Alan Smith (footballer born 1962)

This article is about the former Arsenal footballer. For other people with the same name, see Alan Smith (disambiguation).

Alan Smith

Personal information
Full name	Alan Martin Smith
Date of birth	21 November 1962 (1962-11-21)
Place of birth	Hollywood, Worcestershire, England
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Playing position	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1981–1982	Alvechurch
1982–1987	Leicester City	200	(76)
1987–1995	Arsenal	265	(86)
Total		465	(162)
National team
1988–1992	England	13	(2)
1990–1992	England B	4	(4)
	England C
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Alan Martin Smith (born 21 November 1962 in Hollywood, Worcestershire) is an English former football striker. He played for Leicester City and Arsenal at professional level, and won thirteen caps for England.

Playing career

Leicester City

A striker, Smith started his career at non-league Alvechurch in north Worcestershire, where he had a great bond with Roger Lewis, who provided the knowledge and passion to spark Alan to new heights. He then signed professional forms with Leicester City in June 1982. In his first season, he scored 13 goals in a partnership with Gary Lineker, as the Foxes won promotion to the First Division. He spent five seasons at Leicester, scoring 84 goals in 217 appearances. He was transferred to Arsenal in 1987.

Arsenal

Smith enjoyed a successful career with the Gunners, winning all three major domestic trophies - two League Championships, the FA Cup, the Football League Cup (in their 1993 'Cup Double') and in Europe the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. He scored the first goal in Arsenal's dramatic League Championship winning victory at Anfield in May 1989, and the only goal of the 1994 European Cup Winners' Cup Final victory against Parma. Smith was Arsenal's top scorer for four consecutive seasons, and the top scorer in the First Division in the 1988-89 season with 23 goals.

He was a well discliplined player, receiving just one yellow card throughout his entire career. He retired from professional football in July 1995 after failing to recover from an ankle injury which had kept him out of action for much of the previous two seasons. Several clubs, including Watford, had expressed an interest in signing Smith just before he announced his retirement from playing.

In eight seasons at Highbury, he scored a total of 86 league goals, averaging at just over 10 goals per season; limited appearances due to injury in his final two seasons prevented him from doing better and pushing the 100-goal margin for his time at the club. His first league goals for the club came on 29 August 1987, when he netted a hat-trick in a 6–0 thrashing of newly promoted Portsmouth at Highbury. His last came on 12 December 1994 in a 2–1 win over Manchester City in the FA Premier League at Maine Road. As well as his goals in the 1989 title clinching game and the European triumph of 1994, he scored a hat-trick against Manchester United in the First Division on 6 May 1991, hours after Arsenal's nearest rivals Liverpool had lost and handed the title to them.

Honours

Team

Leicester City

• Second Division/Championship
  • Promoted (1): 1982-83

Arsenal

• First Division/Premier League
  • Winner (2): 1988-89, 1990-91
• FA Cup
  • Winner (1): 1993
• Football League Cup
  • Winner (1): 1992-93
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup
  • Winner (1): 1993-94
• FA Community Shield (then the FA Charity Shield)
  • Winner (1): 1991 (shared)

Individual

• English Golden Boot Winner (2): 1988-89, 1990-91

Media career

Smith is currently a regular co-commentator and sometimes studio pundit for Sky Sports. Recently Smith has appeared more regularly on Sky since the departure of Andy Gray and has taken the role as the main co-commentator for the Premier League games which Sky broadcast. In 2011 he commentated on the Champions League final alongside Martin Tyler. On June 30, 2011, EA Sports announced that Smith would replace Andy Gray as Martin Tyler's partner in commentating in FIFA 12.

Personal life

Smith is married to his childhood sweetheart, Penny and they live with their two daughters Jessie and Emily.

External links

• Alan Smith career stats at Soccerbase
• Photos and statistics at sporting-heroes.net