PLAYER PROFILE

James Beattie

Position: Forward

Height: 6'1

Weight: 12st 0lbs

Date of Birth: 1978-02-27 Lancaster, England

James Beattie

James Beattie signed for Everton in January 2005, choosing the Toffees ahead of Aston Villa. A disastrous start to the 2004/05 campaign saw Harry Redknapp decide that he must sell his prized asset in order to rebuild the squad, and so, following a battle for Beattie's signature between Everton and Villa, Beattie moved to Goodison Park in a £6million deal.

Beattie had arrived at The Dell in the summer of 1998 as part of the package that saw Kevin Davies move to Blackburn, but any ideas he was merely going to be a makeweight in the deal were quickly dispelled. He scored five crucial goals in 35 Premiership outings in that season, as well as one in the League Cup.

After making only seven appearances for Rovers, Beattie has had a considerable impact on the south coast with his imposing style frightening the opposition defence. An England under-21 international, Beattie has the potential to be a key figure in the long-term future of the club.

The talented young striker was voted the Saints' 'Player of the Year' for 1998/99 as he scored several vital goals as the club successfully battled against the threat of relegation.

However 1999/00 was almost a complete write-off for Beattie as he suffered a succession of injuries, limiting him to only a handful of appearances.

His fortunes changed dramatically in 2000/01, with a blistering run which peaked at 10 goals in 10 games before the turn of the year and he ended the season as Saints top scorer with 12 goals in all competitions.

He was also rewarded with a new contract in March 2001 which saw him pledge his future to Saints until June 2005.

Went on another scorching scoring run over Christmas 2001/02 with five goals in as many games before badly injuring an ankle at home to Manchester United.

He got of to a shaky start in the 2002/03 season after being caught drink-driving, however, he soon put all that behind him and went on to become one of the top scorers and a serious contender for the Golden Boot award. All in all he scored 24 goals. Despite calls for Beattie to be included in the England squad, the young striker was consistantly overlooked by coach Sven Goran Eriksson, until the June friendly with Serbia and Montenegro.

Beattie was ever-present in the Saints side during the following season, and scored 17 goals and was a serious challenger for the Premiership Golden Boot. He forced his way into Eriksson's plans, making two substitute appearances in friendly matches and played the full ninety minutes of the Euro 2004 qualifier with Liechtenstein. However, he didn't make it into the squad for the European Championships in Portugal.

His first five months at Goodison Park were blighted by niggling injuries. Although nothing kept him out for any great sustained period of time, several small knocks stopped him building up any consistancy in his first season for David Moyes.

He played 24 games and scored 5 times, and built on this in 2005/06. Despite some patchy form again, he finally started to flourish around March and April 2006, even earning some calls for a return to the England squad, though the goals dried up after a brace against Fulham.

The 2006/07 season was one of his least successful yet as he struggled to break into the first team on a regular basis. He scored twice in 16 starts and left in August 2007 to join Sheffield United, where he was a big success in The Championship.

In January 2009 he returned to the top flight, signing for Stoke City.