Carl Edward Richard Cort (born 1 November 1977 in Southwark) is an English footballer who plays as a forward. In August 2009 he signed for League 1 Brentford on a free transfer.

He has previously played for Wimbledon, Lincoln City, Newcastle United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City, UD Marbella and Norwich City.

He is the older brother of Leon Cort who is currently playing for Stoke City.

[edit] Career

Cort, born in London of Guyanese descent, began his career with Wimbledon as a teenager. He went on loan to Lincoln City, and when he came back to the Dons, he scored in the first minute of his full debut against Newcastle United in September 1997. A place in the England under-21s soon followed.

Newcastle boss Bobby Robson paid £7million for Cort in the summer of 2000. He is one of six English players who have made a £7 million transfer and never played for England, the others being Dean Richards, Kevin Davies, Nigel Reo-Coker, Curtis Davies and Anton Ferdinand^{[citation needed]}

He scored on his home debut against Derby County for Newcastle, but unfortunately struggled with hamstring problems and underwent surgery after only a few appearances for his new club. He did eventually return to the first team in March 2001, and went on to score five goals in ten appearances before the season ended.

In 2001–02, injury ruined his season again. Cort was ruled out until March due to injuries to his ankle and knee. He travelled to the United States for specialist treatment and was treated by the same surgeon who treated future team-mate Joleon Lescott. The injuries appeared to take their toll, and Cort struggled to make an impact in the Premier League.

Having recovered from injury, he moved to Wolverhampton Wanderers for £2 million during January 2004. He scored five goals for his new club that season but could not prevent relegation from the top flight. In the 2004–05 season, his form improved and he scored 16 goals in 40 appearances. Wolves had an indifferent season in 2005–06. Cort began the season well, scoring nine goals in the first 11 matches. Injury interrupted his season again, and by the end of May, Cort had added only two more to his tally, totalling 11 goals in 24 appearances. After the following campaign was again plagued by injury, he was released by Wolves in May 2007.

On 8 June 2007, Cort signed a two year contract with Leicester City.^[1] He scored his only goal for the club in a 4-3 League Cup defeat to Chelsea on 31 October.^[2] Although it won Leicester City's Goal of the Month for October,^[3] Cort failed to score a single league goal, and he was transfer listed on 23 December.^[4] He was released by the club by mutual consent on 11 January.^[5] On 30 January, Cort joined Spanish club UD Marbella, who play in the Segunda División B.^[6]

Cort returned to England when he signed for Norwich City on 9 December 2008 until the end of the 2008–09 season.^[7] He made his debut for Norwich against Reading at the Madejski Stadium and scored his first goal for the club in a 3–3 draw at Wolves on 3 February 2009.^[8] This was his first league goal since March 2006, when he netted for Wolves in a Championship fixture at Hull City.^[9] Following Norwich's relegation to League One Cort left the club after having his contract terminated by mutual consent.^[10].

After leaving Norwich, Cort went on trial with Wycombe Wanderers but was not offered a contract.^[11] He later went on to sign for Brentford on a five month deal.^[12] He scored his first goal for Brentford against Swindon Town on 3 October 2009.^[13]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Carl Cort career stats at Soccerbase