Darren Bent (born February 6, 1984 in Tooting, London) is an
English professional football player. Bent, a striker, plays for
Charlton Athletic and wears the shirt number 10.
He was a product of Ipswich Town's excellent youth academy and
was the club's top goalscorer in the 2004/05 season (with 19
goals alongside Shefki Kuqi) and completed a £2.7 millon
transfer to Charlton that summer after Ipswich failed to reach
the Premier League for a third successive season. He was a
prolific forward at Ipswich scoring 55 times in 141 games.
He has also represented England at Under-19 level with an
impressive 8 goals in 12 appearances and at Under-21 level with
an equally impressive 9 goals in 14 appearances. At the start of
the next U21 campaign (in September 2006) Bent will be 22, and
thus ineligible.
On August 13 2005, the opening day of the 2005/06 Premiership
season, Bent had a dream debut which saw him score a brace for
Charlton playing at Sunderland. That same day, he was also
called up to the England senior team for the August 17, 2005
friendly against Denmark.
He continued his scoring record on August 20, 2005 against
Premiership newcomers Wigan Athletic, a game which ended in a
1-0 win to Charlton. Bent was then called into the full England
squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Wales and Northern
Ireland. He also was named the August Premiership Player of The
Month.
Bent continued scoring regularly for Charlton and scored his 9th
goal in just 11 games for 'the Addicks' when he netted past
Carlo Cudicini of Chelsea on the 26th of October 2005 on the way
to knocking The Blues out of the Carling Cup. He had also scored
against Hartlepool in the previous round.
After being called up to the squad for a fourth time, Bent made
his England debut on March 1, 2006, starting against Uruguay at
Anfield in a pre-World Cup friendly match (he wore the number 10
shirt). |
