Englishmen Abroad: Stan Collymore

Collymore started his footballing career at Walsall as a member of the midlands club's YTS but they cancelled his contract after one year because of the sacking of Tommy Coakley as team manager.

Wolves' chief scout Ron Jukes took a shine to Collymore and took him on.  In his first season at Molineux, Collymore scored 18 goals in 20 matches for the youth team, though he just couldn't break into the Wolves first team.

As a result, Collymore was on his way once again, this time bought by Chris Wright of Stafford Rangers on a free transfer.

Collymore repayed the manager's faith by scoring eight goals in eleven games but his success was a mixed blessing for Stafford, signing for Crystal Palace, then of Division 1, for £100,000 in January 1991. 

The big striker stayed with the Eagles for slightly more than two seasons, competing with Ian Wright and Mark Bright for a place in the first team.  With such an accomplished duo ahead of him in the pecking order, Collymore made limited appearances and many of those came as a winger.

Sensing an opportunity to bag himself a bargain, Southend manager Barry Fry came in for Collymore for in November '92 and bought the 19-year-old for just £80,000; Collymore responded and scored 15 goals in 30 matches for the Essex side.

That form was enough to tempt Frank Clark to take Collymore to the City Ground in the summer of 1993, spending a cool £2.75 million on the Stone-born striker. It turned out to be money well spent as Collymore was a major factor in Forest's successful return to the Premier League after relegation the previous year. In his first season in the Premier League, Collymore scored 22 goals in 37 Premier League matches - a remarkable ten goals coming in the last two months, enough to see Forest finish third and propel the East Midlands side into the UEFA Cup.

After a good spell at Forest, Collymore moved to another of England's biggest clubs - Liverpool - in July 1995. That summer also saw Collymore make his England debut in the Umbro Cup against Japan and manager Terry Venables also picked him for the last game of the tournament, a 3-1 defeat to Brazil. 

In his first season with the Reds he did well by scoring 14 league goals in 30 games and 19 goals in total, including one glorious strike on his debut against Sheffield Wednesday at Anfield.

After a further year on Merseyside, Aston Villa bought the troublesome striker for a club record fee of £7,000,000. Early on in that 1997/98 season, Collymore made his third and final England appearance against Moldova at Wembley, coming on as a substitute for Les Ferdinand.

Stan Collymore left Aston Villa for Leicester City in February 2000 and he responed well to the management of Martin O'Neill. However, once O'Neill moved on to Celtic and Peter Taylor took over at Filbert Street, Collymore played less and less and soon was moved on to Bradford.

After just seven league matches at Valley Parade and Collymore available on a free transfer, the former Atletico Madrid manager Raddy Antic took Collymore to the Asturias region of northern Spain for his new club, Real Oviedo.  It was a hugely surprising move and Collymore joined fellow English players Steve McManaman and Vinny Samways in the Primera Liga.

Collymore's debut for the Asturians came against Samways' Las Palmas in the Canaries, but he could do little to prevent his new side going down to a 1-0 defeat, coming on as a substitute midway through the second half.

Real's next match, against Villareal at home in the Estadio Carlos Tartiere, saw them take an early lead, only to go on to lose 3-1. All three of Villareal's goals came in the ten minutes after Collymore's introduction as a sub.

Antic, who has since managed Barcelona, decided that Collymore was unfit and told him to go on a diet to try an regain full match fitness.  In the end though, Collymore only made one more appearance for Oviedo as he stormed out of the club, announcing that he was retiring from football. 

Stan Collymore 

Nationality: English 
Date of Birth: 22 January 1971 
Place of Birth: Stone, England 
Height: 6' 2''
Weight: 13 11 
Clubs: Wolves, Stafford Rangers, Crystal Palace, Southend Utd, Nottm Forest, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Leicester City, Bradford City, Real Oviedo
Position: Striker

Stan Collymore's England career

1994/95  v Japan, Brazil (sub)
1997/98  v Moldova (sub)
Total: 3 caps, 0 goals

Related Items: