Younger generation of fans know him as the most trolled footballer ever but seldom they fail to recognize the real Emile Heskey. The Englishman was one of the top drawer in his heydays and was a constant fixture for Three Lions for almost a decade.
Heskey began his career at Leicester City at in 1994 as a 17 year old centre forward. He was known for his unselfish style of play, which made him an ideal man for a two pronged attack. He had a fruitful stint at his boyhood club where he led them to League Cup glory in 1997 and 2000.
He was projected as the next big thing in English football and soon he made his big money move to Liverpool. The Merseyside club paid a then club record fee of £11 million. He was long coveted by the Reds and Gerrard Houllier finally got his man in 2000.
The Leicester lad had a decent outing in Merseyside as he won a host of cups and performed for them whenever presented with one opportunity. Sadly, he never realized his true potential under Gerrard Houllier who held him in a very high regard. In 2003-04 season, he made a switch to Birmingham City for a fee of £3.5 million.
Heskey had multiple ankle injuries during his stay in Birmingham but despite all this he won a lot of individual accolades at the club level as he led them from the front. After a bright start his stay turned a torrid one as he failed to prevent the club from relegation and was constantly abused by the home fans for his below par displays.
Since then he had quite a few torrid spells with Wigan Atheltic and Aston Villa. Both the spells were awful to say the least as the Englishman failed to produce his initial form which he displayed at Leicester and Liverpool.
Soon, he moved to Australian side Newcastle Jets in 2012 after being released by Aston Villa. Heskey had a decent outing there as he scored 14 goals in 42 apps for them before being released by them as well.
Heskey was a constant figure in English national team as he was part of Euros 2004 and played two World Cups in 2002 and 2010 respectively. He also played an important part in all the qualifying campaigns but sadly rarely made the cut for the finals due to availability of better strikers.
Heskey’s Honours
Leicester City
Football League First Division play-offs: 1995–96
Football League Cup: 1996–97, 1999–2000
Liverpool
FA Cup: 2000–01
Football League Cup: 2000–01, 2002–03
FA Charity Shield: 2001
UEFA Cup: 2000–01
UEFA Super Cup: 2001
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