Bobby Zamora

Robert Lester Zamora (born 16 January 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Zamora began his career at Football League club Bristol Rovers, but was soon signed by Brighton & Hove Albion, where he found first-team success.

Zamora scored 77 goals in three seasons and helped the club achieve two successive promotions.

Following a spell at Tottenham Hotspur, Zamora was signed by West Ham United, where he played for five years and won promotion to the Premier League.

Zamora joined Bristol Rovers as a trainee in August 1999, making a total of six substitute appearances for Bristol Rovers in all competitions, before joining Bath City on a one-month loan in early 2000, where he scored 11 goals in eight appearances, and then Brighton & Hove Albion on loan in February 2000.

Zamora joined Brighton in February 2000 on a three-month loan until the end of the 1999–2000 season, scoring six goals in six appearances.

In August 2000, he made a permanent move to Brighton for a £100,000 fee.

During his tenure he quickly established himself as a prolific goalscorer, breaking into the England national under-21 team and attracting interest from several higher-division clubs.

He scored 83 times for the club in 136 appearances, helping Brighton win two successive championships as the team won promotion into what became the Championship.

The Brighton fans had a chant they used to sing in his honour, to the tune of Dean Martin's "That's Amore": "When the ball hits the goal it's not Shearer or Cole, it's Zamora."

Having been watched for much of the previous two seasons by the then manager Glenn Hoddle, Zamora moved to Tottenham Hotspur for a £1.5 million fee in July 2003.

However, he struggled to gain a consistent first-team place at White Hart Lane, making only 18 cup and league appearances, 11 as substitute, and scoring a single goal, knocking West Ham United out of the League Cup in October 2003.

In January 2004, Zamora joined West Ham in a deal which saw Jermain Defoe go the other way to Tottenham Hotspur.

He quickly made his mark, scoring on his debut as West Ham came from behind to beat Bradford City and also on his home debut, when he scored the winning goal against Cardiff City.

In the 2004–05 season, Zamora scored 13 goals, including one in the first leg and two in the second leg of the Championship play-off semi-final against Ipswich Town and the only goal in West Ham's 1–0 victory over Preston North End in the 2005 Championship play-off final sending West Ham into the Premier League.

In the 2005–06 season, he made 42 league and cup appearances and scored ten goals as West Ham finished in the top half of the Premier League and reached the FA Cup final, for which he received an FA Cup runners-up medal, missing a penalty in the shootout against Liverpool.

He was rewarded for his contribution to the team with a new four-year contract in January 2006, and extended it to 2011 in October 2006, saying, "I'm delighted to have extended my contract and I'm now looking forward to spending my long-term future at Upton Park. I've been here for almost three years now, and there is really no other place I would rather be. This is my club and wearing a claret and blue shirt is all I have ever wanted to do."

He started the 2006–07 season well, scoring five of West Ham's six goals in the first four matches of the season but, as West Ham hit a bad patch that saw them struggling in the relegation places, he did not score again until January 2007.

However, he ended the season with 11 goals, including a controversial goal against Blackburn Rovers in March 2007 and being the first player to score a winning goal against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in April 2007, as West Ham pulled off an unexpected escape from relegation.

He made only 14 appearances for West Ham in the 2007–08 season after missing five months of the season with tendinitis suffered in August 2007 but scored against Derby in West Ham's 2–1 win.

By the end of the 2007–08 season, Zamora had made 152 appearances in all competitions for West Ham, scoring 40 goals.

Zamora joined Fulham in 2008, where, in his first season, he played regularly but scored only four goals.

In July 2008, Zamora and teammate John Paintsil were signed by Fulham for a joint total of £6.3 million, Zamora accounting for £4.8 million of the fee.

In his first season with Fulham, Zamora struggled to find the net, scoring just twice in 35 league appearances over the 2008–09 season.

After the season had concluded, Fulham and Hull City agreed a fee on 15 July, which would have seen Zamora move to Hull for £5 million.

Zamora turned down the move to stay with Fulham.

Shortly after he turned down Hull, he played in a friendly against Peterborough United and scored twice in a 3–3 draw.

Four days later he made his UEFA Europa League debut, against FK Vėtra of Lithuania, scoring once and setting up two goals to give Fulham a 3–0 away advantage going into the second leg.

However, Zamora's form in the 2009–10 season gained praise and subsequently saw the player gain a call-up for England.

He opened his 2009–10 Premier League account on the opening day of the season when a Clint Dempsey shot hit him on the back and beat David James in the Portsmouth goal.

He scored his second goal of the season against Hull on 19 October 2009 by heading in a rebound in the 43rd minute as Fulham won 2–0.

By scoring the lone goal against Sunderland on 6 December 2009, Zamora doubled his output from the previous season with his fourth goal of the campaign.

In celebrating his winning goal, Zamora held a finger against his lips in response to the Fulham fans who had previously jeered him.

On 17 December 2009, with Fulham needing a win to progress from Group E in the UEFA Europa League, Zamora scored twice against Basel in a 3–2 victory at St. Jakob-Park.

Zamora had an important role in Fulham's successes in the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Europa League, before transferring to Queens Park Rangers in January 2012.

He returned to play for Brighton in 2015 and retired from football in December 2016.

Zamora also played for the England national under-21 team before gaining his first full cap at senior level almost a decade later.

Born in Barking, London, Zamora attended Essex Junior School (in Manor Park) followed by Little Ilford School before moving onto Barking Abbey Secondary School.

As a boy, he played for Senrab in east London, alongside John Terry, Ledley King, Paul Konchesky and Jlloyd Samuel.

A lifelong West Ham United fan, he started his footballing career as an apprentice at the club's Academy of Football but was released from the east London club on the same year group as Samuel, Fitz Hall and Konchesky.