Jay Bothroyd

Jay Bothroyd (born 7 May 1982) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker.

He started his career in Arsenal's Academy, and played in their win against Coventry City in the 1999–2000 FA Youth Cup Final.

A product of the Arsenal Academy, he left in 2000 and signed with Coventry City, spending three years with the Sky Blues and becoming the club's top-scorer with 11 goals during the 2002–03 season.

At 18 years of age, Bothroyd was sold to Coventry after throwing his shirt at youth coach Don Howe and the bench, having been substituted in the 2000 Premier League Youth Cup final against West Ham United.

Despite having never played a first-team match for Arsenal, he cost Coventry £1 million when he joined them on 13 July 2000.

His league debut came on 4 November 2000 in a 2–1 home defeat to Manchester United in the Premier League.

In the three years he played for Coventry, he scored seventeen goals in total, despite making little impact in his first season, after making his debut against Preston North End in the League Cup.

Bothroyd only featured for Coventry after many other members of the squad had to be sold off to relieve the club's financial problems.

He scored his debut goal in a defeat against Bradford City on 24 August 2001, and in the 2002–03 season became the club's top-scorer with 11 goals.

His form attracted attention from Serie A's Perugia, and he signed with the club in 2003.

He later returned to the UK and played for Blackburn Rovers, Charlton Athletic, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Stoke City, Cardiff City, Queens Park Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday.

Bothroyd's form for Coventry brought interest from Perugia, and he transferred to the Serie A club when his Coventry contract expired in 2003.

Bothroyd was a mainstay for Perugia during their 2003–04 season, competing in the majority of their league matches, but he was unsettled in Italy.

He joined Blackburn Rovers in August 2004 on loan from Perugia.

After getting sent off against Norwich City for violent conduct, after kicking opposing midfielder Mattias Jonson, he was unable to cement a place in the first team and returned to Perugia at the end of the season.

He did manage to score once in the league for Blackburn, during a 2–2 draw with Liverpool in October 2004.

Bothroyd signed for Charlton Athletic on 31 August 2005, after being released by Perugia due to their financial problems.

While at Charlton, he scored twice, in games against Manchester City and Newcastle United.

Bothroyd was then taken on trial at Crystal Palace, but the club decided not to offer him a contract.

Bothroyd later denied he was on trial with Crystal Palace, despite playing in Crystal Palace's pre-season tour of the United States.

Bothroyd joined Wolverhampton Wanderers on 26 July 2006, becoming Mick McCarthy's first full signing for the club.

Bothroyd started the season in fine style, scoring three goals for his new club in their first six fixtures, including a 25-yard strike in injury time away at Leeds United to grab all three points.

However, in the following match against Derby County, his fortunes took a turn for the worse as he had a penalty saved in a match that Wolves lost 1–0.

Bothroyd's goal scoring petered out after this initial burst and he suffered an injury in December that kept him out of the busy Christmas period, though he returned to the squad in February 2007 and made several substitute appearances.

The most vital of these came when he scored the winning goal as Wolves beat their bitter Black Country rivals West Bromwich Albion 1–0 in a crucial encounter in the race for promotion.

The striker had to settle for a place on the bench for the start of the 2007–08 season.

He was eventually given a start against his former club Charlton, where he scored one and created one in a 2–0 win and kept his starting place for the next three matches, scoring Wolves' only goal of the match against Bristol City in a 1–1 draw.

After Wolves signed new strikers Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and brought in Kevin Kyle on loan during the January transfer window, Bothroyd found himself out of first team contention.

In 2008, Bothroyd held an interview with the South Wales Echo where he revealed that he, along with other teammates, was the subject of regular racist abuse while playing in Italy.

During his time at Perugia, he befriended then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's third son, Al-Saadi Gaddafi.

To gain playing time, he moved to fellow Championship club Stoke City on an initial one-month loan on 14 March 2008, later extended to the end of the season, which ended in promotion to the Premier League.

However, after featuring in just four matches during his loan spell, he returned to his parent club who promptly put him up for transfer.

Bothroyd remained in the Championship, joining Cardiff City, who beat off interest from newly promoted Premier League club Hull City, on 4 August 2008 in a three-year contract for a fee of £350,000.

At the start of the season Bothroyd found himself in and out of the team as manager Dave Jones attempted to find his best strike partnership and, after a number of matches, Bothroyd assumed the role of first choice strike partner to Ross McCormack.

On 30 September 2008, Bothroyd scored his first goal for the club when he found the net against one of his former clubs, Coventry City during a 2–1 win.

It took Bothroyd just under a month to find the net again for the club when he scored twice during a 2–2 draw at Watford.

He also played for the England national team, earning his only cap in 2010.

Bothroyd was born in Islington, London.

In October 2011, shortly after the dictator's death, he spoke to The Daily Telegraph about his experiences as Al-Saadi's friend.

In 2014, Bothroyd began playing in Asia, first in Thailand for Muangthong United, and later in Japan for Júbilo Iwata and Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo.