Jermain Defoe - Michael Perkin

Jermain Defoe is one of the most exciting and enigmatic footballers in the English Premier League. From his early career at Charlton via Portsmouth, Tottenham, and England, Defoe's incredible skill and finishing has won him legions of fans. Joining the Charlton youth academy aged 14, Defoe made a controversial move to West Ham, where he turned professional at the age of just 16. Three years later, following a loan spell at Bournemouth where he achieved the incredible feat of scoringten goals inten consecutive games, he was West Ham's top scorer as the club secured a seventh-place finish in the Premier League. In 2004, Defoe's prodigious talent took him to Tottenham, where he continued to dazzle with vital goals and stunning performances. The arrival of Darren Bent in 2007 put pressure on Defoe to fight for his place in the first team, however, and in January 2008 he signed to Portsmouth forsix million pounds. Although he scored in each of his first five games for the club, and also scored in Portsmouth's first ever appearance in a major European competition, Defoe returned to Spurs in January 2009, following manager Harry Redknapp's move to the North London club. Fans were delighted and they were soon rewarded as Defoe continued in a rich vein of goalscoring form. On November 22, 2009, Defoe became only the third player in Premier League history to score five goals in the same match, as Spurs trashed Wigan 9-1, prompting Harry Redknapp to hail him as the greatest finisher in the country. Defoe has also contributed vital goals and impressive performances for England. Having been controversially left out of Sven-Goran Eriksson's squad for the World Cup in 2006, Defoe staked his claim for a regular international place under Steve McClaren and fought his way into Fabio Capello's squad for the 2010 World Cup.