Stern John

Stern John CM (born 30 October 1976) is a Trinidadian football manager and former player who is currently managing Saint Lucia.

John moved to the United States in 1995 to attend New Jersey's Mercer County Community College.

He had been recruited in Trinidad by the college's head coach, Charlie Inverso, who had previously sought international talent.

John led the Mercer County Vikings to the 1995 NJCAA soccer championship and scored 27 goals, including one in the final against Yavapai College.

He made his professional debut for the Carolina Dynamo of the A-League, the second division of U.S. club soccer, in April 1997 while on loan from the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association.

John was traded to the New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers for Jamie Wellington a month later, having not scored a goal in five appearances for Carolina.

With New Orleans, where he was paired with fellow Trinidadian forward Mickey Trotman, John scored 16 goals in 21 appearances and was named Rookie of the Year.

John was invited by the New England Revolution to their 1998 preseason camp, but was not retained after his trial.

Following the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup, where he scored two goals, John was invited for a walk-on trial by the Columbus Crew.

His second cousin Ansil Elcock, a fellow Trinidad and Tobago international who had been signed by the Crew, had recommended John to head coach Tom Fitzgerald.

Following a successful trial, John was signed and made his Major League Soccer debut on 29 March 1998 against the Dallas Burn, where he replaced Elcock but failed to score.

He scored his first MLS goal in his fifth appearance, a 5–1 victory over the Miami Fusion, and ended the match with a hat-trick and an assist.

John ended his rookie MLS season as the league scoring champion with 26 goals in 27 matches and a place in the MLS Best XI.

He was the first MLS player to score three hat-tricks in a single season, including 16 goals in a span of 12 matches.

He scored 18 goals in the 1999 season, tied for the league's scoring leaderboard, and attracted interest from European clubs but declined a mid-season transfer.

He ended his MLS career with 44 goals in 55 matches.

After the 1999 season with Columbus, John was acquired by Nottingham Forest of the English First Division for a fee of £1.5 million.

However, eventual financial difficulties at Forest following the team's failed bid at promotion forced John's sale to Birmingham City in February 2002, then pushing for promotion to the Premier League, for the sum of £100,000.

John scored 18 goals in 49 starts for Forest.

At Birmingham, John scored nine goals in 60 Premier League appearances in two full seasons and was effective with his hold up play and also had some memorable moments in the blue shirt of Birmingham, such as his turn and finish away at West Ham in 2002; his last minute equaliser at Villa Park in the Birmingham derby; and his last minute goal away at Millwall which put Birmingham through to the Playoff Final in 2002.

He then scored one of the penalties in the play-off final shootout to help them get promoted to the Premier League.

Popular with the Birmingham fans for his goals, he nonetheless fell out of favour with management, and was sold to Coventry City on 14 September 2004.

In his first season with Coventry, John finished second in team scoring with 12 goals despite starting in barely half of Coventry's games.

At the start of the 2005–06 season, following the signing of James Scowcroft, John found himself outside of manager Micky Adams's first-team plans.

As a result, he was loaned to Derby County on 16 September 2005.

He rejoined Coventry three months later.

The signing was Sunderland manager Roy Keane's sixth signing of the 2006–07 season January transfer window.

On 29 January 2007, John was transferred to Sunderland for an undisclosed fee.

He scored his first goals against Southend United in a 4–0 victory on 17 February 2007.

On 29 August 2007, John moved to Southampton as part of a deal that took his international teammate Kenwyne Jones in the opposite direction.

He scored his first goals with two in a 3–2 win against West Bromwich Albion on 6 October 2007.

From then on he scored regularly for "The Saints", with nine goals in his first fifteen appearances, including a second half hat trick against Hull City on 8 December 2007.

He finished the 2007–08 season fourth highest scorer in the Championship with 19 goals for Southampton.

(He had also scored once for Sunderland in the Premier League prior to his transfer.) Before being sent off for a second bookable offence, John scored two goals, including the match winner, in Southampton's final game of the season against Sheffield United, as the Saints narrowly avoided relegation to League One.

John was loaned to Bristol City in October 2008 until the end of the 2008–09 season.

John made his first Bristol City appearance, coming on as a substitute, against Barnsley in a 0–0 draw.

He managed Anguilla from 2020 to 2022.

He previously played for a number of American and English football clubs that included Columbus Crew, Nottingham Forest, Birmingham City, Coventry City, Derby County, Sunderland, Southampton, Bristol City, Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town.

John was born in Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago, to a sporting family that included several professional footballers and cricket players.

He played on the Trinidad and Tobago cricket youth national team until age 16, when he switched to playing soccer full-time.