Stern John

Stern John
Personal information
Full name	Stern John
Date of birth	30 October 1976 (1976-10-30) (age 33)
Place of birth	Trincity, Trinidad and Tobago
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position	Forward
Club information
Current club	Ipswich Town (on loan from Crystal Palace)
Number	21
Youth career
1995	Mercer CC
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1996 1997 1997 1998–1999 1999–2002 2002–2004 2004–2007 2005 2007 2007–2009 2008–2009 2009– 2009–	Malta Carib Alcons Carolina Dynamo New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers Columbus Crew Nottingham Forest Birmingham City[A] Coventry City → Derby County (loan) Sunderland Southampton → Bristol City (loan) Crystal Palace → Ipswich Town (loan)	00? 0(?) 005 0(0) 026 (16) 055 (44) 072 (18) 077 (16) 078 (26) 007 0(0) 016 0(5) 047 (19) 024 0(2) 007 0(0) 003 0(0)
National team2
1995–	Trinidad and Tobago	109 (69)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:08, 8 December 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 10:46, 11 August 2009 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Stern John (born 30 October 1976 in Trincity, Trinidad and Tobago) is a Trinidadian football player currently playing for Ipswich Town, on loan from Crystal Palace.

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 A-League 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 led the league with 26 goals (and also with 57 points to be named the MLS Scoring Champion) 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 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, 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.^{[citation needed]} This led to him being very popular with the Birmingham fans for his crucial and sometimes brilliant goals.^{[citation needed]} However after generally falling out of favour he was sold to Coventry City on 14 September 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 season, 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 16 September 2005, he rejoined Coventry three months later.

On 29 January, Stern John was transferred to Sunderland for an undisclosed fee. This signing was Sunderland manager Roy Keane's sixth signing of the 2006–07 season January transfer window. He scored his first goals against Southend United in a 4–0 victory on 17 February 2007.

On 29 August 2007, John moved to Southampton as part of a deal that took Kenwyne Jones in the opposite direction.^[1][2]

He scored his first goals with two in a 3–2 win against West Bromwich Albion on 6 October 2007 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 on 8 December 2007.^[3] 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, helping them to narrowly avoid relegation to League One. John was later sent off for a second bookable offence.

John made a loan transfer to Bristol City in October 2008 until the end of the 2008–09 season.^[4] John made his first Bristol City appearance, coming on as a substitute, against Barnsley in a 0–0 draw. John scored his first goal for Bristol City in a 1–4 defeat to Reading at Ashton Gate on 1 November 2008.

On July 29th 2009 John signed for Crystal Palace on a year-long deal, after turning down an offer to stay at Southampton.^[5] He made his debut on the opening day of the season against Plymouth Argyle, he had to come off after 35 minutes due to an injury. He returned in mid-October, but joined Ipswich Town on a one-month loan at the end of November.

International career

Stern John made his international debut for Trinidad and Tobago national football team on 15 February 1995 against Finland in a Friendly match at the Queen's Park Oval, scoring one goal on his debut. John has been a vital player for the Soca Warriors, currently the team's all-time leading scorer with 69 goals in 109 caps (as of 2 August 2009). 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 capped Trinidad and Tobago international behind former teammate Angus Eve.

Honours

• 1998 MLS Scoring Champion
• 1998 MLS Golden Boot
• 1998 MLS Best XI
• 2002 Division 1 Play-Offs Winner's Medal
• 2002 Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation Player of the Year
• 2007 Championship Winners' Medal with Sunderland

Career statistics

(correct as of 5 December 2009)

Notes

A. ^  Soccerbase's total of 73 league appearances omits 4 of John's 22 substitute appearances during Birmingham City's 2003–04 season.^[7] The figure of 77 league appearances is confirmed by the Sky Sports Football Yearbook^[8] and at the Premier League's statistics page.^[9]

References

External links

• Stern John player profile at saintsfc.co.uk
• Official Website
• Stern John career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Trinidad and Tobago squad – 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup 1 Hislop • 2 Charles • 3 A. John • 4 Andrews • 5 Sancho • 6 Lawrence • 7 Birchall • 8 Eve • 9 Whitley • 10 Scotland • 11 Edwards • 12 Rahim • 13 Glen • 14 S. John • 15 Jones • 16 Pierre • 18 Theobald • 19 Spann • 20 Samuel • 21 Jack • 22 Williams • 23 Wolffe • 24 Gray • Coach: Beenhakker

v • d • e Trinidad and Tobago squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Hislop • 2 Cox • 3 A. John • 4 Andrews • 5 Sancho • 6 Lawrence • 7 Birchall • 8 Gray • 9 Whitley • 10 Latapy • 11 Edwards • 12 Samuel • 13 Glen • 14 S. John • 15 Jones • 16 Wise • 17 Charles • 18 Theobald • 19 Yorke • 20 Scotland • 21 Jack • 22 Ince • 23 Wolfe • Coach: Beenhakker