Damien Johnson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Damien Johnson (born November 18, 1978 in Lisburn, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish football player and midfielder for Birmingham City.

His first team was Blackburn Rovers, for whom he signed as a trainee in 1997, making his debut in the League Cup on September 30, 1997, a 1-0 defeat to Preston North End, in which he picked up a yellow card.

Loaned to Nottingham Forest on January 28, 1998, he played in five games, and, despite accruing a yellow card in his last February appearance, performed well for the team.

Upon his return to Blackburn, he consistently achieved good results, and, during the 1999-2000 season, earned his first call-up to the Northern Ireland national football team on February 23, 2000, a 3-1 away win at Luxembourg. Matches against Malta and Hungary followed with mixed results.

On March 8, 2002, he moved to Birmingham City, where he has continued to appear on a regular basis at both club and country level. As of the time of writing, he has made 33 Northern Ireland appearances.

In September 2004, he signed a new contract which will last until 2007 and has also been named the Birmingham City F.C captain for season 06/07.

In one of his first games as captain of Birmingham, he angered fans when he firstly threw his captain's armband, then his shirt on the floor when he was substituted late on after a poor performance.

On October 28, 2006, Johnson's jaw was broken in two places after he was elbowed in the face by West Brom defender Paul Robinson during a tackle that has since drawn criticism.[1]

Birmingham City F.C. - Current Squad
1 Taylor | 2 Kelly | 3 Sadler | 4 Taylor | 5 Upson | 6 Clemence | 7 Larsson | 8 Dunn | 9 Forssell | 10 Jerome | 11 Gray | 12 Nafti | 13 Doyle | 14 Campbell | 15 Kilkenny | 16 Tébily | 17 Danns | 18 Oji | 21 N'Gotty | 22 Johnson | 23 Birley | 24 Jaïdi | 25 Aluko | 26 Muamba | 27 Bendtner | 28 McSheffrey | Manager: Bruce