21 team after making his debut against Italy in 2003. He made his debut for the senior England team in 2006 against Uruguay, and went on to make 13 appearances for England, scoring four goals. He scored his first goal on 7 September 2010 in a 3–1 UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match victory against Switzerland.

Bent received his first call up to the senior England team for the friendly against Denmark on 17 August 2005, but did not play in the match. His England debut eventually came on 1 March 2006, when he started against Uruguay at Anfield in a pre-2006 FIFA World Cup friendly match. He was not included in England's World Cup squad when it was announced in May 2006.

Despite having played for the senior team, Bent was recalled to the under-21 squad for their October 2006 qualification play-offs against Germany. Later that month, he was recalled to the senior squad due to an injury to Andrew Johnson shortly after the squad's announcement. He was called to the England squad for a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia in November 2007. He came on as an 80th-minute substitute as England lost 3–2 and failed to qualify for the tournament. He was called up to the team for a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Ukraine in March 2009 following an injury to striker Carlton Cole. He made his second start for England in a 1–0 friendly defeat to Brazil on 14 November 2