English Premier League - Player Profile: James Collins
Collins is a Welsh international footballer, who plays mostly in defensive roles across the back four. He was born in the city of Newport in Wales. James has risen to fame in the past few years due to his performances for West Ham United and Aston Villa.
Collin’s first professional football club was Cardiff City in August of the year 2000, he made this move to Cardiff after playing for his local city, Newport’s club team. His debut for Cardiff came in their F.A Cup tie against Bristol Rovers in November of 2000, a match that Cardiff City eventually won by five goals to one. Collins made a total of eighty six appearances for Cardiff in which he scored a total number of six goals in all competitions for the famous Welsh football club.
He also won the Welsh young player of the year award due to his performances for City in 2005. In the summer of 2005, Cardiff parted ways with their star defender when they sold him to West Ham United for around 3.5 million pounds; his debut at the English Premier League club was delayed due to injury problems as well as because of the competition he was facing from much experienced defenders such as Mathew Upson.
James’s first game for West Ham came in their Carling Cup tie against Sheffield Wednesday in September of 2005, a match that West Ham won by four goals to two. He also made his first appearance on the bench for the hammers in an English Premier League match against Arsenal F.C, an encounter that ended in a nil all draw.
His debut in the English Premier League came in West Ham’s match against Bolton Wanderers in October of 2005. The welsh defender scored his first goal for the London club against Portsmouth in the English league as West Ham earned a draw in the English football league encounter. In his first season at West Ham, Collins scored two goals the second of which came against West Ham’s rivals Chelsea in the April of 2006.
Slowly James established himself in the first team at West Ham along with Mathew Upson, Daniel Gabbidon and Anton Ferdinand. These youngsters formed a formidable defense for the Hammers in the 2006-2007 season. Collins’s team mates Robert Green and Lucas Neill also performed admirably as West Ham finished in the top half of the Premier League table. However, in the 2007-2008 season James sustained a bad knee ligament injury and it was announced that he would miss the rest of the football season.
Befoe the start of the 2009-2010 season, Collins agreed a four year contract with Aston Villa for an undisclosed fee on 1st of September 2009. His debut for the Birmingham club came on 13th of September 2009 as he helped Villa keep a clean sheet in their match against Birmingham City. He also scored the winner for Villa against the present-English champions Chelsea F.C.
Collins will be looking to help Villa in the 2010-2011 season in their bid to challenge Tottenham and Manchester City for the fourth league spot, which might earn them a UEFA Champions League qualification place.
Tags: