English Premier League-Player Profile: Fabian Delph
Delph was born in Bradford on 21st of November, 1989. He started off his youth football career with Bradford City F.C but soon left his childhood club behind him and joined Leeds United in September of 2001. His move to Leeds came through after he was recommended to their academy coach Greg Abbot by Bradford’s manager Paul Jewell. In 2006, Fabian also left Tong Secondary School and joined Leeds United on a scholarship at the age of sixteen.
During his time at Leeds, he completed his studies at an associated school named Boston Spa. In 2008, Delph made his international debut for England’s U-19 team when he came on as a substitute. However before that in 2007, Delph impressed for Leeds United and was captain for their reserve team side. His debut for Leeds’s senior team came against Derby County on 6th of May 2007.
On 11th of January due to his consistent performances in the reserve team side for Leeds, Fabian was offered his first professional contract at the club. In the remainder of the 2007-2008 season, Delph made two appearances for his club side, both of which came as a substitute. His league cup debut for Leeds United came on 13th of August 2008 and soon after on 5th of September he was offered a new four year contract at Leeds.
His first brace for Leeds United came in their match against Walsall where he scored both of his goals from long range efforts, as the encounter ended in a three nil win for United. His form for Leeds who were languishing in lower division mediocrity soon caught attention of Premier League clubs such as Arsenal, Aston Villa and Newcastle. However all bids which generated from the above stated clubs were rejected by Leeds as they considered Delph an important part of their squad.
In the winter transfer window of 2008-2009, Leeds again rejected two more bids from Premier League clubs. At the end of the 2008-2009 season, Delph won the Young player of the season award; he also won the goal of the season award for his goal against Brighton. He also won the Player’s player of the season award. Leeds United were knocked out of the play-off semifinals for promotion to the Championship by Millwall, following this defeat there was a lot of transfer speculation surrounding Delph’s future at United.
In the summer transfer window that followed, Fabian finally secured a move away from Leeds to Aston Villa F.C. Villa fought off interest from fellow Premier League clubs such as Everton, Tottenham, Fulham and Sunderland to sign the skillful English midfielder. His debut for Villa came in their friendly match against Fiorentina on 8th of August, 2009.
Delph’s premier league debut for the Birmingham club came against Wigan Athletic on 15th of August, 2009 which was also the first day of the 2009-2010 Premier League season. Villa lost that game by two goals to nil and the young Englishman was also shown a yellow card in the 61st minute of the match. However, Fabian’s first goal for Villa came in their F.A Cup tie against Brighton & Hove Albion.
On 17th of April, 2010, Delph sustained a cruciate ligament injury due to which he will be out of football action till January, 2011. Fabian is currently making his comeback from the horrific knee injury and will be looking to make an impact in the latter half of the 2010-2011 league season which starts off from 14th August 2010.
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