Andrew Johnson (footballer, born 1981)

There is also a Welsh soccer player with this name, who currently plays for West Bromwich Albion.

Andrew Johnson (born February 10 1981 in Bedford), more commonly known as Andy Johnson or AJ, is an English footballer who plays for Crystal Palace in The Championship. He wears the number 8 shirt and is a right-footed striker. Johnson's main attribute is his tremendous turn of pace and, given his small stature, his impressive body strength. He is also referred to by Crystal Palace supporters as AJ, who regularly sing his name to the tune of 'Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag', by Pigbag and 'Reach Up' by the Allstars.

Initially, Johnson's career was held back by the perception that he was too small to prosper as a top level striker. He began his footballing career at Birmingham City, where he suffered heartbreak, missing a deciding penalty, in the 2001 League Cup Final shootout defeat, to Liverpool.

After only a few noteworthy appearances, he was sold to Palace in 2002 as the makeweight in a transfer deal for Clinton Morrison, taking the value of £750,000 for the purposes of the transaction. Whilst his arrival was not greeted with any real excitement at Palace, the transfer turned out to be a very good move for both Johnson and Palace.

He made himself very popular with Palace fans, with his hattrick in the 5-0 drubbing of the Eagles' arch-rivals, Brighton & Hove Albion, on 26 October 2002, but still was accused of missing chances constantly.

Under the aegis of manager and coach Iain Dowie, Johnson's all-round game improved. Johnson was the top scorer in the English First Division (now the Football League Championship) in the 2003/2004 season, scoring 32 goals, helping Palace to reach the Playoffs from where they were promoted to the Premiership in 2004/2005.

In the 2004/2005 season, he was the top English goalscorer in the Premiership, prompting calls for him to be selected for his nation. He got his first call-up against the Netherlands on February 9 2005, replacing Wayne Rooney in the 61st minute. Bizarrely, however, England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson elected to play Palace's lone striker out of position on the right wing, where he gamely fought to impress, but was clearly out of position. Theories accounting for this obvious tactical blunder range from simple managerial inadequacy, to the rather Macchiavellian idea that in playing Johnson on the wing Eriksson was bowing to widespread pressure to see him play for England, without actually wanting to give him a chance to excel, himself favouring better established names like Newcastle United striker Michael Owen. A more benign, although logically weaker explanation sees Eriksson value overall participation in international friendlies over specific performance.

Despite Crystal Palace's relegation from the Premier League to the Football League Championship, Johnson was the highest scoring English player with 21 goals in the season. Although Johnson's detractors note that 11 of these came from penalty kicks rather than open play (a record for the Premiership), he himself won 8 of the penalties. Nevertheless, this is still an impressive tally for a player, in their first season of Premiership football.

Johnson's fans hope to see him represent his country in more propitious circumstances in the future.

In the summer of 2005 after Crystal Palace had been relegated Andy Johnson requested a transfer and there was much speculation as to his possible move from the club. On August 2 2005 Andy signed a five year contract with Palace for an improved wage and pledged to help them regain their place in the top flight.

He was able to play alongside Clinton Morrison, the man who replaced him at Birmingham, shortly after, as he joined Palace from Birmingham for a fee of £2,000,000. Morrison said that he came back to Palace specifically so that he could play alongside Johnson.

Due to injuries (to Johnson), and lack of form (of Morrison), the chances of the pairing playing alongside each other had been limited in the early part of the season. However, Dowie's first choice pairing as the season moved into its second half was Johnson and the newly signed Jon Macken, who offers more in the way of holding up the ball and more of an aerial threat than the diminuitive pair of Johnson and Morrison.

In 2005, Andy was voted into Palace's Centenary XI.