Darren Bent is an attacker for England and Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League. He arrived at Spurs with a prolific goalscoring record at lesser clubs, which fully justified the £16m price-tag, but has struggled to win a place in the first-team – even with the departure of Keane and Berbatov. Bent’s game is based around his pace, with his trademark goal coming from a ball over the top of the defenders for Darren to run on to.
Darren Bent was born on 6th February 1984 in London, England. His family moved to East Anglia when he was still a child, and he was scouted by local side Ipswich to play in their youth and academy sides at the age of 13. By the age of 17 he had become a regular in the reserve side, helped the team to the Semis of the FA Youth Cup, and signed his first professional contract.
Darren made his debut for the first-team in November 2001, aged just 17, in the UEFA Cup. He remained a fringe player, coming on to inject pace to the front line. He became a first-team player the season after, and had a prolific career at the club – finishing as their top scorer in his final two seasons at the club, and performing well enough to earn a call-up to the England U-21s.
His form and potential prompted Charlton to make a bid of £3m, and he took his goals across with his to the Valley. Two impressive seasons on a personal level, finishing as top scorer in both, culminated in relegation for Charlton, with his 13 league goals proving to be insufficient to keep the club in the Premier League.
Following the relegation, Bent was one of the hottest properties in the summer of 2007, and was subject to many big-money bids by clubs such as West Ham United, before agreeing personal terms at Tottenham Hotspur, who paid £16.5m to take him to White Hart Lane.
Whilst he started brightly, scoring many goals in the pre-season, he struggled to break the established combination of Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov in the Spurs attack.
With both of those departing at the start of the season, Bent was given a chance to establish himself in the first-team, and quickly became the team’s top goal scorer. Robbie Keane’s return in January 2009 saw him drop down the pecking order, but he gives something else to the team than Pavlyuchenko and Keane – his pace and clinical finishing are missed.
Darren Bent made his international debut on 1st March 2006, though he had first been called up into the squad some months earlier. He performed admirably against Uruguay, and only narrowly missed out on a place in the England World Cup Squad, with the last striker spot being bizarrely given to Theo Walcott.
Bent has been called up by boss Fabio Capello in the World Cup 2010 campaign, and is hopeful of being on the plane to South Africa should they qualify.