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Jimmy Bullard

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Jimmy Bullard
Personal information
Full name James Richard Bullard
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Position(s) Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Fulham
Number 21

James Richard "Jimmy" Bullard (born 23 October 1978 in Newham, East London[1]) is an English professional footballer who currently plays as a central midfielder for Fulham. He was educated in England at Erith School. [citation needed]

Early career

Bullard started his career in non-league football with Gravesend & Northfleet F.C. before being signed by the club he supported as a boy, West Ham United for £30,000 in 1999.[2] He did not manage to break into the team, however, and was given a free transfer at the end of the 2000–01 season.[2] After a three-week trial, he then signed for Peterborough United F.C., which is where he made a name for himself, scoring 11 goals in 62 league starts.[3] This earned him a move to Wigan Athletic F.C. for £275,000 in January 2003.[3]

Wigan Athletic F.C.

Bullard quickly established himself in the Wigan first team and helped them secure promotion to the Premiership in 2004-05 and an appearance in the 2006 League Cup Final, in which they lost to Manchester United.[4]

On Saturday February 11, 2006 Bullard was honoured by Sky's morning football show Soccer AM for running the length of the pitch in an attempt to score when the floodlights went out during Wigan's League Cup semi-final home leg against Arsenal and leapfrogging a pile of players in a goal mouth scramble. They decided to re-name the studio doors and they are now known as Jimmy Bullard's Back Door.[citation needed]

Fulham F.C.

On April 28, 2006 it was announced that Bullard would sign for Fulham at the end of the 2005–06 season after a £2,500,000[5] offer from the London club triggered a release clause in his contract.

Bullard's Fulham debut came as the team lost 5–1 to Manchester United on 2006-08-20.[5] His first goal for Fulham came against Bolton Wanderers on August 26, a last-minute penalty to level the scores at 1–1.[5] Three days later, after he scored a 28-yard (26 m) curling free kick against Sheffield United in a 1–0 win, Fulham boss Chris Coleman hailed Bullard as "the best £2million we ever spent".[2]

On September 9 2006, Bullard dislocated his kneecap in a match against Newcastle United. This injury was thought to keep him out for six to eight weeks.[6] However three days later it was revealed that Bullard would in fact be out for up to nine months with cruciate knee ligament damage.[7] Fulham's new manager Lawrie Sanchez announced that the midfielder was aiming to return around October 2007.[7] However, he did not make a first-team appearance until 2008-01-12, coming off the bench to play against West Ham.[8] Bullard then started in a 2-1 win against Aston Villa on February 3, setting up the equaliser then scoring the winning goal from a 25-yard (23 m) free kick and thus winning man of the match. He scored an identical free kick weeks later, to rescue a point against Blackburn Rovers and keep Fulham's hope of Premiership survival alive. [9] After missing a large part of the season due to injury, his return to the team sparked Fulham in to a run of form which saw them move out of the bottom three with one game remaining, after a 2-0 victory over Birmingham City.[10] With Fulham needing to win away at Portsmouth on the last day of the 2007/08 season to avoid relegation, it was Danny Murphy's headed goal from Bullard's free kick that gave Fulham the victory, ensuring their Premier League survival.[11] On August 1 2008 Fulham refused to offer a contract extension due to his contract still having another two years to run.

National career

Although English by birth, Bullard has a German grandmother and is therefore eligible for the German national team.[12] In the run-up to the 2006 World Cup, it was reported that Bullard was contemplating an international call-up from the Nationalmannschaft, having made his interest known to the national coach Jürgen Klinsmann.[12] He was called into the England squad in August 2008 for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Croatia in September.[13]

References

  1. ^ Jimmy Bullard Player Profile Fulham FC, retrieved on 2008-06-23
  2. ^ a b c Jimmy Bullard bio ESPNsoccernet, retrieved 2008-06-23
  3. ^ a b Jimmy Bullard Player Profile 4TheGame.com, retrieved on 2008-06-23
  4. ^ English League Cup Final 2006 Soccerbase, retrieved on 2008-06-23
  5. ^ a b c Jimmy Bullard Stats Soccerbase, retrieved on 2008-06-23
  6. ^ Newcastle 1-2 Fulham BBC Sport, 2006-09-09
  7. ^ a b Bullard eyes October return Yahoo! UK & Ireland Sport, 2007-09-05
  8. ^ West Ham 2-1 Fulham BBC Sport, 2008-01-12
  9. ^ Blackburn 1-1 Fulham BBC Sport, 2008-03-08
  10. ^ Fulham 2-0 Birmingham BBC Sport, 2008-05-03
  11. ^ Portsmouth 0-1 Fulham BBC Sport, 2008-05-11
  12. ^ a b Bullard hopes for Germany call-up BBC Sport, 2006-03-19
  13. ^ "Bullard called into England squad". BBC Sport. 2008-08-31. Retrieved 2008-08-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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