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James Beattie
Player
Profile
James Scott Beattie (born February 27, 1978 in Lancaster) is an
English football player for Everton. He joined the club in
January 2005 from Southampton for a fee of £6m. He was brought
to Southampton as a young player from his hometown club Blackburn
Rovers in 1998 as part of a deal that saw Kevin Davies move in
the other direction. Southampton got the better end of the deal
as Beattie went on to become one of the Premiership's top
strikers.
A series of injuries meant he struggled to make an impact at
first with the Saints, but that all changed in November 2000 when
he began an unbelievable goalscoring run. After 18 months without
a goal, he scored ten in ten games, lifting Southampton into a
comfortable position to secure its place in the Premiership for
next season. However, his form dropped off after that and he
scored only two goals in the rest of the season.
Beattie went 17 games without scoring towards the end of the
2000-01 season and the start of the next campaign. However he was
awarded a new four-year contract in March 2001.
Once again though, he found form, but in the match against
Manchester United in January 2002, he suffered an ankle injury
which kept him on the sidelines for two months. By the end of the
season he had scored an impressive 14 goals.
Beattie earned his first
senior England cap against Australia in February 2003 after a
prolific period during the 2002-03 season. The game was not a
success, with England losing 3-1, which caused a controversy over
the management of Sven-Göran Eriksson. Beattie scored 24 goals
that season, with 23 in the Premiership - the top scoring
Englishman - and one in the FA Cup - with Saints losing in the
final to Arsenal.
However, it was clear that Beattie did not fit into Eriksson's
strategy, and his future for England seems unlikely after the
friendly match against Denmark in November 2003. In that season
he scored a total of 14 goals, a slight disappointment after his
prolific goal tally the previous season.
Beattie's £6 million transfer to Everton involved the largest
transfer fee the Merseyside club has ever paid for a player,
breaking the record amount paid for Nick Barmby in 1996. This has
since been broken by the £8.6 million capture of former Crystal
Palace striker Andy Johnson. Initially Beattie found it difficult
at Everton.
A mixture of injuries and suspensions meant his contribution
during the latter half of the 2004-05 season was limited however
the 2005-06 season has seen a notable improvement and Beattie has
been earning praise for his performances once again. He was
Everton's top scorer with 11 goals last season, including one a
sublime lob from outside the box into the top corner of the net
of Fulham F.C.
