Darren Bent

Darren Ashley Bent (born 6 February 1984) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker.

He played in the Premier League and Championship for nine clubs, and at senior international level for the England national team.

Bent started his career with Godmanchester Rovers before being scouted by Ipswich Town.

Bent progressed through Ipswich Town's youth system, having joined the club at age 14 in 1998, after considering a possible career in athletics.

After progressing through their youth system, he made his first-team debut in 2001.

He signed a professional contract with Ipswich on 2 July 2001.

He made his first-team debut on 1 November 2001 in a 3–1 victory against Helsingborg in the UEFA Cup, and scored his first senior goal in a 4–1 League Cup defeat to Newcastle United on 27 November 2001.

He finished the 2001–02 season with seven appearances and two goals in all competitions, and also saw his team Ipswich face relegation into the First Division.

Bent scored his first Premier League goal on 24 April 2002 in a 1–0 win over Middlesbrough.

He became a key part of Ipswich's first-team squad during the 2002–03 season.

He scored his first goal of the season on 24 August, scoring the equalizing goal in a 1–1 draw with Millwall.

On 31 October 2002 he scored the winning goal against Slovan Liberec in the UEFA Cup.

On 2 March he scored in a 2–0 win against Norwich City in the East Anglian derby.

Bent finished the 2002–03 season with 18 goals, while also winning Ipswich's Young Player of the Year award.

He made 14 appearances and scored 9 goals for the under-21 team after making his debut against Italy in 2003.

Bent signed a new contract with Ipswich on 13 June 2003, signing a deal until June 2006.

He continued to feature regularly during the 2003–04 season.

On 16 March, he scored a hat-trick in a 3–1 win over Walsall.

Ipswich finished 5th in the league in the 2003–04 season, eventually losing out to West Ham United over two legs in the play-offs, with Bent scoring the winning goal in the first-leg as Ipswich won 1–0 at Portman Road, before losing the second-leg 0–2.

Bent finished the season as Ipswich's top-scorer with 16 goals.

He once again helped Ipswich challenge for promotion during the following season, continuing his goal scoring form alongside strike partner Shefki Kuqi.

Ipswich finished 3rd in the 2004–05 season, narrowly missing out on automatic promotion by two points, before losing out to West Ham United in the play-off semi-finals for the second consecutive season.

He finished the season with 20 goals, being the team's joint highest goalscorer along with Shefki Kuqi.

He made 122 appearances and scored 48 goals in the league for Ipswich, before joining Charlton Athletic for a fee of £2.5 million in 2005.

Bent completed a transfer to Charlton Athletic on 1 June 2005, which was worth an initial fee of £2.5 million, but would have risen to £3 million if he made an agreed number of appearances for Charlton and for England.

On the opening day of the 2005–06 Premier League season, Bent scored two goals on his Charlton debut against Sunderland, and was named Premier League Player of the Month for August.

He scored in his first four appearances for the club, one of only six players to perform this feat in the Premier League.

Bent was the highest scoring Englishman in the Premier League in 2005–06, with 18 goals (22 overall), which made him third highest scorer and was given Charlton's Player of the Year award.

He made his debut for the senior England team in 2006 against Uruguay, and went on to make 13 appearances for England, scoring four goals.

Bent finished 2006–07 with 13 goals in the Premier League, again finishing as Charlton's top goalscorer, but was unable to prevent them from being relegated into the Championship after seven successive seasons of Premier League football.

He was Charlton Athletic's top goalscorer for two consecutive seasons and joined Tottenham Hotspur for a club-record fee of £16.5 million in 2007.

After two seasons at Tottenham, he joined Sunderland.

Charlton accepted a bid from West Ham United for him in June 2007, but Bent was not interested in a move to the club.

Bent completed a move to Tottenham Hotspur for a club-record fee of £16.5 million on 29 June 2007, which was to be payable over three years and is inclusive of add-on payments.

Ipswich were entitled to 20% of Charlton's profit on Bent under a sell-on clause, which gave the club an initial £2.58 million.

He scored his first goal on 7 September 2010 in a 3–1 UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match victory against Switzerland.

He signed an extension to his contract at Charlton in July, which contracted him until June 2010.

After a successful 18 months at Sunderland, he joined Aston Villa in 2011.

Bent had loans with Fulham, Brighton & Hove Albion and Derby County, and after being released by Villa in 2015, joined Derby permanently.

Bent represented England at under-15, under-16, under-19, under-21 and senior levels.