Biography Born 7th of October 1982, Jermain Colin Defoe is an English footballer who plays as a striker for English Premier League club Tott...
Biography
Born 7th of October 1982, Jermain Colin Defoe is an English footballer who plays as a striker for English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur, and the England national football team. Defoe began his career with Charlton Athletic, Charlton was the first football team he played for after representing a team in his district.
He made his professional debut for West Ham in 2000, and after a season-long loan spell at Bournemouth during the 2000-01 season, established himself in the West Ham line-up. After West Ham's relegation in 2003, a move to Tottenham in January 2004 soon followed, where Defoe played for 4 years before being sold to Portsmouth in January 2008. He spent one season at Fratton Park before returning to Tottenham in the January 2009 transfer window.
Why He Is Not Rated Highly
Jermain Defoe has always been second best at his current club and why we might not know why, people view it as a testament to his average abilities. From Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane, Mido, Peter Crouch, Emmanuel Adebayor, and now Roberto Soldado, the English striker has been playing second role to these people and under different managers as well. As well as on the international level as well, Defoe did not complete a full match till his 51st appearance and has been shunned for different striking options available.
Berbatov and Keane forged a great partnership for spurs |
Looking close at the stats, he shoots a lot from distance and could be very wasteful from there. He has a shot accuracy of about 53% and of all the numerous shots he took from outside last season he converted only one.
He had 3 assists last season and none were direct, his 'assists' had to be complimented by his teammate doing extra work by beating the men in front of them before advancing on goal.
Of all the goals he scored last season for Tottenham, only one came after December as Tottenham lost out on a top-four finish and most great strikers are judged on their exploits on the big stage.
Why He Should Not Be Underrated
At 5ft7, Defoe has/had little chance of keeping those players apart from mentioned, apart from Keane, out of the starting lineup. He is not an all-round player but Jermain Defoe creates his own luck and chances from nothing and has quite an impressive goal scoring record. Currently he is the fifth highest goal scorer in Tottenham's history and this is coming from someone who comes from the bench most times.
15 goals in 46 games is just a goal in about 3 games and that is decent from someone who had to share his game time last season.
While he might be accused of taking a lot of shots from outside, it is not his fault. He grew up as a footballer with the likes of Emile Heskey, Alan Shearer, and co. where strikers got goals from everywhere on the pitch and was seen as an ability of being a powerful striker and it is certainly too late to teach an old dog new tricks.
And the criticism of not having enough assists is not entirely true, in a 4-2-3-1 formation, Jermaine is left upfront alone and feeds on the assist from his teammates but no striking partner to lay assists for and is forced to take his chances. He might not be directly involved in goals from his teammates but his contribution to the play cannot be hidden, his runs most times pull defenders to him creating spaces for his teammates to have a go at goal something that was evident in Tottenham's victory over Man United last season.
To call Jermain Defoe a local champion is unfair, in the continental games he has had to play he has done well. He is also Spurs' second highest European goal scorer and while those goals might have come in the Europa League, it is still continental football and against good sides as well.
Conclusion: The fact Jermain Defoe still gets to the national team, regardless of playing time, is a proof of his abilities. He is someone to have in your team and coud be the joker card when games do not look winnable, he was the one who got the winning goal for England against Slovakia, a game they had to win and could be also influential coming in from the bench, he might not be another Solskjaer and does not want to be but his overall contribution is very much still needed and appreciated.
While a lot of people have come into the national team and as quick as they got in fell out of the team, Defoe has stood the test of time since his debut nine years ago against Sweden in 2004.
At 31, he still has pace in his legs that younger strikers can only dream of and has very quick turns that belie his age. He might not be on the level of greats but could get into most decent European teams like Valencia, Porto and the rest of that pot, and had he not had White Hart Lane ties could be a good addition to Arsenal as a supplementary striker.
While he is proving efficient coming on from the bench, JD's unsatisfaction has not turned to disloyalty- a trend becoming popular these days and is a model professional for every youngster coming up in the game to look up to and while it might not be a technical ability, his loyalty has not gone unnoticed by the Tottenham supporters.
Written By: ChukaMVP. You can follow him on twitter Follow @chukamvp
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