Deon Burton

Deon Burton

Personal information
Full name	Deon John Burton
Date of birth	25 October 1976 (1976-10-25) (age 35)
Place of birth	Reading, Berkshire, England
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Gabala
Number	10
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1994–1997	Portsmouth	62	(10)
1996–1997	→ Cardiff City (loan)	5	(2)
1997–2002	Derby County	125	(25)
1998	→ Barnsley (loan)	3	(0)
2002	→ Stoke City (loan)	12	(2)
2002	→ Portsmouth (loan)	6	(3)
2002–2004	Portsmouth	10	(1)
2003	→ Walsall (loan)	3	(0)
2003	→ Swindon Town (loan)	4	(1)
2004–2005	Brentford	40	(10)
2005–2006	Rotherham United	24	(12)
2006–2009	Sheffield Wednesday	124	(27)
2008–2009	→ Charlton Athletic (loan)	7	(1)
2009–2010	Charlton Athletic	51	(17)
2010–	Gabala	27	(9)
National team‡
1997–2009	Jamaica	59	(12)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 2 May 2010. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 2 January 2009

Deon John Burton (born 25 October 1976 in Reading, England) is a Jamaican-British football striker who currently plays for Gabala.

Football career

Early career

Burton began his professional career with Portsmouth, with whom he made his debut in the 1993–94 league season, playing in two games. Burton would play intermittently for Portsmouth over the next three seasons before a £1m move to Derby County in the Premier League for the 1997–98 season. Burton would again struggle to establish a starting role at Derby, playing intermittently there until 2002–03, when he would again return to Portsmouth for an initial fee of £75,000, which eventually rose to £250k as Portsmouth were promoted at the end of the season. Burton stayed shortly at Portsmouth, but, unable to establish a starting role, was loaned to Walsall and Swindon Town, where he scored once against Wycombe Wanderers,^[1] before moving to Brentford for the 2004–05 campaign, helping the club to the League One play-off semi-finals against Sheffield Wednesday as their top scorer.

Rotherham United

In July 2005 he joined Rotherham United on a free transfer. After an impressive first half of the season, scoring 14 goals in just 27 appearances including his career's first hat-trick against Blackpool.

Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday bought Deon Burton from Rotherham United for a fee of £110k. This caused much controversy amongst the Rotherham public, as Burton was alleged to have trained with Sheffield Wednesday before the transfer window opened.^{[citation needed]} He also failed to turn up at the Yorkshire derby between Rotherham and Doncaster Rovers on New Year's Eve.^{[citation needed]} He then told local radio his young children were suffering from a virus which he caught, leading to him missing games and training for the Millers.^{[citation needed]} He scored his first goal for the Owls in March 2006 against QPR after recovering from a minor injury, his first in nine appearances.

He went on to play a crucial part in Sheffield Wednesday's Championship survival and returned to play against his old club Derby County on the final day of the 2005–06 season, captaining the Wednesday side to a 2–0 victory with another former Ram, Marcus Tudgay, scoring the first goal.

His good form for Wednesday led to a recall to the international stage. Named as a standby for the friendlies against Ghana and England, he was eventually called up as a replacement for Watford striker Marlon King who was sent home for a breach of discipline. Burton made a second-half appearance as substitute in the 6–0 defeat to England.

Despite only scoring one goal with four months of the 2006–07 campaign gone, Burton's second half of season form was excellent. He scored twelve more goals, making him the club's joint top scorer for the season, alongside Steve MacLean.

Deon reached a milestone 100 career goals at club level on Boxing day 2007, scoring a penalty against Burnley at Turf Moor. On the last day of the season against Norwich, with Wednesday needing a win to guarantee survival, Burton cancelled out Darren Huckerby's opening goal with a penalty, before scoring his second, and Wednesday's third, later in the game, which was won 4–1 by Wednesday. These two goals brought Deon's tally for the season to nine goals in all competitions, again making him the club's top scorer for the 2007–08 season. Burton scored his first goal of the 2008–09 season on 25 November 2008, in Wednesday's 0–2 away win at Blackpool.

Charlton Athletic

Burton joined Championship side Charlton Athletic on loan on 27 November 2008 with a view to a permanent move, Wednesday manager Brian Laws citing Burton's poor start to the 2008–09 season for the move as well as not being able to give the player assurances over his long term future at Hillsborough. On 2 January 2009, Burton was named as a permanent Charlton player, joining the club on a free transfer.^[2]

F.C. Gabala

In 2010 Burton joined Azerbaijan League outfit F.C.Gabala under the management of former Arsenal F.C. defender Tony Adams.

International

Burton made his Jamaican debut on 7 September 1997 in the latter stages of their World Cup qualifying campaign. He finished with four goals from five games, an exploit which won him Jamaica's Sportsman of the Year Award for almost single-handedly getting the country to the 1998 finals. However he failed to score in France.[1] He also appeared in each of Jamaica's games as they finished fourth in the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup but he failed to score.[2] He was also in the squad that failed to qualify for the 2002 World cup and was again included on the roster for the 2000 Gold Cup.[3].

He was included in the qualifying squad for the 2003 Gold Cup making substitute appearances [4] but was dropped from the squad after qualification [5].

Deon had to wait 3 years for his next international involvement – against England. More good form for Wednesday meant that he was recalled for a friendly match against Trinidad & Tobago on 27 March 2008.^[3] He came on as a second half substitute for Marlon King in a 2–2 draw. This was to be his 50th cap.^[4] He kept his place in the squad for the next friendly game against St. Vincent and the Grenadines on 3 June, again coming off the bench for King in the second half, to score his side's 4th goal a minute later and also to cross for Ricardo Gardner to score the 5th and final goal in the 87th minute of a 5–1 victory.^[5]

Career statistics

^[6]

Club performance			League		Cup		League Cup		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
England			League		FA Cup		League Cup		Total
1993–94	Portsmouth	First Division	2	0	-		-		2	0
1994–95			7	2	-		-		7	2
1995–96			32	7	1	0	1	0	34	7
1996–97			21	1	1	1	2	2	23	3
1996–97	Cardiff City (Loan)	Third Division	5	2	-		-		5	2
1997–98	Derby County	Premier League	28	3	2	0	1	0	31	3
1998–99			21	9	5	3	1	0	27	12
1998–99	Barnsley (Loan)	First Division	3	0	-		-		3	0
1999-00	Derby County	Premier League	19	4	1	0	1	0	21	4
2000–01			32	5	2	0	3	1	37	6
2001–02			17	1	-		2	2	19	3
2001–02	Stoke City (Loan)	Second Division	15	4	-		-		15	4
2002–03	Portsmouth	First Division	15	4	1	0	-		16	4
2002–03	Derby County	First Division	7	3	-		-		7	3
2003–04	Portsmouth	Premier League	1	0	1	0	-		2	0
2003–04	Walsall (Loan)	First Division	3	0	-		1	0	4	0
2003–04	Swindon Town (Loan)	Second Division	4	1	-		-		4	1
2004–05	Brentford	League One	42	10	7	0	1	0	50	10
2005–06	Rotherham United	League One	24	12	1	1	2	1	27	14
2005–06	Sheffield Wednesday	Championship	17	4	-		-		17	4
2006–07			42	13	2	0	-		44	13
2007–08			40	7	2	0	3	2	45	9
2008–09			17	1	-		1	0	18	1
2008–09	Charlton Athletic	Championship	20	5	3	0	-		23	5
2009–10		League One	35	13	1	0	1	0	37	13
Azerbaijan			League		Azerbaijan Cup		League Cup		Total
2010–11	Gabala FC	Azerbaijan Premier League	15	7	0	0	-		15	7
2011–12	Gabala FC	Azerbaijan Premier League	10	3	0	0	-		10	3
Total	England		476	111	29	4	20	8	525	123
	Azerbaijan		25	10	0	0	—		25	10
Career total			501	121	29	4	20	8	550	133

Stats accurate as at 16:14, 29 October 2011

References

1. ^ "Swindon 2–0 Wycombe". BBC. 1 November 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_2/3205305.stm. Retrieved 12 November 2009. 
2. ^ Burton completes Charlton move – Sheffield Wednesday
3. ^ Burton gets Boyz recall – JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM
4. ^ Owls' Burton gets a rest cure – Sheffield Wednesday
5. ^ The Reggae Boyz News -Jamaica Football
6. ^ Sheffield Wed | System | Error Page | Error

• Deon Burton player profile at swfc.co.uk
• Deon Burton career stats at Soccerbase
• Deon Burton playing stats at ESPN Soccernet

Awards
Preceded by James Beckford	Jamaica Sportsman of the Year 1997	Succeeded by Courtney Walsh
Preceded by Paulo Wanchope	Derby County Top Goalscorer 1998–99	Succeeded by Rory Delap

Persondata
Name	Burton, Deon John
Alternative names
Short description	footballer
Date of birth	25 October 1976
Place of birth	Reading, England
Date of death
Place of death