Wayne Routledge

Infobox Football biography
playername = Wayne Routledge


fullname = Wayne Neville Routledge
height = height|ft=5|in=7
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1985|1|7
cityofbirth = Sidcup
countryofbirth = England
currentclub = Aston Villa
clubnumber = 18
position = Right Winger
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 2001–2005
2005–2008
2006
2006–2007
2008–
clubs = Crystal Palace
Tottenham Hotspur
→ Portsmouth (loan)
→ Fulham (loan)
Aston Villa
caps(goals) = 110 (11)
005 0(0)
013 0(0)
024 0(0)
002 0(0)
nationalyears = 2004–2007
nationalteam = England U21
nationalcaps(goals) = 012 0(1)
pcupdate = 03:05, 6 October 2008 (UTC)
ntupdate = 21:35, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Wayne Neville Routledge (born January 7 1985 in Sidcup, Greater London) is an English footballer, who currently plays for Premier League club Aston Villa. He plays as a midfielder predominantly on the right wing but can also play on the left. He has represented England at under-16, under-19 and under-21 level.

Football career

Crystal Palace

Routledge began his career at Crystal Palace, making his starting debut against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the age of 17 in September 2002, and scoring after just one minute on the field. He made his Palace debut in October 2001 in a 1–0 home defeat by West Bromwich Albion, aged only 16. He was England's second ever player to score at the new Wembley Stadium.

He was an important member of the side which won promotion to the Premiership via the play-offs in 2003-04, and he was ever present as Palace battled for their Premiership place in 2004-05 and, although they just failed to avoid the drop, Routledge proved to be an exciting talent on the wing, chipping in with an impressive 8 assists. He was not to leave the top flight, though. After rejecting a contract with the side that developed him as a youngster in January, "Spurs" snapped him up on July 1, 2005. [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/4103062.stm |title=Tottenham agree deal on Routledge |publisher=BBC Sport |date=17 June, 2005 ] The clubs could not come to an agreement over a fee for Routledge so the transfer went to a tribunal. There it was agreed that Palace would receive an initial £1.25m, rising to £2m depending upon appearances in future.

Tottenham

After impressing in the pre-season, His career at White Hart Lane started slowly as he unfortunately suffered a broken foot on his league debut for the club, but on December 122005 he made his return as a substitute in only his second game for Spurs against Portsmouth.

He was loaned to Portsmouth in the January 2006 transfer window [ cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/p/portsmouth/4663326.stm |title=Pompey sign Routledge & Koroman |publisher=BBC Sport |date=30 January 2006 ] and made 13 appearances for them before returning to Spurs at the season's end. Routledge impressed Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp in a home game against Bolton Wanderers in March 2006, when, with Bolton 1–0 ahead with only three minutes left to play, Routledge - who had only just come on as a substitute - outpaced three Bolton players into the penalty box to connect with a long pass from Matthew Taylor and set Azar Karadas up for a spectacular volley which levelled the match and ultimately earned relegation-threatened Portsmouth a crucial 1–1 draw, a result that began a run of good late season form for them.

After impressing in the pre-season again, he was once again loaned out on a year deal to Fulham as part of the deal that brought Steed Malbranque to Tottenham. [ cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/5302196.stm |title=Malbranque & Routledge swap clubs |publisher=BBC Sport |date=31 August 2006 ] This was also partly due to the emergence of Aaron Lennon at both club and international level.

His Fulham bow came as a 34th minute replacement for injury victim Jimmy Bullard in a 2–1 victory at Newcastle United. He went on to create two goals in the final ten minutes of the match.

Aston Villa

On January 30 2008 Routledge joined Aston Villa on an 18 month contract in a deal worth £1.25 million. He scored the second goal in his reserve debut in a 6–0 away win at Derby County, played at Burton Albion's ground [cite news |author=James Pearson |title=Villa bag Spurs man |url=http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_3094768,00.html |publisher="Sky Sports" |date=2008-01-30 |accessdate=2008-01-30 ] . He made his first-team debut on April 5 2008 coming on as a late substitute for Stiliyan Petrov in the 86th minute in a 4–0 win against Bolton.

On 10 July 2008, Routledge was the subject of a scathing verbal attack from Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan. Jordan was giving an interview about now ex-Palace midfielder John Bostock, during which he used Routledge as an example of why he believed the youth player should not leave Palace to join Tottenham.

"When Spurs came knocking I told Wayne to stay and learn his trade at Palace, but he went, he grabbed the money, and now he's at Villa not getting in the first team, just like he didn't get in the Spurs team, just like he didn't get in the Portsmouth team and just like he didn't get in the Fulham team." [cite news |title=Jordan warns Spurs-bound Bostock |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/crystal_palace/7499205.stm |publisher="BBC Sport" |date=2008-07-08 |accessdate=2008-07-08 ]

References

External links

*soccerbase|28828|Wayne Routledge
* [http://www.sporting-heroes.net/football-heroes/searchresults.asp?FootballHeroName=Wayne+Routledge Photos and stats] at sporting-heroes.net
* [http://www.4thegame.com/club/portsmouth-fc/player-profile/3829/wayneroutledge.html Profile] at 4thegame.com
* [http://premierleague.com/fapl.rac?command=forwardOnly&nextPage=enPlayerProfile&playerId=236287 Profile] at premierleague.com
* [http://www.icons.com/routledge/ Wayne Routledge Official Website] at Icons.com