Darren Ashley Bent (born 6 February 1984) is an English footballer who plays for Sunderland as a striker.

Bent started his career with Ipswich Town in 2001. He made 122 appearances and scored 47 goals in the league for Ipswich, before joining Charlton Athletic for a fee of £2.5 million in 2005. He was their top goalscorer for two consecutive seasons and joined Tottenham Hotspur for a club record fee of £16.5 million in 2007. After two seasons at Tottenham he joined current club Sunderland.

He has represented England at under-15, under-16, under-17, under-19, under-21 and senior levels. He made 14 appearances and scored nine goals for the under-21 side, after making his debut against Italy in 2003 and has made six appearances for the senior England side, after making his debut against Uruguay in 2006.

Personal life

Born in Tooting, South London, Bent is of Jamaican descent and his father Mervyn was a player in the youth systems of Wimbledon and Brentford.[3][4] He moved to Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire at the age of 10 and played for the Godmanchester Rovers youth system.[4][5] As a youngster, Bent was a supporter of Arsenal, and used to have a season ticket at Highbury.[6] He was handed a formal warning by police in June 2004 after he was alleged to have shot a 12 year old with a pellet gun.[7]

Club career

Ipswich Town

Bent progressed through Ipswich Town's youth system, having joined the club at the age of 14 in 1998, after considering a possible career in athletics.[8] He signed a professional contract with Ipswich on 2 July 2001.[9] He made his first team debut on 1 November 2001 against Helsingborgs IF in the UEFA Cup and scored his first senior goal in a 4–1 League Cup defeat to Newcastle United on 27 November 2001.[10][11]

He scored his first FA Premier League goal on 24 April 2002 in a 1–0 win over Middlesbrough.[12] He finished the 2001–02 season with seven appearances and two goals in all competitions, and also saw his team Ipswich face relegation.[13] He scored the winner against Slovan Liberec in the UEFA Cup in October 2002 and finished the 2002–03 season with 18 goals.[14][15] The 2003–04 season finished with Bent scoring 16 goals, which was followed by 19 goals in the 2004–05 season, being the team's second highest goalscorer.[16][17]

Charlton Athletic

Bent scoring an 86th minute penalty against Wigan Athletic, which earned Charlton a 1–0 victory

He completed a transfer to Charlton Athletic in June 2005, which was worth an initial fee of £2.5 million, but would have risen to £3 million if he made an agreed number of appearances for Charlton and for England.[18] On the opening day of the 2005–06 FA Premier League season, Bent scored two goals on his Charlton debut against Sunderland,[19] and was named the Premier League player of the month for August.[20] Bent was the highest scoring Englishman in the Premier League in the 2005–06 season, with 18 goals (22 overall) which made him third highest scorer and was given Charlton Athletic's Player of the Season award.[21][22] He signed an extension to his contract at Charlton in July, which contracted him until June 2010.[23] Bent finished the 2006–07 season with 13 goals in the Premier League, again finishing as Charlton's top goalscorer, but was unable to prevent them from being relegated to the Championship after seven successive seasons of Premier League football.[24] Charlton accepted a bid from West Ham United for him in June 2007, but Bent was not interested in a move to Upton Park.[25]

Tottenham Hotspur

Bent playing for Tottenham in a pre-season friendly against Norwich City on 28 July 2008, during which he scored four goals in a 5–1 victory

He completed a move to Tottenham Hotspur for a club record fee of £16.5 million on 29 June 2007, which was to be payable over three years and is inclusive of add-on payments.[26] Ipswich were entitled to 20% of Charlton's profit on Bent under a sell-on clause, which gave the club an initial £2.58 million.[27] He scored his first goal for Tottenham in a friendly match against Stevenage Borough in their first pre-season fixture of the 2007–08 season.[28] Bent scored his first competitive goal for Tottenham in a 4–0 home victory over Derby County in August 2007.[29] This was followed up by scoring in the 6–1 win over Anorthosis Famagusta in the first round of the UEFA Cup on 20 September 2007.[30] Bent scored his 100th career goal on 9 March 2008 in the added time of a 4–0 league win over West Ham United.[31] He also scored the 100th goal to be scored at White Hart Lane during the 2007–08 season on 22 March in a 2–0 win over Portsmouth.[32] Bent went on to score one more goal that season, against Newcastle United,[33] which he finished with 36 appearances and eight goals.[34]

He scored 12 goals for Tottenham during the 2008–09 pre-season.[35] His first league goal of the season came against Chelsea, which gave his side a 1–1 draw.[36] He scored a header in the second half of Tottenham's UEFA Cup first round game against Wisła Kraków, giving the team a 2–1 victory.[37] On 6 November, in a game against Dinamo Zagreb, Bent scored his first competitive hat-trick for Tottenham.[38] He followed this up with two goals in a 2–1 victory against Manchester City at the City of Manchester Stadium.[39]

A miss in front of an open goal in the final minutes during a home game against Portsmouth in January 2009, which cost Tottenham two points, prompted manager Harry Redknapp to claim "You will never get a better chance to win a match than that. My missus could have scored that one".[40] Despite being Tottenham's top goalscorer for the season with 12 goals, he was rumoured to be part of a swap deal involving Sunderland's Kenwyne Jones.[41] However, on 31 January he scored two goals in the period of two minutes against Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium after coming on as a second half substitute, in a match that eventually finished as a 3–2 defeat.[42] Following the return of Robbie Keane at Tottenham, Redknapp assured Bent of his future at the club.[43] He finished the season as Tottenham's top goalscorer with 17 goals in all competitions.[44]

Sunderland

Sunderland opened negotiations to sign Bent in July 2009.[45] The deal seemed delayed and through social networking website Twitter he accused chairman Daniel Levy of disrupting his move to Sunderland, although Bent later apologised, saying he acted out of frustration.[46] He travelled to Sunderland to sign for the club after they agreed a fee with Tottenham, and after passing a medical, Bent signed for Sunderland on 5 August for an initial fee of £10 million plus potential additional payments,[47] which could possibly rise to £16.5 million.[48] He scored on his Sunderland debut, which was the only goal in a 1–0 victory against Bolton,[49] and was followed with Sunderland's opening goal against Chelsea in a 3–1 defeat.[50] He scored a brace in the 4–1 win over Hull City to give himself his third and fourth goals in five games.[51]

Bent scored Sunderland's only goal against Burnley at Turf Moor, making the score 1–1, before losing 3–1.[52] He scored again in a 5–2 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers,[53] although after the game Sunderland manager Steve Bruce was left angry at Bent's decision to give Sunderland's second penalty kick to teammate Kenwyne Jones, after the latter "pleaded" with Bent to take the penalty so that he could get on the score sheet.[54] Bent then scored the opening goal in a 2–2 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford.[55] He also scored in a 1–0 victory against Liverpool on 17 October 2009 when his shot hit a beach ball thrown on to the field by a Liverpool fan and past confused goalkeeper Pepe Reina into the net.[56] Bent also scored in Sunderland's victory 1–0 over Arsenal on 21 November 2009 when his initial header rebounded back to him off Fraizer Campbell.[57] Bent scored his first hat-trick for Sunderland in a 4–0 victory over Bolton on 9 March 2010.[58] He scored two goals, one a penalty, but missed two other penalties as they were saved by Heurelho Gomes in a 3–1 victory against former club Tottenham on 3 April.[59] He finished the season with 25 goals in 40 appearances in all competitions.[60]

International career

Bent has represented England at under-15, under-16, under-17 and under-19, under-21 and senior.[9][61] He made his under-16 debut against Denmark on 1 August 2000, making six appearances for the team, with his last appearance coming against South Korea on 12 January 2001.[62] His debut for the under-19 team came against Germany on 14 February 2002 and his third and final appearance was against Lithuania on 21 April.[62] His first appearance for the under-21 team came against Italy on 11 February 2003, which England lost 1–0.[63][64] He made 14 appearances and scored nine goals for the under-21 team.[62] He received his first call up to the senior England team for the friendly against Denmark on 17 August 2005,[65] but did not play in the game.[66] His England debut eventually came on 1 March 2006, when he started against Uruguay at Anfield in a pre-2006 FIFA World Cup friendly match.[67] He was not included in England's World Cup squad when it was announced in May 2006.[68]

Despite having played for the senior side, Bent was recalled to the under-21 squad for their October 2006 qualification play-offs against Germany.[69] Later that month, he was recalled to the senior squad due to an injury to Andrew Johnson shortly after the squad's announcement.[70] He was called to the England squad for a Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia in November 2007.[71] He came on as an 80th minute substitute as England lost 3–2 and failed to qualify for the tournament.[72] He was called up to the team for a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Ukraine in March 2009 following an injury to striker Carlton Cole.[73] He made his second start for England in a 1–0 defeat to Brazil in a friendly on 14 November.[74]

Bent was named in England's preliminary 30-man squad for the 2010 World Cup on 11 May 2010,[75] although he was eventually omitted from the final 23-man squad on 1 June.[76]

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur

Football League Cup (1): 2007–08