Leeds United
(England), Newcastle United (England), Real Madrid CF (Spain), Middlesbrough (England)
Honours
???
Biography
Jonathan Woodgate (born January 22, 1980 in Middlesbrough,
Teesside) is an English footballer, who plays as a defender for
Spanish club side Real Madrid.
Woodgate signed for Madrid, frequently hailed as the biggest and
most prestigious football club in the world, in August 2004 for
a transfer fee of £13.4 million. This was to the surprise of
many in the football world, as he had been prone to frequent
absences through injury at his previous club, England's
Newcastle United, where he had only been available for 37 of the
128 games that Newcastle played since he was signed.
Before signing for Newcastle in January 2003 for £9 million,
Woodgate had previously played for Leeds United. He had begun
his career at Leeds as a junior at the age of thirteen, after
being spotted by one of the club's scouts whilst playing for his
local junior team, Marton. He helped Leeds to win the FA Youth
Cup in 1997, and in November the following year made his debut
for the senior side.
He has been capped several times by England, making his debut
for the national side under manager Kevin Keegan in 1999.
However, both his club and international career have frequently
been interrupted, not only by injury, but by controversy.
In 2000 he was involved in a court case and subsequently banned
for a time due to his involvement with an incident outside a
nightclub in Leeds. He was eventually convicted of affray and
sentenced to one hundred hours of community service, as well as
having been banned from international selection by the Football
Association, which prevented him from being selected for the
England squad for the 2002 World Cup. In September 2002, however,
he returned to the England squad and has since regularly been
called-up when fit.
Woodgate did not appear for Real at all in his first season in
Spain. He finally made his debut on September 22, in a league
match against Athletic Bilbao. However, the game went extremely
badly for him, as he scored an own goal and was later sent off
for a second bookable offence. Woodgate scored his first goal
for Real Madrid in the 4-1 UEFA Champions League defeat of
Rosenborg B.K. on October 19, 2005, his first appearance for the
club in European competition.
As of February 2006, Woodgate has established himself as a first-team
player, with the other centre half position alongside him often
rotating among the likes of Sergio Ramos, Ivan Helguera,
Francisco Pavon and Alvaro Mejia, with one Spanish newspaper
even having described him as having "become Madrid's true
leader". He was considered to have an outside chance of making
the England squad for Germany 2006, but looks likely to have
surgery on his back, which will rule him out.
