Marcus Bent
Personal information
Full name	Marcus Nathan Bent
Date of birth	19 May 1978 (1978-05-19) (age 31)
Place of birth	Hammersmith, London, England
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Middlesbrough (on loan from Birmingham City)
Number	19
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1995–1998 1998–1999 1999 1999–2000 2000–2001 2001–2004 2003–2004 2004–2006 2006–2008 2007–2008 2008– 2009–	Brentford Crystal Palace Port Vale Sheffield United Blackburn Rovers Ipswich Town → Leicester City (loan) Everton Charlton Athletic → Wigan Athletic (loan) Birmingham City → Middlesbrough (loan)	67 0(7) 28 0(5) 23 0(1) 48 (20) 37 0(8) 61 (21) 33 (10) 55 0(7) 46 0(4) 31 0(7) 33 0(3) 040(0)
National team2
	England U21	02 0(1)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17:55, 13 December 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 17:44, 3 May 2009 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Marcus Nathan Bent (born 19 May 1978) is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Middlesbrough on loan from Birmingham City.

Bent is a classic example of a journeyman footballer having plied his trade at numerous clubs. At club level, he previously played for Brentford, Crystal Palace, Port Vale, Sheffield United, Blackburn Rovers, Ipswich Town, Leicester City, Everton, Charlton Athletic and Wigan Athletic.

Bent has twice represented his country at under-21 level, scoring one goal.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Brentford

Bent was born in Hammersmith, London to parents of Jamaican origin.^[1] He attended St Paul's College in Sunbury-on-Thames and graduated through the Brentford F.C. youth ranks, usually playing as a forward. He played his first senior game at Bury on 17 August 1996, and scored his first senior goal on 10 September the same year, helping Brentford achieve a 3-2 victory over Blackpool. He was almost ever-present in a successful season that saw Brentford reach the Football League Second Division play-offs in May 1997, only to be beaten by Crewe Alexandra.

[edit] Crystal Palace & Port Vale

In January 1998, he moved to Crystal Palace for £300,000. Almost exactly a year later, in 1999, he went on to become a Port Vale player for £375,000, but stayed only nine months before being released and joining Sheffield United.

[edit] Blackburn Rovers

After 56 appearances for the Blades, he was sold for £2,050,000 to Blackburn Rovers in November 2000.^[2]

[edit] Ipswich

In November 2001 he was sold to Ipswich for £3 million.^[3] Bent was named Premier League Player of the Month for January 2002,^[4] the only Ipswich player ever to receive the honour.^{[citation needed]} Despite this he did not establish himself in the Suffolk side and went on loan to Premiership side Leicester City for the 2003–04 season during which they were relegated to the Football League First Division.

[edit] Everton

Before the start of the 2004–05 season, Bent transferred to Everton for a fee of £450,000.^[5] He became a regular starter at Everton in the lone centre forward role, but only managed seven goals, who proved key in securing draws at Southampton and at home to Aston Villa, as well as winning goals against Middlesbrough and Manchester City.

[edit] Charlton Athletic

In January 2006, it was announced that Bent had signed for Charlton Athletic in a deal worth £2.3 million,^[6] re-uniting him with his former teammates Hermann Hreiðarsson (from Ipswich and Palace) and Darren Bent (unrelated) (from Ipswich). Everton manager David Moyes said "It represents a good profit for us for an average player". Bent had only cost the Toffees £450,000 from Ipswich Town. He scored on his debut as a substitute against league champions Chelsea in a 1-1 draw.

He had been stuck on 99 career goals since November 2006 until he netted in Charlton's first game of the 2007–08 season against Scunthorpe in August 2007. He joined Wigan on the 31 August 2007 on "deadline day" on a season long loan move.^[7] Bent scored a hat-trick, his first in the Premier League, against Blackburn in a 5–3 win, on 15 December 2007. At the end of the season, however, Wigan turned down the opportunity to sign him and he returned to Charlton where was placed on the transfer list. Steve Bruce stated the reason for this is he was looking for someone different to work with Wigan front man Emile Heskey.

[edit] Birmingham City

He signed a three-year deal for Birmingham City on 16 July 2008 for a fee in excess of £1 million,^[8] after rejecting the opportunity to join Cardiff City.^[9][10]

[edit] Middlesbrough

He became Gordon Strachan's first signing for Middlesbrough when he joined on a two-month loan deal on 30 October 2009.^[11]

[edit] Personal life

Bent had been engaged to Kelly Clark, with whom he has a daughter, but their relationship broke down and they split up. He has since been involved with model Danielle Lloyd^[12] and actress Gemma Atkinson,^[13] to whom he was briefly engaged.^[14]

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Marcus Bent player profile at cafc.co.uk
• Marcus Bent player profile at wiganlatics.co.uk
• Marcus Bent player profile at lcfc.co.uk
• Marcus Bent career stats at Soccerbase