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Marlon Harewood

Personal information
Full name	Marlon Anderson Harewood
Date of birth	25 August 1979 (1979-08-25) (age 30)
Place of birth	Hampstead, London, England
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Aston Villa
Number	9
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1996–2003	Nottingham Forest	196	(55)
1998	→ Haka (loan)	12	(3)
1999	→ Ipswich Town (loan)	6	(1)
2003–2007	West Ham United	142	(47)
2007–	Aston Villa	29	(5)
2009	→ Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan)	5	(0)
2009	→ Newcastle United (loan)	15	(5)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 13:11, 26 December 2009 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals).

Marlon Anderson Harewood (born 25 August 1979) is an English footballer who plays as a striker for Aston Villa. He is a Barbadian Englishman. His brother is the actor David Harewood.^[1]

Harewood started his career at Nottingham Forest. During his career there, he had loan spells at Haka and Ipswich Town before joining West Ham United in 2003 and then Aston Villa in 2007. In 2009 he also spent short periods on loan at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United.

Club career

Nottingham Forest

Harewood was a product of the Nottingham Forest youth system,^[2] where he was inexplicably known as "Alf", and made his league debut in 1998. In the same year, he acquired experience abroad with a successful loan spell at Haka of the Finnish Veikkausliiga, winning both the Finnish championship and the Finnish Cup. In 1999, he had a further loan spell with Ipswich Town, scoring one goal against Bury^[3] in six appearances.^[4] Harewood went on to forge a reputation as one of the most lethal strikers in the First Division. He scored 51 goals in 124 league games and 58 substitute appearances for Forest and also scored four goals in 23 cup appearances.^[2] He formed a brilliant attacking partnership with close friend David Johnson. They scored 50 goals between them, of which Harewood netted 21 goals including 4 in one game against Stoke City, to fire Paul Hart's Forest into the playoffs for the 2002-03 season. He caught the eye of West Ham fans when he scored for Forest in an FA Cup Third Round clash at Upton Park on 4 January 2003.^[5] However, Harewood's contract was due to expire in summer 2004 and having been offered a worse contract than he was already on, rejected it and decided to leave.^[2]

West Ham United

He joined West Ham United in November 2003 for a fee of £500,000.^[6] After signing for West Ham, new manager Alan Pardew hoped that the powerful striker could have a similar effect on the Hammers promotion hopes the following season. Harewood was the top scorer for West Ham in 2004–05 with 23 goals in all competitions. He returned to top flight football following West Ham's playoff victory at the end of the 2004–05 season, and the 2005–06 season saw Marlon spearheading Pardew’s Premiership attack. He scored 14 league goals, including the first top flight hat-trick of the season in a 4–0 home victory against Aston Villa^[7] and also put West Ham in front after just 52 seconds against Manchester United^[8] also at Upton Park. Harewood became one of the top scoring strikers of the 2005-2006 season and after scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup semi-final against Middlesbrough,^[9] Harewood responded by saying, "I can't really describe how I felt at the time; you can't put something like that into words, it's a chapter in my career that I have dreamed about doing since I was a little kid. After making the big step-up from Nottingham Forest to West Ham, I knew I had to work hard if I wanted to get to where the top strikers in the country were."

Harewood collected an FA Cup runners-up medal with West Ham that season, after they lost on penalties following a 3–3 draw with Liverpool. He was also the club's top Premier League goalscorer with 14 goals.

Following a torrid run of results for West Ham, including a defeat to League 1 side Chesterfield in the League Cup,^[10] Harewood scored a dramatic last-minute winner against title-hopefuls Arsenal^[11] in November 2006. This subsequently resulted in a highly emotional confrontation between the two managers. In May 2007, Harewood confirmed that he would leave West Ham in the summer after falling out of favour at the club.^[12] In July, it was confirmed that Marlon was in talks at Aston Villa's training ground^[13] and his agent, Mick McGuire, said, "Marlon has been in talks with Villa and everything should be concluded soon. Villa have come in at the 11th hour to take him."^[14]

Aston Villa

Harewood joined Aston Villa on 17 July 2007 for a fee to be £4 million,^[15] signing a three-year deal.^[16] Marlon said, "I was all set to sign [for Wigan] on the Monday when I got a phone call saying Martin O’Neill wanted to speak to me. I might have had a better chance of getting into Wigan’s first team, but, with no disrespect to them, when Martin O’Neill phones you up asking you to join a massive club like Aston Villa, and he’s explaining what he wants to do and how he wants to go about it, that sold it to me.".^[15] Harewood scored his 100th career league goal as Aston Villa beat Blackburn Rovers 4–0 at Ewood Park on 28 November 2007.

Harewood continued to be a fringe player at Aston Villa throughout the winter and eventually scored his second goal in the 2–2 draw with Liverpool in January.

His spirited substitute appearances for the club have turned around games and lead to him becoming a fan favourite at Villa Park. The chant "Feed the Hare and he will score" rang around the Madejski Stadium after he scored Villa's second against Reading on 24 February 2008.

Despite his good performances from the bench Martin O'Neill continued to use him as a "super-sub" (albeit he did start against Manchester United due to injury troubles) and he continued to score goals. He scored his first goal at Villa Park in a 4–0 victory over Bolton and scored again the following week in a 6–0 win away to Derby County. His next Villa goal didn't come until October when he scored in a 1–1 draw with Litex Lovech in the UEFA Cup.

Harewood found his chances even more limited during the 2008–09 season. He did not start a single Premier League match, and of his fourteen appearances in all competitions, eight were as a substitute. The goal against Litex Lovech was the only time he scored that season. After the arrival of Emile Heskey at Villa Park in January 2009, newspapers started speculating that his time at the club was coming to an end, with rumours of a move to Stoke,^[17] Sheffield United and Middlesbrough.^[18]

Harewood with Newcastle.

Loan to Wolverhampton Wanderers

He eventually left Villa on loan, joining Wolverhampton Wanderers of the Championship for the remainder of the season on 23 March 2009.^[19] He played five games for Wolves without scoring before returning to Villa Park.

Loan to Newcastle United

On 24 September 2009, Harewood joined Championship side Newcastle United on a three-month loan until December.^[20][21] He made his debut on 26 September 2009 in a 4–0 win over Ipswich Town, coming on as a substitute for Nile Ranger in the 64th minute.^[22] His first goal for the Magpies came, in a 1–1 draw, against Queens Park Rangers on 30 September 2009 in the following game.^[23] He then scored a brace to help Newcastle win 3–0 against Swansea City on 28 November 2009 and keep the Magpies top of the table.^[24] He scored his fourth of the season coming in a 2–2 away draw at Barnsley.^[25] His fifth of the season came on 20 December 2009, scoring the opening goal in the 2-0 win Tyne–Tees derby at St James' Park.^[26]

Career statistics

Club^[27]

Stats accurate as of 13:11, 26 December 2009.

References

External links

• Official website
• Marlon Harewood career stats at Soccerbase