Matt Jansen
Personal information
Full name	Matthew Brooke Jansen
Date of birth	20 October 1977 (1977-10-20) (age 32)
Place of birth	Wetheral, Carlisle, England
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Leigh Genesis Player/Coach
Youth career
1993–1995	Carlisle United
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1995–1998 1998–1999 1999–2006 2003 2006 2009 2009–	Carlisle United Crystal Palace Blackburn Rovers → Coventry City (loan) Bolton Wanderers Wrexham Leigh Genesis	042 (10) 026 (10) 153 (44) 009 0(2) 006 0(0) 003 0(1) 000 0(0)
National team2
1999–2000	England U21	006 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 13:54, 27 April 2009 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 13:54, 21 August 2006 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Matthew Brooke "Matt" Jansen (born 20 October 1977) is an English footballer, who plays as a striker and currently plays for Leigh Genesis. He started his career with hometown club Carlisle United, and also played for Crystal Palace, Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers as well as a loan spell with Coventry City. He won six England under 21 caps.

[edit] Football career

Born in Wetheral, near Carlisle, Cumbria, A creative player, Jansen's career started at Carlisle United, where he scored 10 league goals. He turned down the chance to join Manchester United before signing for Crystal Palace in 1998 for £1 million, where his impressive displays earned him a move to Premier League side Blackburn Rovers for £4.1 million. Jansen showed signs of things to come when he scored against Tottenham Hotspur on his debut in January 1999.

Blackburn were relegated to the First Division in Jansen's first season, but he was the star of the team which won promotion back to the Premier League in the 2000/01 season, finishing as the league's second top scorer, after Fulham's Louis Saha, with 23 goals. He continued to impress in the following season, scoring the first goal in Blackburn's 2-1 League Cup final victory against Tottenham Hotspur in 2002. His good form led to a England call-up for the friendly game against Paraguay on 17 April 2002; however, a stomach illness forced him to miss the game and consequently denied him the chance to claim a place in the World Cup 2002 squad. He previously had played 6 times for the under-21s.

A motorcycle accident in Rome, Italy during the summer of 2002 nearly killed Jansen and long-term hospitalisation followed (he spent six days in a coma). In the seasons after the accident he struggled to regain his place in the Blackburn side which led to him being loaned to Coventry City in 2003, where he scored 2 goals in 9 appearances. He made another attempt to force his way into the Blackburn team at the start of the 2004/05 season, scoring 2 goals in 8 appearances. However, it was felt that he had still not recovered mentally from the accident and was struggling to cope with the pressures of Premier League football. As a result, Blackburn decided it best for him take another break from football and sent him to visit a sports psychiatrist in America.

In May 2005, Jansen signed a 2 year 'pay as you play' contract with Blackburn, suggesting that the club was ready to give him one final chance to establish himself in the team after his injury, and he returned to action in a pre-season friendly against Morecambe in July 2005.

However, Jansen once again struggled to gain a first-team place once the season started. Blackburn agreed to release him from his contract on 11 January 2006, two days later he signed for Bolton Wanderers on a six month contract, after interest from Stuart Pearce's Manchester City failed. His first game for his new club came, naturally, at Ewood Park. However, his stay at the Reebok Stadium was not a success and he was released in May of the same year.

In the summer of 2006, Jansen had a trial with the New York Red Bulls but the move led to nothing permanent due to rival team Columbus Crew allegedly exercising a loophole in transfer rules to block any move. Bolton manager Sam Allardyce invited the player back to England and he continued to train with Bolton. In the summer of 2007 he returned to his original club, Carlisle United, to train in an attempt to regain his fitness.^[1]

Despite developing other business interests such as property, Jansen has never ruled out a return to professional football and in July 2008, stated: "I'm keeping myself reasonably fit...we'll see what happens."^[2]

In November 2008, Blackburn announced that Jansen would return in a casual agreement to help regain fitness in a bid to have one last go at reclaiming the promising and glittering career he once had in professional football. Having trained with the club for 2 months he left Brockhall with the arrival of new manager Sam Allardyce. Jansen was present at the club's Premier League game with Newcastle United when he also featured in a pre-recorded half-time lottery draw broadcast on the club television station as part of the half-time "entertainment".^[3]

On February 18, he joined Football League One side Huddersfield Town on trial and was given a run-out in their reserve match against Rotherham United the same day, in which he scored the opening goal of a 2-2 draw.^[4]

On March 11, he agreed a deal with Conference National side Wrexham until the end of the season.

In the close season of 2009, Jansen joined up with former team mate Garry Flitcroft, currently manager of NPL Division One North side Leigh Genesis F.C. and will play for them in the 2009–10 season.

[edit] Club career statistics

Correct after 27 April 2009

[edit] Honours

[edit] Blackburn Rovers

• League Cup: 2001–02

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• BBC Sport profile
• Matt Jansen career stats at Soccerbase
• Matt Jansen discovers feeling for football again at timesonline.co.uk
• Wrexham profile