Jermaine Beckford

Beckford arrived at the King Power Stadium just 40 minutes before the summer transfer window closed to sign a four-year contract, making him Leicester City's 12th signing of the summer.

Jermaine Paul Alexander Beckford (born 9 December 1983) is a football pundit and former professional footballer who played as a striker.

He began his career as a trainee at Chelsea, and played for Wealdstone, Uxbridge, Leeds United, Carlisle United, Scunthorpe United, Everton, Leicester City, Huddersfield Town, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End and Bury.

He also represented Jamaica at international level.

Beckford originally began his career in the Chelsea youth team, coming through the schoolboy ranks at the same time as Carlton Cole.

Rejected by Chelsea in 2003, he was signed up by Wealdstone, then in the Isthmian Premier League, and played as a semi-professional for three years whilst also working as a windscreen fitter for the RAC.

His very impressive goal scoring record for Wealdstone attracted a lot of attention from Football League sides and reportedly more than 30 professional clubs showed an interest in the prolific striker, with many sending scouts to watch him play for Wealdstone.

He had a trial with Championship side Crystal Palace, before signing for Leeds United in March 2006 for an undisclosed fee, having scored 35 goals in 40 games for Wealdstone that season.

Beckford made his debut for Championship side Leeds coming on as a substitute in a home defeat against Crystal Palace on 21 March.

He only made four more first team appearances.

He joined Carlisle United on a month's loan on 5 October 2006 and scored on his debut for the club in a game against Millwall.

After completing his loan spell, he returned to Leeds, made a single appearance, and was loaned out again, this time to League One promotion challengers Scunthorpe United until the end of the season.

He played in every single game after his arrival, scoring eight goals, as Scunthorpe went on to finish as champions.

Returning to Leeds for the 2007–08 season (their first—of three—in League One), Beckford scored his first competitive goal for the club in a 4–1 victory against Southend United on 18 August.

In March 2008 he won two awards at the third annual Football League Awards at Grosvenor House Hotel in London – League One Player of the Year and the Football League Goal of the Year, for his strike against Rotherham United during his loan spell with Scunthorpe United.

Beckford started the 2008–09 season by scoring ten goals in eight starts, including his first ever professional hat-trick as Leeds beat League Two side Chester City in the first round of the League Cup.

By the end of the season he had scored 27 goals in all competitions and was offered a new contract by the club.

After initially rejecting it, he was transfer listed.

Two bids for Beckford were rejected by Leeds, and then he was removed from the transfer list, remaining at the club.

Beckford signed a new three-year deal with Leeds, keeping him at the club until the end of the 2009–10 season, and won October 2007's League One Fans' Player of the Month award.

By the end of December in the 2009–10 season Beckford already had 18 goals for the season and, with interest from Newcastle United reported, he handed in a transfer request.

He came to further prominence scoring the only goal as Leeds beat old rivals Manchester United in the third round of the FA Cup – the first time they had been knocked out of a competition so early under Alex Ferguson.

Beckford then withdrew his transfer request days before scoring twice in the FA Cup fourth round, taking Tottenham Hotspur to a replay.

By the end of the season Beckford had scored 31 goals in all competitions, 25 in the league, as Leeds finished in second place to gain automatic promotion to the Championship.

He won Leeds United's goal of the season at Leeds' annual Player of the Season awards for his goal against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

Following the end of the season, in May 2010, Leeds cancelled Beckford's contract a month early to enable him to find a new club.

In May 2010, Beckford signed for Everton on a four-year contract on a free transfer and was given squad number 16.

After playing and scoring in pre-season friendlies Beckford made his Everton debut as a second-half substitute against Blackburn Rovers and his full debut a week later at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

He scored his first goal for the club, a penalty, against Huddersfield Town in the League Cup in August 2010 and an injury-time equaliser at home against his future employers Bolton Wanderers in November 2010 was Beckford's first league goal for the Toffees.

He also scored at Anfield against Liverpool in the Merseyside derby.

In the last game of the season he scored a solo goal in a 1–0 win against Chelsea at Goodison Park.

At the end of his debut season for Everton he had scored eight goals in the league and ten in all competitions.

On 31 August 2011, Everton accepted a £2.5 million bid for Beckford from Championship side Leicester City.

He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 win over Watford on 19 October 2011.

On 17 January, Beckford scored his first hat-trick for Leicester, in a 4–0 FA Cup win over Nottingham Forest – Leicester's rivals.

He scored a brace against Swindon Town in the FA Cup, and scored two more braces in March 2012, in a 3–1 win against Birmingham City, and a 3–3 draw against Blackpool.

On 28 September 2012, it was announced that Jermaine Beckford had joined Huddersfield Town on a 93-day emergency loan until 29 December, following a week training with the Leicester City under 21 squad and a failed loan bid from the same club on 31 August.

He made his debut the following day in the 3–2 loss to Watford at the John Smith's Stadium.

He scored his first goal for the club in the 1–0 win over Birmingham City at St Andrew's on 6 October 2012.

On 17 July 2013, he moved to Bolton Wanderers for an undisclosed fee, signing a two-year contract.