Ian Pearce

Ian Pearce

Personal information
Full name	Ian Anthony Pearce
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Position(s)	Defender
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 22:41, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Ian Anthony Pearce (born May 7 1974 in Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk) is an English footballer who is currently not contracted to any club. Usually he is recognised as a defender but he has also been known to play striker.

Club career

Early career

Pearce started his career at Chelsea during the 1991–92 season. He played just four games in three seasons before moving onto Blackburn Rovers in October 1993 for a fee of £300,000.

Blackburn Rovers

Pearce's debut was as a substitute in October 1993 in a defeat to Liverpool. He scored his first goal in April 1994 coming on as a substitute in a 2–1 win at West Ham United, a result which guaranteed Rovers a place in Europe for the first time in their history. He moved to centre-half the following season, forming a formidable partnership with Colin Hendry, and won a Premiership medal in the 1994–95 season.

West Ham United

Pearce moved on to West Ham United for £3.5m in October 1997. In the 1999–2000 season, he only played 37 minutes after injuring his knee ligaments with a clash with Stuart Pearce. Pearce was out for 14 months, but returned in October 2000 against Newcastle United. He failed to find his true fitness, and only played 17 times in that season.

Fitness problems continued to hamper Pearce at West Ham, as he made only 35 appearances for the club between 2001 and 2004.

Fulham

Pearce signed for Fulham in January 2004 in a deal which involved an undisclosed transfer fee and Andy Melville moving to West Ham. He started all nine games of that season as Fulham's first choice centre back. He made his debut in a match against Tottenham Hotspur at Loftus Road on January 31 2004.

However, in his 2004–05 season, he was hampered with a back injury sustained in December 2004. He did manage to play a few reserve games at the end of the season, but did not play for the first team. In August 2005, he was close to signing for Norwich City, but pulled out because of family reasons.

Pearce was praised as 'Best player in pre season' by then Fulham manager Chris Coleman. His admirable resolve was demonstrated when in a game against Portsmouth he played through a painful foot injury only to score an equaliser before time and secure a critical point for Fulham.

Pearce is one of only six players who have made at least one appearance in every Premiership season since its inception in 1992. The others are David James, Sol Campbell, Ryan Giggs, Gary Speed and Nicky Butt.

On February 22 2008, he joined Southampton on a 30 day loan deal. Injury restricted him to one appearance in a one all draw against Scunthorpe United.

Pearce had a trial for Brentford and played against Staines Town in a 3-0 win.

Personal life

Pearce has a rugby union playing cousin called Ed Pearce who played for Bristol RUFC and was called into the England squad by Sir Clive Woodward.

Career statistics

[1] Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1990-91||rowspan="3"|Chelsea||rowspan="2"|First Division||1||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1991-92||2||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1992-93||Premier League||1||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1993-94||rowspan="5"|Blackburn Rovers||rowspan="5"|Premier League||5||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1994-95||28||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1995-96||12||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1996-97||12||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1997-98||5||0|||||||||||||||| |- |1997-98||rowspan="7"|West Ham United||rowspan="6"|Premier League||30||1|||||||||||||||| |- |1998-99||33||2|||||||||||||||| |- |1999-00||1||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2000-01||15||1|||||||||||||||| |- |2001-02||9||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2002-03||30||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2003-04||First Division||24||1|||||||||||||||| |- |2003-04||rowspan="5"|Fulham||rowspan="5"|Premier League||13||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2004-05||11||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2005-06||10||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2006-07||22||1|||||||||||||||| |- |2007-08||1||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2007-08||Southampton||Championship||1||0|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 3266||12|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 5266||12|||||||||||||||| |}

External links

Ian Pearce at Soccerbase