- Matt Jansen
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Matt Jansen
Jansen training whilst at WrexhamPersonal information Full name Matthew Brooke Jansen Date of birth 20 October 1977 Place of birth Wetheral, Carlisle, England Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) Playing position Striker Club information Current club Chorley Youth career 1993–1995 Carlisle United Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 1995–1998 Carlisle United 42 (10) 1998–1999 Crystal Palace 26 (10) 1999–2006 Blackburn Rovers 153 (44) 2003 → Coventry City (loan) 9 (2) 2006 Bolton Wanderers 6 (0) 2009 Wrexham 3 (1) 2009–2010 Leigh Genesis 30 (9) 2010– Chorley 23 (11) National team‡ 1999–2000 England U21 6 (0) * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 00:19, 14 October 2011 (UTC).
† Appearances (Goals).
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 13:54, 21 August 2006 (UTC)Matthew Brooke "Matt" Jansen (born 20 October 1977) is an English footballer, who plays as a striker and currently plays for Chorley. He started his career with hometown club Carlisle United, and also played for Crystal Palace, Blackburn Rovers and Bolton Wanderers as well as a loan spell with Coventry City.[1] He won six England under 21 caps. He is currently player-coach for Northern Premier League Premier Division side Chorley, where his former Blackburn Rovers team mate Garry Flitcroft is manager. Jansen is, perhaps, best known for his stint at Blackburn which earned him cult hero status at the club.
Contents
Early life
Jansen was born in Wetheral, near Carlisle, Cumbria. He supported Newcastle United as a boy.
Football career
Carlisle United
A creative player, Jansen's career started at his home town club of Carlisle United, where he scored 10 league goals. In 1997 he also earned his first taste of glory as Carlisle earned promotion to the Second Division after finishing third. During the same season he also won his first piece of silverware as he came on late in extra time at Wembley for Carlisle's win against Colchester United in the 1997 Football League Trophy Final.
Crystal Palace
His performances at Carlisle had heads turning in higher leagues and he turned down the chance to join Manchester United before signing for then Premier League side Crystal Palace in 1998 for £1 million.
Blackburn Rovers
His impressive displays at Crystal Palace earned him a move to Premier League side Blackburn Rovers for £4.1 million. Jansen showed signs of things to come when he scored against Tottenham Hotspur on his debut in January 1999.
Blackburn were relegated to the First Division in Jansen's first season, but he was the star of the team which won promotion back to the Premier League in the 2000/01 season, finishing as the league's second top scorer, after Fulham's Louis Saha, with 23 goals. He continued to impress in the following season, scoring the first goal in Blackburn's 2-1 League Cup final victory against Tottenham Hotspur in 2002. His good form led to an England call-up for the friendly game against Paraguay. However he missed out on what would be his only International football match for his nation due to a stomach bug.
A motorcycle accident in Rome, Italy during the summer of 2002 nearly killed Jansen and long-term hospitalisation followed (he spent six days in a coma). In the seasons after the accident he struggled to regain his place in the Blackburn side which led to him being loaned to Coventry City in 2003,[1] where he scored 2 goals in 9 appearances. He made another attempt to force his way into the Blackburn team at the start of the 2004/05 season, scoring 2 goals in 8 appearances. However, it was felt that he had still not recovered mentally from the accident and was struggling to cope with the pressures of Premier League football. As a result, Blackburn decided it best for him take another break from football and sent him to visit a sports psychiatrist in the USA.
In May 2005, Jansen signed a 2 year 'pay as you play' contract with Blackburn, suggesting that the club was ready to give him one final chance to establish himself in the team after his injury, and he returned to action in a pre-season friendly against Morecambe in July 2005.
However, Jansen once again struggled to gain a first-team place once the season started. Blackburn agreed to release him from his contract on 11 January 2006.
Bolton Wanderers
Two days after release by Blackburn he signed for Bolton Wanderers on a six month contract, after interest from Stuart Pearce's Manchester City failed. His first game for his new club came, naturally, at Ewood Park. However, his stay at the Reebok Stadium was not a success and he was released in May of the same year.
Out of contract
In the summer of 2006, Jansen had a trial with the New York Red Bulls but the move led to nothing permanent due to rival team Columbus Crew allegedly exercising a loophole in transfer rules to block any move. Bolton manager Sam Allardyce invited the player back to England and he continued to train with Bolton. In the summer of 2007 he returned to his original club, Carlisle United, to train in an attempt to regain his fitness.[2]
Despite developing other business interests such as property, Jansen did not rule out a return to professional football, saying in July 2008, "I'm keeping myself reasonably fit...we'll see what happens."[3]
In November 2008, Blackburn announced that Jansen would return in a casual agreement to help regain fitness in a bid to have one last go at reclaiming the promising and glittering career he once had in professional football. Having trained with the club for 2 months he left Brockhall with the arrival of new manager Sam Allardyce. Jansen was present at the club's Premier League game with Newcastle United when he also featured in a pre-recorded half-time lottery draw broadcast on the club television station as part of the half-time "entertainment".[4]
On February 18, he joined Football League One side Huddersfield Town on trial and was given a run-out in their reserve match against Rotherham United the same day, in which he scored the opening goal of a 2-2 draw.[5]
Wrexham
On March 11, he agreed a deal with Conference National side Wrexham until the end of the season, scoring once against Northwich Victoria.[6]
Leigh Genesis
In the close season of 2009, Jansen joined up with former team mate Garry Flitcroft, then manager of NPL Division One North side Leigh Genesis and played for them in the 2009–10 season, but when Flitcroft left to take over the reins at Leigh's rivals Chorley in May 2010, Jansen soon followed along with a number of other Genesis players.
Chorley
Jansen scored his first Chorley goal, an acrobatic scissor kick, against old club Bolton Wanderers in a 1-1 pre-season draw at Victory Park. During the 2010-11 season he played 22 league games and scored 3 league goals. He would also start both play-off games which led to the club's promotion to the Northern Premier League Premier Division.
International career
Jansen played 6 times for the England U-21 team without scoring. In 2002 he was called up by Sven Goran-Eriksson to play for the senior squad, however due to a stomach bug caught from his nephew he had to pull out from the squad. Jansen later revealed that Eriksson had informed him the night before a friendly with Paraguay that he would start; however the stomach bug prevented this. He was also expected to go to the 2002 World Cup; he was even invited to David Beckham's send off party and had his competition suit measured, but Eriksson ultimately decided to take defender Martin Keown instead.[7]
Personal life
As well as continuing his footballing career with Chorley, Matt also now works as a money trader as well as being involved in property.
Club career statistics
Correct after 7 May 2011
Club performance League Cup League Cup Continental Total Season Club League Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals England League FA Cup League Cup Europe Total 1996–97 Carlisle United Third Division 19 1 2 0 1 0 - 26 1 1997–98 Second Division 23 9 1 0 4 3 - 30 11 Crystal Palace Premier League 8 3 - - - 8 3 1998–99 First Division 18 7 1 0 4 0 - 23 7 Blackburn Rovers Premier League 11 3 - - - 11 3 1999–00 First Division 30 4 1 1 2 2 - 33 7 2000–01 40 23 6 1 2 0 - 48 24 2001–02 Premier League 35 10 3 0 5 6 - 43 16 2002–03 7 0 2 2 3 0 - 12 2 Coventry City (loan) First Division 9 2 - - - 9 2 2003–04 Blackburn Rovers Premier League 19 2 - - 2 1 21 3 2004–05 7 2 - 1 0 - 8 2 2005–06 4 0 - 1 0 - 5 0 Bolton Wanderers 6 0 1 0 - - 7 0 2008–09 Wrexham Conference National 3 1 - - - 3 1 2009–10 Leigh Genesis NPL Division One 30 9 1 0 - - 35 11 2010–11 Chorley NPL Division One 22 11 5 1 - - 27 4 2011–12 NPL Premier 1 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 0 Career total 284 77 20 4 23 11 2 1 328 95 - Notes
a. All Football League Trophy results are included in totals
b. 1 President's Cup appearance Leigh Genesis included in 2009–10 totals
c. 2 FA Trophy appearances for Leigh Genesis included in 2009–10 totals
d. 1 Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy appearance for Leigh Genesis in 2009–10 totals
e. 1 FA Trophy appearances for Chorley included in 2010–11 league totals (1 app. 1 goal)Honours
- Football League Trophy winner: 1997
- League Cup winner: 2002
- Football League Division One runner-up: 2000-01
- Northern Premier League Division One North play-off winner: 2010-11
References
- ^ a b "Jansen completes Coventry move". BBC Sport. 18 February 2003. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/coventry_city/2757711.stm. Retrieved 19 August 2011.
- ^ "Blues help Jansen regain fitness". BBC Sport. 2007-07-10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/carlisle_united/6288398.stm. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
- ^ York, Gary (2008-07-04). "Matt Jansen - my life after Blackburn Rovers". Lancashire Telegraph. http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/3193700.Matt_Jansen___my_life_after_Blackburn_Rovers/. Retrieved 2008-09-08.
- ^ "Blackburn boss gives Jansen hope". BBC Sport. 21 November 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/b/blackburn_rovers/7742323.stm. Retrieved 21 November 2008.
- ^ Matt Jansen's on the button for Huddersfield Town
- ^ "Northwich 1-2 Wrexham". BBC. 17 March 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_conf/7935582.stm. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
- ^ "Matt Jansen admits his football days are finally over - exclusive". Daily Mirror. 28 March 2009. http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Matt-Jansen-admits-his-football-days-are-finally-over-exclusive-article29455.html. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
External links
- BBC Sport profile
- Matt Jansen career stats at Soccerbase
- Matt Jansen discovers feeling for football again at timesonline.co.uk
- Wrexham profile
- Interview with Matt Jansen
- Interview April 2010
2000–01 Football League First Division PFA Team of the Year GK: Maik Taylor · DF: Steve Finnan · DF: Chris Coleman · DF: Henning Berg · DF: Martin Grainger · MF: David Dunn · MF: Lee Clark · MF: Sean Davis · MF: Damien Duff · FW: Louis Saha · FW: Matt JansenCategories:- 1977 births
- Living people
- People from Carlisle, Cumbria
- Association football forwards
- English footballers
- English people of Dutch descent
- England under-21 international footballers
- Carlisle United F.C. players
- Crystal Palace F.C. players
- Blackburn Rovers F.C. players
- Coventry City F.C. players
- Bolton Wanderers F.C. players
- Wrexham F.C. players
- Leigh Genesis F.C. players
- Chorley F.C. players
- The Football League players
- Premier League players
- Conference National players
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