Jason Roberts (footballer)

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Jason Roberts
Personal information
Full name	Jason Roberts
Date of birth	January 25, 1978
Place of birth	Park Royal, London, England
Position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Blackburn Rovers
Number	30
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1996-1997 1997-1998 1997-1998 1998 1998-2000 2000-2004 2003-2004 2004-2006 2006-	Hayes Wolverhampton Wanderers → Torquay United (loan) → Bristol City (loan) Bristol Rovers West Bromwich Albion → Portsmouth (loan) Wigan Athletic Blackburn Rovers	3 (5) ? (?) 14 (6) 3 (1) 78 (38) 89 (24) 10 (1) 93 (37) 4 (0)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19:51, 1 October 2006 (UTC).

Jason Roberts (born January 25, 1978 in Park Royal, London) is a Grenadian international football player currently playing for Blackburn Rovers in the FA Premier League.

Contents 1 Club Career 1.1 Early Career 1.2 Premiership Football 2 International Career 3 External links

[edit] Club Career

[edit] Early Career

Roberts, like his uncle Cyrille Regis, began his career in England playing for Hayes but soon moved to Torquay United on loan, where he scored 6 goals in 13 games. Another loan took him to Bristol City, where he scored 1 goal in 3 appearances.

Roberts finally moved to Bristol Rovers, where he played from 1998-2000. In the 1998-99 season he scored 16 goals in 32 league appearances, and continued his profligacy in the next season, scoring 22 goals in 41 appearances.

Roberts moved to West Bromwich Albion for the 2000-01 season and his initial season went very well. He scored 15 goals in 34 appearances as part of a successful partnership with Lee Hughes and fired Albion into the 1st Division playoffs. During West Brom's successful promotion campaign of 2001-02 however, Roberts' season was blighted by a persistent foot injury. He managed only 12 league appearances for the club, scoring 7 goals.

[edit] Premiership Football

Despite being fully fit for 2002-03, Albion's first season in the Premiership, Roberts managed only 3 goals in 31 games. He was loaned out for much of the 2003-04 season to Portsmouth, where he scored 1 goal in 4 appearances, but a transfer request during the midseason saw him move to Wigan Athletic for an approximately £2 million transfer fee.

Roberts started out very well at Wigan, scoring 8 goals in 14 appearances to round out the 2003-04 season. Roberts continued to find the net in the 2004-05 campaign, ending the season with 21 goals in league play (second in The Championship, behind teammate Nathan Ellington). Wigan finished second in the table behind Sunderland, earning automatic promotion to the Premiership. It was his penalty kick goal in the second minute of their August 27, 2005 match against Sunderland that served as the first Premier League goal for the Latics and lead them to the first top-flight victory in Wigan Athletic history.

With Wigan Athletic's promotion to the top flight of English football in May 2005, Jason Roberts was able to establish himself as one of the most feared strikers in The English Premiership. His goals enabled Wigan to finish the season comfortably in the top half and challenge for a European place in only their first season in the top division of English football. This success was encapsulated in one moment on Tuesday 24th January 2006 - when Roberts himself scored a last minute goal against Arsenal at Highbury in the Carling Cup semi-final to send Wigan to the first major cup final in their history.

On July 3, 2006 he joined Blackburn Rovers for £3m on a 4 year deal. [1]

[edit] International Career

Although Roberts has the potential to be one of the most important players for the Grenada national team, availability issues that come with playing in England have limited his impact with the team. Nevertheless, he was an important force for the team during qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup, in which the Grenada team put up an impressive showing before bowing out to the United States.

[edit] External links

• Jason Roberts career stats at Soccerbase
• Fan site on Wigan Athletic FC History

Blackburn Rovers F.C. - Current Squad
1 Friedel | 2 Neill | 3 Khizanishvili | 4 Todd | 5 Tugay | 6 Nelsen | 7 Emerton | 8 Savage | 9 Nonda | 10 McCarthy | 11 Bentley | 12 Gamst Pedersen | 13 Enckelman | 14 Reid | 15 Mokoena | 16 Henchoz | 17 Jeffers | 18 Gallagher | 20 Ooijer | 21 Matteo | 23 Brown | 24 McEveley | 26 Taylor | 27 Derbyshire | 29 Treacy | 30 Roberts | 31 Peter | 32 Nolan | 33 Gray | Manager: Hughes