Football Player Profile: Emile Heskey - the non-scoring striker
Emile Heskey’s international career came to a close after a disastrous FIFA World Cup 2010. The Leicester born hit-man has split striker than no other. While football luminaries like Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen are genuine strikers, who burst onto world football with a bang, Heskey’s international career has been massively disappointing from a goals-to-games ratio point of view. Yet despite his apparent and very obvious inability to put the ball in the back of the net, he was consistently picked by successive managers and was given a pivotal role besides international colleagues Rooney and Owen.
In fact, it has been said that neither of the two aforementioned strikers would have been anywhere near prolific, if it had not been for the workhorse that is Emile Heskey. That is the point that has been lost on the critics of the former Liverpool striker. Heskey was consistently picked because he brought out the best in his team and allowed them to play better. No where was this more apparent than during the disastrous tenure of Steve McClaren. Ushered into the squad after the Owen-Rooney axis was beginning to unravel following the departure of Sven Goran Eriksson, Heskey’s presence in the team freed up Rooney, giving him more freedom to roam and produce the magic that he does at club level. It was not enough and poor form and fitness issues to key defensive personnel saw them lose out to Croatia, for a place at the European Championships. Similarly, Fabio Capello’s era saw Heskey given a central role as England romped through qualifying scoring the most number of goals.
At the centre of action, his agricultural, hustling, bustling role as a traditional English centre forward, he created space for others and most importantly for England, brought out the best of Rooney. Theo Walcott, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard were all beneficiaries all Heskey’s all action approach. The last international days of the Aston Villa man may have been in the role of a fighter for scraps, yet his initial years will filled with potential of even greater things.
Making his debut at the tender age of 17 for his beloved Leicester, people thought he had everything in his armoury to become the best. Strong, fast and direct, Heskey became highlight sought in the Premier League after wracking up a total of 154 appearances for his boyhood club. During that time, he only scored 40 goals. It was not prolific by any stretch of the imagination and it was assumed a bigger club would help him realize his potential.
That big club came in the shape of English giants, Liverpool, who bought the fledgling striker in March 2002 in an 11 million pound deal, which at the time, set a record for the red part of the Merseyside club. It was at Anfield, that Heskey was promised to fulfil his potential, alongside prolific strikers such as Robbie Fowler and Michael Owen. However, due to Gerard Houllier’s preference for using a big man/small man combination, only one or the other was used in conjunction with Heskey. The big man was not a hit on the scoring charts, yet his presence on the field allowed Fowler and Owen to reap the benefits. He was even shunted out onto the left, on occasion to make use of his pace. Even though Heskey did okay, he never hit the heights he had the potential for. As a result, there were murmurings that he had regressed during his time at Liverpool. Moreover, it seemed to be true as he moved to Birmingham City in 2004. He had only scored 39 goals in 150 appearances for the Merseyside Reds.
For two years, he remained in international wilderness, barely used. Yet after moving to Wigan Athletic, he regained some measure of his form. This upturn in form led to a recall to the international arena as well. Improving under the managerial regime of Capello, he also moved clubs from Wigan to his current club Aston Villa to see more playing time. Yet a chronic lack of goals saw him restricted to relatively few starts which may, to a degree, explain his performance at the FIFA World Cup finals. The rest, as they say, is history.
Heskey will not suddenly start scoring for Aston Villa. He is just not a scorer of goals. He polarised opinion like no other and while he may have had a horse’s touch in front of goal, his overall game helped him win the trust of successive England managers. Emile Heskey may not a perfect footballer, but then again who is. The important thing is, despite never fulfilling his promise, Heskey gave his all to England and in the process, he did (to the disagreement of critics) contribute quite a bit.
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