Dwight Yorke

Dwight Eversley Yorke CM (born 3 November 1971) is a Trinidadian and Tobagonian professional football coach and former player who was most recently in charge of Australian A-League club Macarthur FC.

Throughout his club career, he played for Aston Villa, Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Birmingham City, Sydney FC and Sunderland, mainly as a forward, between 1988 and 2009.

At international level, Yorke represented Trinidad and Tobago on 74 occasions between 1989 and 2009, scoring 19 goals.

Yorke was first discovered by Graham Taylor, at the time the Aston Villa manager, on a tour of the West Indies in 1989.

Yorke, aged 17, appeared in a team that played a friendly against Aston Villa.

Taylor was impressed and offered Yorke a trial at Villa.

During his time with Aston Villa, from 1989 to 1998, Yorke played initially as a right winger until the 1995–96 season, he then switched to centre forward and quickly established himself as one of the Premier League's top strikers.

Yorke was subsequently given a permanent contract and played for the Villa Reserve and Youth sides for the majority of the 1989–90 season, making his First Division debut for Aston Villa against Crystal Palace on 24 March 1990: Crystal Palace won the game 1–0.

He also has the distinct honour of being the last Villa player to score in front of the old Holte End standing terrace, notching both goals in a 2–1 victory on the final day of the 1993–94 season, 7 May 1994.

The circumstances of his departure from Aston Villa were controversial.

John Gregory, Aston Villa manager at that time, made it known that the club did not want to sell Yorke to Manchester United unless they were prepared to exchange striker Andy Cole.

Yorke then approached Gregory to state that he wanted to leave the club, to which Gregory was later attributed as saying that he would have shot Yorke if he had had a gun in his office.

Yorke was an integral member of the Villa team that reached the League Cup Final in 1996.

Villa won 3–0 against Leeds United with Yorke getting on the scoresheet.

On 30 September 1996 he scored a hat-trick against Newcastle United in a 4–3 defeat.

Newcastle were leading 3–1 at half-time and Aston Villa were down to ten men, with Mark Draper being sent off late in the first half.

Yorke showed great character in leading his team in a brave fight back by scoring two more goals in the second half to complete his hat-trick, although it was to no avail as Aston Villa still lost the game.

Yorke thought he had scored a fourth goal to equalise the game at 4–4, only for it to be ruled offside.

It was performances like this that led to interest from Manchester United in August 1998.

Yorke appeared for Aston Villa on 284 occasions, scoring 97 times.

Yorke played for Villa on the opening day of the season at Everton on 15 August 1998, however it appeared he made no effort during the match as he was unhappy at not being allowed to leave the club.

Villa were left with no option but to sell the player and he was transferred to Manchester United for £12.6 million on 20 August 1998.

In his first season Yorke was a key player in guiding his club to a unique treble of the Premier League title, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League, and forming a legendary partnership with Andy Cole.

Yorke finished the season as the top league goalscorer with 18 goals and contributed goals against Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Inter Milan, and Juventus in the Champions League, and he won the Premier League Player of the Season.

Yorke formed a prolific strike partnership with Andy Cole at Manchester United, where he won numerous honours including several Premier League titles and the Treble of the Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League in 1999.

Yorke was also a regular member of United's 1999–2000 title winning team, contributing 23 goals in all competitions.

He helped his nation reach the semi-finals of the 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and later qualify for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in its history, representing his country in the 2006 tournament.

Despite a less successful third season personally, Yorke scored his 100th Premier League goal in a 3-0 victory over Derby County on 24 November 2000 and also netted a hat-trick in the top of the table clash with Arsenal.

In January 2002 a move to Middlesbrough fell through.

He played his last game for United that month, and was not issued a squad number for the 2002–03 season.

Altogether he scored 65 goals for Manchester United in 152 appearances.

In July 2002, Yorke moved to Blackburn Rovers for an initial £2 million, potentially rising to £2.6 million; United had wanted a fee of £6 million.

He was signed to cover the long absence of Matt Jansen from a traffic accident, and was reunited with his former United strike partner Andy Cole.

Yorke scored 13 goals in all competitions in his first season at Ewood Park, including the winner on 26 October 2002 as Rovers won 2–1 at reigning champions Arsenal.

The following 4 January on his return to Villa Park, he scored twice in a 4–1 win in the FA Cup third round.

On 11 May, in the last game of the season, he opened a 4–0 win at Tottenham Hotspur as Blackburn beat Everton to sixth place and UEFA Cup qualification.

On 31 August 2004, transfer deadline day, Yorke moved to Birmingham City on a one-year deal with the option of a second.

Instead of a loan to Celtic, he chose to join Birmingham for a "substantial but undisclosed fee".

After retiring from playing in 2009, Yorke became assistant manager of the Trinidad and Tobago national team, a position he held until the completion of the qualifying matches for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Yorke scored 123 goals in the Premier League, a record for a non-European which was not broken until Sergio Agüero in 2017.