Nigel Quashie

However, Quashie remained a first choice player, making 25 appearances as Portsmouth claimed 13th place in the Premier League.

Nigel Francis Quashie (born 20 July 1978) is an English-born Scottish former footballer who played more than 300 games as a midfielder in the Football League.

He began his career in London as a trainee with Queens Park Rangers in August 1995, making his League debut in a 2–1 defeat against Manchester United at Old Trafford a few months later in December 1995.

He was used sparingly for the remainder of that campaign, making eleven appearances as QPR were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the 1995–96 season.

He made a further 13 appearances in the 1996–97 season before breaking into the first eleven on a regular basis in the 1997–98 season when he made 34 league and cup appearances.

Quashie joined Premier League side Nottingham Forest for £2.5 million at the start of the 1998–99 season but made only 18 appearances as Forest were comfortably relegated.

He settled into the team in the 1999–2000 season, making 34 appearances, but was transfer listed by manager, David Platt, at the end of a disappointing season as Forest finished well short of the promotion places.

By July, he reportedly had attracted interest from several clubs, including West Bromwich Albion and Birmingham City with Portsmouth understood to have made an offer.

Quashie joined Portsmouth in August 2000 for a fee worth up to £600,000, signing a three-year contract.

He quickly established himself in the first-team, making 37 league and cup appearances in the 2001–02 season as Portsmouth finished in the lower half of the First Division.

He made a further 44 appearances in the 2002–03 season and was club vice-captain when Portsmouth won the First Division championship and were promoted to the Premier League.

No sooner had he returned from a six-week layoff with a knee injury in December 2003 than he suffered an injury to his opposite knee leading him to miss a further six weeks of the 2003–04 season.

Between 2004 and 2006, he represented Scotland, the country of his grandfather, at full international level on 14 occasions.

Quashie was born in the London Borough of Southwark to a Ghanaian father and an English mother.

He and former wife Joanna had a son, who died shortly after birth, and a daughter.

He has a son with partner Kerry Clarke.

Although Quashie was a regular starter in the 2004–05 season and club captain, he had not been offered a new contract despite being out of contract at the end of the season and joined former Portsmouth manager, Harry Redknapp, at Southampton during the January 2005 transfer window.

After the transfer of Jason Dodd, he became the club's captain but he was unable to prevent the Saints being relegated at the end of the 2004–05 season.

Despite relegation, Quashie said that he had no regrets over the move to Southampton as he had been unhappy with the way he had been treated at Portsmouth.

Quashie joined Southampton for a fee of £2.1 million in January 2005, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract.

He said, "It's a big move for me and I am happy to be linking up with Harry Redknapp again. I am certain we will stay up – I would not have come here if I had any doubts about that, but we need to get a few results quickly."

The chairman of Southampton, Rupert Lowe, said, "Harry really wanted Nigel – he thinks he is a strong character who will add to the dressing room. We are delighted to make him our third signing since Harry arrived."

A training ground injury prevented Quashie from making his debut against Liverpool on 22 January 2005 and he did not make his debut until the match against Everton on 6 February.

However, following Redknapp's departure and his replacement with George Burley, Quashie was allowed to leave Southampton in the January 2006 transfer window.

Quashie joined West Bromwich Albion in January 2006 for £1.2 million, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract.

Manager Bryan Robson, "I always liked Nigel when he played for QPR, Portsmouth and Southampton. He is intelligent, has good stamina and is a very good passer of the ball. He has got the experience now of relegation fights and playing in the Premiership. I just feel he will improve our squad."

He made his debut for Albion in a 2–0 Premier League win over Blackburn Rovers on 4 February 2006.

He was charged with misconduct by the Football Association after being sent off against Middlesbrough three weeks later for alleged use of foul and abusive language towards the referee's assistants as he left the pitch and was given a one-game ban in addition to a four-game ban for the sending off, his second of the season, and a £5,000 fine after admitting misconduct.

His only goal for the club came in a 3–1 defeat against Arsenal in April 2006.

Albion were relegated at the end of the season.

Quashie achieved the rare distinction of being relegated from the Premiership in two successive seasons.

Quashie became Alan Curbishley's second signing of the transfer window when he joined West Ham United on a three-and-a-half-year contract for an initial fee of £1.5 million, rising to £1.75 million after West Ham successfully avoided relegation in the 2006–07 season.

Curbishley explained that he had signed Quashie "...because he is an experienced player who will add competition to our central midfield positions [...] The competition for places is a factor that will be important to us as we fight to move up the table..."

Quashie made his debut against Fulham a few days later and went on to make eight appearances, none of them on the winning side, as West Ham battled against relegation.

Following relegation, Quashie was allowed to leave in the January 2007 transfer window as he expressed a wish to return to the Premier League and manager, Tony Mowbray, wanted to raise some revenue to bring in new players.

A persistent foot injury meant that Quashie did not play a single competitive match during 2007–08.

He made his comeback in a friendly match against Queens Park Rangers in August 2008.

The signing of Swiss international Valon Behrami in the summer of 2008 and the emergence of academy graduates Jack Collison and Junior Stanislas meant that competition for midfield places was much stiffer.

Quashie trained with Birmingham City of the Championship for several weeks to regain fitness before signing on loan, initially for a month, on 22 October 2008.

In January 2010 he was released by West Ham and rejoined QPR.