There is also a Welsh football player with this name, who, plays for Leicester City.
| File:Andyjon.jpg | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Andrew Johnson | ||
| Height | 5 ft 7 in / 174cm | ||
| Position(s) | Centre forward | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Everton | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of May 29, 2006 | |||
Andrew "Andy" Johnson (born February 10 1981 in Bedford) is an English footballer who plays for Everton F.C. in the Premiership. He is a right-footed striker. Johnson's main attribute is his tremendous turn of pace and, given his small stature, his impressive body strength. He was referred to by supporters of his former club Crystal Palace as AJ, and they regularly sang his name to the tune of 'Papa's Got A Brand New Pigbag', by Pigbag and 'Reach Up' by Perfecto Allstarz, during his time at the South-London club.
Johnson at Birmingham
Initially, Johnson's career was held back by the perception that he was too small to prosper as a top level striker. He began his footballing career at Birmingham City, where he suffered heartbreak, missing a deciding penalty, in the 2001 Worthington Cup Final shootout defeat, to Liverpool.
Johnson at Crystal Palace
After only a few noteworthy appearances, he was sold to Crystal Palace in 2002, following the Blues' promotion to the Premiership. Johnson was used as the makeweight in a transfer deal for Clinton Morrison, taking the value of £750,000 for the purposes of the transaction.
Whilst his arrival was not greeted with any real excitement at Palace, the transfer turned out to be a very good move for both Johnson and Palace.
He made himself very popular with Palace fans, with his hat-trick in the 5-0 drubbing of the Eagles' arch-rivals, Brighton & Hove Albion, on 26 October 2002, and scored another, the following game at Walsall, but continued to be accused of missing chances.
Trevor Francis, the manager who had brought Johnson to Selhurst Park insisted on playing Johnson on the left-wing, with a main strike partnership of Ade Akinbiyi and Dele Adebola keeping both Johnson and Palace legend Dougie Freedman on the left-wing and bench, respectively.
Francis was soon dismissed, with this setup leaving the Eagles mid-table. He was replaced by Steve Kember, who partnered Johnson with Freedman. The setup initially worked, with Palace winning their first three games and topping the table. However, the good start the team had made to the season did not continue, and by November Palace languished in 20th place, just two places above the relegation zone. Kember was sacked.
Under the aegis of new manager and coach Iain Dowie, Johnson's all-round game improved. Now partnering Neil Shipperley, Johnson ended the season as top scorer in the English First Division (now the Football League Championship) in the 2003/2004 season, scoring 32 goals, helping Palace to reach the Playoffs from where they were promoted to the Premiership in 2004/2005 - and this would prove to be a season of both joy and anguish for Johnson.
Johnson helped Palace pull off a shock result, in April 2005, by scoring the only goal in the home league fixture, against future European Champions Liverpool, capping off a terrific season for Johnson as an individual.
Despite Palace's relegation back to the Championship, Johnson was the highest scoring English player with 21 goals in the season. Although Johnson's detractors note that 11 of these came from penalty kicks rather than open play (a record for the Premiership), he himself won 7 of the penalties. Regardless of the proportion of goals that were penalty, Johnson's tally remains an impressive achievment for a player in their first season of Premiership football.
In the summer of 2005, Palace having been relegated, Johnson requested a transfer prompting much speculation as to which club he might move to. However, on August 2 2005 Andy signed a five year contract with Palace for an improved wage (believed to be around £20,000 a week) and pledged to help them regain their place in the top flight. Chairman Simon Jordan blamed Johnson's agent Leon Angel for pressurising Johnson into handing in the transfer request.
He was soon playing alongside Clinton Morrison, as Morrison rejoined Palace from Birmingham for a fee of £2m (three years after Birmingham had bought him in a deal wherby Palace received £3.75m plus Johnson). Morrison said that he came back to Palace specifically so that he could play alongside Johnson. This deal caused widespread amusement among many Eagles fans who saw the irony of the deal, with Birmingham seen to have effectively paid Crystal Palace £1.75m to take Andy Johnson, especially with the two transfers having taken place under former Palace manager Steve Bruce, seen by fans as having betrayed the club by defecting to the Midlands side.
Unfortunately due to injury to Johnson, and Morrison's lack of form, the pairing of the two was limited in the early part of the season. However, with a return to fitness and form, the two soon became Dowie's first choice pairing as the season progressed, with Dougie Freedman adding experience to the strike force.
Palace comfortably made it into a top-six position, and as the team with the most experience of the playoffs looked to be on the brink of promotion to the Premiership once more, but unfortunately failed to recover from a first round defeat at the hands of Watford, and were beaten on agregate in the semi-finals.
In 2005, Andy was voted into Palace's Centenary XI, the only current player to be selected.
A New Challenge: Johnson at Everton
However, Crystal Palace's unfortunate failure to secure a place in the Premiership once more, meant that a lot of speculation as to whether Johnson would still be at Selhurst Park in August began, and the Johnson's departure seemed inevitable. At first, though, a bid from Everton of £7.25million was rejected, and it looked like Palace may keep Johnson for another year, after all. However, following Iain Dowie's departure, it looked almost certain that Johnson would go, and, on 24 May 2006, Palace accepted an £8.5million bid from Wigan Athletic for Johnson. This bid was matched by fellow Lancashire club Bolton Wanderers, a day later, which was also accepted.
However, Everton improved their offer to £8.6million the day after that, and looked to have secured Johnson's signature, and on 30 May, he passed his medical, and completed the move to Goodison Park, signing a five-year contract. He is believed to be Everton's highest paid player on £40,000 per week although some reports say he is only joint highest with fellow striker James Beattie on around £30,000 a week. Also, By joining Everton for that fee, he set a new record fee for a player joining Everton as well as for a player leaving Palace.
Everton fans were both excited and catious in their approach to Johnson's arrival. Although he came with an enormous price tag, his previous records and determination were undeniable. Johnson headed into the 06/07 season with a heavy burden on his shoulders, being both Everton's top earner, and top transfer, but there was little doubt in the mind of pundits and fans alike, especially the ones at Palace who witnessed his exceptional talent fluorish, that Andrew would finish the 06/07 with a very generous goal return.
Johnson's International Career
He was first capped for England at U-20 level, being selected in the team for the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship alongside Stuart Taylor, Ashley Cole, Peter Crouch and Matthew Etherington. Unfortunately, the team finished bottom of their group, losing all three games without scoring.
In the 2004/2005 season, he was the top English goalscorer in the Premiership, prompting calls for him to be selected for his nation. He got his first call-up against the Netherlands on February 9 2005, replacing Wayne Rooney in the 61st minute. Bizarrely, however, England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson elected to play Palace's lone striker out of position on the right wing (similar to Trevor Francis playing him on the left wing), where he gamely fought to impress, but was clearly out of position. Theories accounting for this obvious tactical blunder range from simple managerial inadequacy, to the rather Machiavellian idea that in playing Johnson on the wing Eriksson was bowing to widespread pressure to see him play for England, without actually wanting to give him a chance to excel, himself favouring better established names like Newcastle striker Michael Owen. A more benign, although logically weaker explanation sees Eriksson value overall participation in international friendlies over specific performance.
On 9 May 2006, Johnson was put on stand-by by Sven-Göran Eriksson in his squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, in Germany. He was also an unused substitute in the England B game against Belarus and the first team's wins over Hungary (who included former Palace team-mates Gábor Király and Sándor Torghelle in their side) and Jamaica.