Nigel Reo-Coker

Nigel Shola Andre Reo-Coker (born 14 May 1984) is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder, as well as a football commentator and pundit for CBS Sports.

Reo-Coker came through the youth team ranks at Wimbledon, and has previously played for West Ham United, Aston Villa, Bolton Wanderers, Ipswich Town, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Chivas USA, Montreal Impact, Start and Milton Keynes Dons.

Reo-Coker was born at Guy's Hospital in Southwark, London, but lived in Sierra Leone for the first six years of his life, after his parents moved there to work, with his sisters Natalie and Vanessa.

His father, Ransford, was a general practitioner and his mother Agnes was a nurse, and after the two separated in 1990, Agnes returned to south London with her children.

Reo-Coker attended Riddlesdown High School in Purley, London.

Reo-Coker was spotted by London club Wimbledon at the age of twelve after representing the borough of Croydon.

He came through the ranks at Wimbledon and became captain after progressing to the first team.

He also made his debut for the England Under-21s while at Wimbledon.

In March 2003, Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp agreed a deal to bring Reo-Coker to the south coast club in preparation for their first Premiership season.

Financial problems resulted in the player remaining at Wimbledon despite having already signed contracts with Portsmouth.

Reo-Coker made 64 appearances for Wimbledon in all competitions, scoring six goals.

After an impressive first half of the 2003–04 season, he signed for West Ham in January 2004.

After the move, Reo-Coker stated that he joined West Ham United, believing the club can bounce back to the Premier League.

He made his West Ham debut on 31 January 2004 in a 2–1 home win against Rotherham United.

His first West Ham goal came on 9 March 2004 against his former club, Wimbledon as he scored the fourth goal in a 5–0 win.

He quickly became a regular member of Alan Pardew's first team and was made the club captain.

In his first season West Ham made the 2004 First Division play-off final but lost 1–0 in Cardiff to Crystal Palace.

In his second season, he scored three times and played 39 matches from a possible 46 matches to help the club win promotion to the Premier League in 2004–05 through the play-offs and led the team to the FA Cup Final in May 2006.

The 2006–07 Premiership campaign began less successfully for West Ham, and Reo-Coker was singled out by some groups as being the main culprit for this slump, which left West Ham perilously close to the bottom three and ultimately led to the sacking of manager Alan Pardew.

New manager Alan Curbishley identified him as being part of the team which had lost direction and was in danger of being relegated back to the Championship.

Reo-Coker recovered his form in the latter part of the season and a run of seven wins in nine matches, inspired by Carlos Tevez, saw West Ham escape relegation on the last day of the season with a 1–0 win at Manchester United, which turned out to be Reo-Coker's last appearance for West Ham.

He requested a transfer at the end of the 2006–07 season after the board failed to reassure him concerning his future at West Ham.

Reo-Coker intended to sort his future out in the summer before the 2007–08 season, saying in May 2007, "I do not know what my future is and need to sit down and talk with the manager and the chairman this week. I have been through the mill this season, but it has made me a stronger person and I would not have changed anything. I am a very loyal person but to play at my best I need to be happy. I made a promise to West Ham fans that I would help keep this club in the Premier League and I have done that."

Aston Villa were reported to have made a £7m bid for Reo-Coker in June and in July 2007, West Ham and Aston Villa reached an agreement in the region of £8.5 million.

He made 142 appearances in all competitions for West Ham scoring 11 goals.

He was also booked 33 times.

Reo-Coker joined Aston Villa on 5 July 2007 for a reported £8.5 million, signing a four-year contract.

At the press conference following the signing, he spoke of being "hung out to dry" by his former club, West Ham United, and said that his reason for joining Villa was, "their aspiration to play in Europe; they have a talented squad and Martin O'Neill has told me what he aims to do and I believe we can achieve it."

He scored his first goal for Villa in a 5–0 League Cup 2nd round victory over Wrexham on 28 August 2007.

On 21 January 2008, Reo-Coker captained Aston Villa in the absence of regular captain Gareth Barry against Liverpool at Anfield.

He scored his first Premier League goal for Aston Villa in a 2–1 win over Tottenham at White Hart Lane.

He then scored again later that week to equalise for Villa in the UEFA Cup against Litex Lovech.

Villa went on to win this match 3–1.

During his time at Villa, Reo-Coker was known to operate as a right-back and right-winger occasionally when players who would usually play in those positions were unavailable.

Reo-Coker captained Aston Villa in the latter stages of the 2009 Peace Cup, following an injury to teammate Stiliyan Petrov.

This was the case in the final, as Villa were triumphant and Reo-Coker consequently lifted the trophy.

He re-established himself as a regular starter in the Villa team following the departure of Gareth Barry.

On 18 September 2009, he was involved in a training ground incident, described as a "strong verbal disagreement" with manager Martin O'Neill and dropped for the following day's match with Portsmouth.

A few weeks later, Reo-Coker was recalled by O'Neill, having been called ahead of a match.

Reo-Coker enjoyed a resurgence at the start of the 2010–11 season under new Villa manager Gérard Houllier and following news in October 2010 that captain Petrov would be out injured for two months, Houllier named him as captain until Petrov's return.