Darren Beckford
Personal information
Full name	Darren Richard Lorenzo Beckford
Date of birth	12 June 1967 (1967-06-12) (age 42)
Place of birth	Moss Side, Manchester, England
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Forward
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1984–1987 1985 1987–1991 1991–1993 1993–1996 1996–1997 1997 1997 1997 1997 1997 1997–1998	Manchester City → Bury (loan) Port Vale Norwich City Oldham Athletic Hearts Preston North End Fulham Walsall Rushden & Diamonds Southport Bury	011 0(0) 012 0(5) 167 (68) 049 (13) 052 (17) 007 0(0) 002 0(0) 00? 0(?) 008 0(0) 00? 0(?) 001 0(0) 00? 0(?)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Darren Richard Lorenzo Beckford (born 12 June 1967 in Moss Side, Manchester, England) is a former professional footballer. His younger brother Jason also played professional football.

[edit] Playing career

Beckford was a product of the Manchester City youth team he made eleven appearances for the Maine Road side before spending loan periods at Bury and Port Vale, moving to Vale on a permanent basis for £15,000 (plus 50%of any future transfer fee). He played 214 games and scored 81 times for the Vale, becoming the club's top scorer four seasons running with ten goals in 1987–88 (joint with David Riley), 23 in 1988–89, 18 in 1989–90 and 23 in 1990–91. He was sold to Norwich City in June 1991.^[1] The fee that Norwich paid for him - £925,000 - was set by a football league tribunal (Vale had wanted £1,500,000) and was a club record that stood until 1994.

Norwich manager Dave Stringer had been looking to sign a regular goalscorer for some time, and when Beckford signed he described him as "the answer to the Norwich supporters prayers". His spell at Carrow Road was inconsistent, however, and he only scored 13 times in 49 appearances, including a hat-trick in a 4-3 win against Everton. In 1992 he took over in goal when Bryan Gunn sustained a back injury during a game against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. He made a number of saves but was finally beaten in a 1-0 defeat.

The signing of Mark Robins for £800,000 from Manchester United and the emergence of Chris Sutton coupled with a lack of goal scoring form meant that after less than two seasons with Norwich, Beckford was sold to Oldham in 1993 for £300,000, where he played 52 times and scored 17 goals before being released in the summer of 1996. He then played for Hearts, Fulham, Walsall, Rushden & Diamonds, Southport and Total Network Solutions before retiring.

[edit] Post-retirement

Beckford also began working for the Prince's Trust working with youngsters in Manchester. In September 1998 he won a successful tribunal case against the trust for being racially victimised.

Darren was recently featured on the Sky Sports series "Where are they now", Darren is now an attendance officer at Claremont Primary School in Moss Side, Manchester.^[2]

[edit] Honours

with Port Vale

• Football League Third Division Play-off winner: 1989

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Darren Beckford career stats at Soccerbase