Emile Heskey

Emile Heskey

Personal information
Full name	Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey
Height	6 ft 2 in / 1.89 m
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Wigan Athletic
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of June 29, 2006

Emile William Ivanhoe Heskey (born 11 January 1978 in Evington, Leicester, England to an Antiguan father and Barbudan mother) is a professional footballer currently playing for Wigan Athletic, he is a former England international. He is a powerful centre forward who can also play as a strong running left winger - though this position often wasted his talents when he was forced to play there for England under Sven-Göran Eriksson.

Heskey attended the same secondary school as Gary Lineker (The City of Leicester School), and, also like Lineker, started his professional football career at Leicester City. He made his league debut in 1995, and then made 30 appearances for the Foxes in 1995-96 - helping City earn promotion to the Premiership. He starred alongside Michael Owen in the England Under-18 team which finished third in the European Championships in France. Prior to his professional debut, he was a ball boy at the 1994 Football league Division 1 play-off final, which took place at The Empire Stadium, Wembley, between Leicester City and Derby County.

Heskey won his first major honour in English football when he helped Leicester to victory over Middlesbrough in the Worthington Cup final, repeated in 2000 with a 2-1 win against Tranmere Rovers and in 2001 when Liverpool defeated Birmingham City.

The towering striker made his England debut in a friendly against Hungary in Budapest in a 1-1 draw and on his first start, against Argentina at Wembley, he gave a performance which won him the Man of the Match award. That showing ensured he was in England's Euro 2000 squad. However his two substitute performances in the tournament were poor as England crashed out.

Heskey joined Liverpool in April 2000 in an £11 million move that was one of the worst kept secrets in football. Heskey's move set the record transfer fee for the Merseyside club.

He made his Anfield debut in the Premiership clash with Sunderland and played well but the season finished with continuing doubts about his goalscoring prowess. During the 2000-01 season Heskey put an end to those scoring worries by smashing home 23 goals for the Reds and rocketing himself up the England pecking order.

He continued his scoring exploits against Spain in February 2001 when he scored one of England's three goals in the friendly victory. But Heskey was relegated to the bench for England's next match against Finland, although came on for the final 20 minutes of the game for Steve McManaman.

He has also played on the left-wing under Sven-Göran Eriksson. He was restored to his forward role for the World Cup qualifier against Germany in September 2001 and scored the final goal in England's 5-1 victory in Munich. Though he lost his scoring touch somwehat during the 2001-02 season, he still managed to score 14 goals for Liverpool.

One of Eriksson's favourites, he was selected in the squad for the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, and started in the left-wing role against Sweden, but looked far more effective when moved back into the forward line to partner Michael Owen. He netted against Denmark as England reached the quarter-finals, but many England fans do not believe he is the best option for England's attacking line. This is backed up by his strike rate statistic, the worst of any post-war regular England striker. Conversely, Heskey's presence in the England team coincided with the best run of results achieved by an England side for many years; some might conclude that Emile was and is crucial to any success England may have. Some argue that he is the English player with whom Michael Owen enjoys the best partnership.

Scoring just 9 goals in the 2002-03 season - only five in the Premiership - did not help his cause. However, despite his critics Heskey continued to be an integral part of the international squad and took over the captaincy from Michael Owen when England beat Serbia and Montenegro 2-1 in his hometown of Leicester in June 2003.

In the 2003-04 season Heskey faced increasing competition from Milan Baroš as Owen's strike partner. Despite this he scored 7 league goals and secured a place in the England squad for the Euro 2004 tournament in Portugal.

At the end of the 2003-04 season, Heskey signed for Birmingham City for £6.25 million, as a replacement for the retiring Christophe Dugarry, thus becoming Birmingham's most expensive player.

Despite Birmingham's mediocre 2004-05 season, Heskey is considered to have been probably the most prominent and consistent player for the Blues, winning four club awards at the end of the season - Player's Player of the Season, Fan's Player of the Season, Top Goalscorer (11) and Most Man of the Match Awards.

Birmingham's poor 2005-06 season, during which Heskey scored only 4 goals in 34 league appearances, culminated in relegation to The Championship. Heskey had consistently failed to live up to expectations and was seen by many fans as an expensive White Elephant. During the 2006 Close Season Heskey was sold to newly promoted Wigan Athletic for £5.5m.

Possibly on the basis of his poor season at Birmingham, Heskey was left out of the 2006 World Cup England squad, losing out to more regular goalscorers in the tall target man role.

Since the emergence of Peter Crouch as England's "Plan B", the possibility of a recall has receded further on the horizon. Whilst offering pace and power, his poor international scoring record of just 5 goals in 43 appearances, coupled with his inconsistent domestic seasonal tallies, do not compare favourably to other English strikers in his mould.