From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Darren Bent
Personal information
Full name	Darren Ashley Bent
Date of birth	February 6, 1984 (age 23)
Place of birth	London, England
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Charlton Athletic
Number	10
Youth clubs
	Ipswich Town
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
2001–05 2005–present	Ipswich Town Charlton Athletic	122 (47) 060 (28)
National team2
2003–05 2006–present	England U21 England	014 0(9) 002 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:38, 18 March 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 18:38, 4 March 2007 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Darren Ashley Bent (born February 6, 1984 in Tooting, London) is a professional English footballer, who currently plays as striker for Charlton Athletic.

He was a product of Ipswich Town's youth academy and was the club's top goalscorer in the 2004-05 season (with 19 goals alongside Shefki Kuqi) and completed a £3 million transfer to Charlton that summer after Ipswich failed to reach the Premier League for a third successive season. He was a prolific forward at Ipswich scoring 47 times in 122 league games. The January before the transfer, he had been linked with a transfer to Liverpool.

Regarding his birthplace, there is some confusion with nearly all biographies - typically of a brief nature - available saying he was born in Cambridge: however The FA's profile says he was born in Tooting. This confusion may stem from the fact he moved to Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, as a child, where he attended Hinchingbrooke School.^[1]. The Bent family is of Jamaican descent.

On August 13 2005, the opening day of the 2005-06 Premiership season, Bent had a dream debut which saw him score two goals for Charlton playing at Sunderland. That same day, he was also called up to the England senior team for the August 17, 2005 friendly against Denmark.

He continued his impressive scoring record on August 20, 2005 against Premiership newcomers Wigan Athletic, a game which ended in a 1-0 win to Charlton. Bent was then called into the full England squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Wales and Northern Ireland. He also was named the August Premiership Player of The Month.

Bent continued scoring regularly for Charlton and scored his 9th goal in just 11 games for 'the Addicks' when he netted past Carlo Cudicini of Chelsea on the 26th of October 2005 on the way to knocking The Blues out of the Carling Cup. He had also scored against Hartlepool United in the previous round.

After being called up to the squad for a fourth time, Bent made his England debut on March 1, 2006, starting against Uruguay at Anfield in a pre-World Cup friendly match (he wore the number 10 shirt). On 8 May 2006, Bent was omitted from England's World Cup squad.

Bent has also represented England at Under-19 level with 8 goals in 12 appearances, and at Under-21 level with 9 goals in 14 appearances. Despite having played for the senior side he was recalled to the U21 squad for the October 2006 qualification playoffs against Germany. Due to an injury to Andrew Johnson shortly after the squad's announcement, Bent was recalled to the senior squad.

Bent was the highest scoring Englishman in the Premiership in the 2005-2006 season, which made him 3rd highest scorer overall. His consistent performances that year earned him the Charlton Athletic Player of the Season award. Despite receiving offers from other clubs such as Liverpool, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur at the end of the season, Bent signed an extension to his contract at Charlton Athletic, which now expires in 2010.^[2]

Bent has begun the 2006-2007 season where he left off the year before, scoring regularly despite the club's worst ever start to a Premiership season.

Off the pitch, Darren models for the Projekts NYC fashion range.

Bent has recently been the subject of much transfer speculation, with reports linking the player with a January switch to West Ham, Chelsea^[3],Manchester United or Newcastle United^[4].

• Profile at TheFA.com
• Darren Bent career stats at Soccerbase
• Profile at 4thegame.com
• Photos and stats at sporting-heroes.net
• Profile at premierleague.com
• Profile at Yahoo! Sport

Charlton Athletic F.C. - Current Squad

2 Young | 3 Hreiðarsson | 4 Faye | 5 Reid | 7 M. Bent | 8 Holland | 9 Zheng | 10 D. Bent | 11 Ambrose | 12 Lisbie | 14 Thomas | 15 El Karkouri | 16 Song | 17 Gibbs | 18 Hasselbaink | 19 Rommedahl | 20 Hughes | 22 Bougherra | 23 Diawara | 27 Elliot | 28 Sankofa | 30 Weston | 32 Thatcher | 33 Randolph | 34 Tanska | 35 Ashton | 36 Myhre | 37 Walker | 38 Carson | 39 Gíslason | –– Dickson | Manager: Pardew