Nick Barmby

It was the first time since striker Dave Hickson in 1959 that Everton had sold a player to Liverpool – although six players had moved in the opposite direction in the 41 years between Barmby's transfer and that of Hickson.

Nicholas Jon Barmby (born 11 February 1974) is an English football coach and former professional player.

As a player, he played as a midfielder spending nearly his entire career in the Premier League for Tottenham Hotspur, Middlesbrough, Everton, Liverpool and Leeds United.

He then had a brief spell with Nottingham Forest in the Football League before finishing his career with home town club Hull City where during an eight-year spell he helped the club earn promotion from League One to the Premier League.

Consequently, he ended his education at the local Kelvin Hall High School (where he started in 1985) early to complete his studies at The Football Association's School of Excellence, while also honing his skills for the professional game.

His father, Jeff Barmby, was also a player in his younger days and became his son's advisor and agent as his skills began to attract the attention of various clubs.

Barmby eventually signed for Tottenham Hotspur, joining them on leaving school in the summer of 1990.

His first game for Tottenham was against Hull City at Boothferry Park in a testimonial match for Garreth Roberts, and he scored two goals.

Having turned professional in April 1991 under the management of Terry Venables, he made his competitive debut against Sheffield Wednesday on 27 September 1992 in the FA Premier League, and established himself as a regular player that season, when still only 18 years old.

During his time at the club he became one of Ossie Ardiles' five-man attack, along with Jürgen Klinsmann, Teddy Sheringham, Darren Anderton and Ilie Dumitrescu.

He was capped 23 times by England between 1995 and 2001, and was part of the Euro 96 and Euro 2000 squads.

Barmby is one of only nine players to have scored Premier League goals for six different teams (the others being Nicolas Anelka, Craig Bellamy, Darren Bent, Marcus Bent, Andy Cole, Peter Crouch, Les Ferdinand and Robbie Keane).

Following retirement, Barmby had a spell as Hull City manager, he later had a brief spell as first team coach at Scunthorpe United.

Growing up on the west side of Hull, Barmby played for local teams Springhead and National Tigers as a boy showing talent from a very early age.

He played 100 games and scored 27 goals in all competitions for Spurs, playing on the losing side in two FA Cup semi-finals, before becoming Middlesbrough's most expensive signing in a £5.25 million deal in June 1995.

Barmby set up the first competitive goal at the new Riverside Stadium for Craig Hignett.

Barmby stayed at Middlesbrough for 17 months, before heading to Everton, who paid a record fee of £5.75 million for him, a small profit on the price they paid for him.

In his first season at the club, Barmby and his new team found themselves in a Premier League relegation battle.

Injuries restricted him to appearing in just 24 out of 38 league appearances in 1998–99, as he scored three goals.

On 26 February 2000, Barmby scored a hat-trick in a 4–0 win against West Ham United.

After nearly four years at Everton, during which Barmby played 114 league games and scored 18 goals, he headed across Stanley Park to Liverpool for a fee of £6 million on 19 July 2000.

Manchester United also expressed an interest in signing Barmby to cover for their missing players at the start of the 2000–01 season, but they were eventually outbid.

Barmby was involved in Liverpool's successful season of 2000–01 in which they won the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup.

He scored against his previous club Everton in the Merseyside derby in October 2000, and scored a penalty kick in the shootout against Birmingham City in the League Cup Final.

An injury picked up in the FA Cup semi-final in April put his participation in the FA Cup and UEFA Cup finals in doubt.

In the end he was left out of the FA Cup final squad but was on the bench for the UEFA Cup Final.

Barmby scored eight goals in his time at Liverpool, all of which came in the 2000–01 season: four in the UEFA Cup, two in the League, and one each in the FA Cup and the League Cup.

The following season he started as Liverpool won the 2001 FA Charity Shield.

However after persistent injury and lack of form blighted his second season at the club, Barmby was sold to Leeds United in August 2002 for a fee of £2.75 million, where he linked up with Terry Venables, his first manager at Tottenham.

On 8 August 2002, Barmby signed for Leeds for £2.75 million.

Despite scoring on his debut, Barmby made little impact at a Leeds side quickly sliding down the Premier League table, and missed much of the action during his two seasons with them in the Premier League.

He spent a loan spell at Nottingham Forest during the 2003–04 season, scoring once against Gillingham, before moving to his hometown club, Hull City.

In 2004, Barmby returned to his hometown team Hull City on a free transfer following Leeds's relegation from the top flight.

Barmby helped City to promotion from League One in his first season at the club.

He scored nine goals, including the fastest goal in City's history, after seven seconds in a match against Walsall on 6 November 2004.

He played for Hull in the 2007–08 Football League Championship campaign, which ended in promotion through the Championship play-offs to the Premier League; a season earlier they had come close to being relegated to League One.

2008–09 was the first season in which Hull City played top division football.

His final season at Goodison Park saw him miss just one league game and find the net nine times, though Everton finished only in 13th place.

However, they survived with a 15th-place finish as Barmby made 25 league appearances and scored four goals.

He managed just two goals from 30 appearances the following season as Everton finished just one place above relegation.