Darren Bent: An unstoppable scoring force

Which English footballer has managed to be amongst the six Premier League top scorers in four of the last five seasons? Most of you will automatically come up with one name: Wayne Rooney. Well, that´s not a correct answer. “Jermaine Defoe”, will say others. Almost. “Michael Owen!”. Definitely not. I am talking about Darren Bent, perhaps the finest english striker since Alan Shearer. With Jamaican origins, but born in Tooting (south London), Bent has stood as a scoring force mainly in minnowers such as Charlton and Sunderland. Astonishingly Bent´s club merits have not been enough for Capello to make him a regular in England squad nor of course for being part of the starting eleven.

The beach-ball goal scored by Bent against Liverpool

Bent had early in his life a role model to follow and it wasn´t quite far from him. His father, who played for youth squads of London club Wimbledon and Brentford, was his main support when he first started with the game (By the time he was an Arsenal supporter). Sadly for Bent Senior, his kid overtook him pretty early reaching Ipswich Town and making it to the first team. Before that, when he was 10, he was forced to leave Tooting and move to Huntingdon. Bent arrived at Portman Road (Ipswich) in 1998 (he was 14) and stayed there until 2005. With Ipswich he made his Premier League debut and also the UEFA debut against Helsingborgs, scoring one that day. There in Suffolk Bent matured as a footballer and as a human being breaking the records with an outstanding mark of 47 goals in 122 games.

Charlton Athletic was Darren Bent´s next club. That meant a comeback to London, his hometown. Playing at The Valley, Bent showed what a prolific striker he was and enjoyed the happiest club spell in his career so far. The player had two seasons full of goals however Charlton struggled to survive in the Premier in both, finally being relegated the second one. His pace and goalscoring average attracted the attention of Premier League big guns. Finally, he agreed to join Tottenham Hotspurs, staying in his hometown London once again.

Unexpectedly what seemed to be a step forward in his career turned out to be a real nightmare for Bent. Tottenham wasn´t playing well and the results didn´t come so the club changed the Manager several times. First Martin Jol –who signed Bent- was axed. Then Juande Ramos was brought in, and he finished the season and started the following, to be sacked halfway through that season. The arrival of Harry Redknapp was a defining point of Darren Bent´s career at White Hart Lane. The strained relationship between both had its peak after Redknapp criticised through the media the striker´s form. Bent failed to materialise a major chance to score when he kicked the ball out instead just 3 yards off the goal being just him and the keeper. Redknapp said: “My missus could have scored that”. Bent managed to score just six goals in Premiership in his first season with Jol. His scoring record improved under Redknapp, although Bent was more worried about off football issues rather than what happened on the pitch. He felt that he didn´t have Redknapp trust and that could be lethal for a fractious forward like him.

Bent, a regular user of twitter by then, deteriorate his relationship with the manager and the club chairman through this social network precisely. The situation couldn´t get any worse so that both parties agreed to sell the player. “"It was the worst two years of my career. Even last year, when I was the club's top scorer, I never actually felt wanted. I didn't feel (manager Harry) Redknapp wanted me there. It's a weight off my shoulders that I'm finally here (Sunderland)”, declared to journalists. It is curious because not being one of the most known footballers in the Premiership, Bent was included in the shortlist of the 20 most influential english twitter users in December 2009. I would say his rants against Redknapp and Tottenham through twitter had something to do with this.

Well, let´s catch up with Darren Bent the talented goalscorer and leave for a while his controversial character. If playing under pressure and without his manager´s support he had a more than worthy season it won´t be quite difficult to guess how successful his spell with the Black Cats has been. Bent managed to break the net 23 times to end up third in the leading goalscorers table, just behind Drogba and Rooney. One of the memories of that season will be the most bizarre goal ever scored in a Premier League–it was Bent who ´scored´. Minute 5 of an interesting Sunderland versus Liverpool when Bent received a ball inside the area and shot on target trying to avoid the presence of quite a few defenders. Bent´s strike found an inflatable beachball in the way and both collided diverting the ball and passing through the goalkeeper, an utterly surprised Pepe Reina.

Lately Darren Bent´s story was more about being called-up by Fabio Cappello or being axed from the list. The striker had been a regular player in England under-15, under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-21. Nevertheless, his goalscoring efforts and the support of the press have not being enough for Fabio Capello to put his trust on him. So, since he made his debut with the Pross, Bent has played just six games scoring just once, against Switzerland. One of Bent´s biggest disappointment was not being called-up by Capello to play South Africa 2010 World Cup. Despite being the third topscorer in the current Premier League –second English behind Rooney- Capello thought his merits wasn’t enough comparing to the likes of Crouch, Defoe or ¡¡¡Heskey!!!.

“Missing out this year was a blow that hurt like hell. Even though I knew I was only 50-50 when the phone call came it was hard to take, but Steve Bruce was brilliant, Niall Quinn was brilliant and even the club owner called me for a chat. And my mum and dad kept me going and gave me hope. I went back to my mum's house and spent a lot of time with family and close friends. I just tried to get back to normal. There wasn't too much I could do to vent my anger and frustration, so I went on holiday”, stated Bent. Once digested the England failure in the World Cup and with the Premier League back in track again Bent remains confident in his chances. Keep The Faith (KTF) the motto tattoed on his body looks like a spur against the injustices he has experienced.

*Bent has started in form this season. He is currently the fourth best goalscorer with 5 goals in 7 games. Only Berbatov, Drogba and Malouda have a better average. This have helped him to be called-up –not with suspense- by Capello. However, Bent will miss out today´s game against Montenegro at Wembley due to a late injury produced while he was training with England fellow players.