Alan Smith (footballer born 1962)

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Alan Smith
Personal information
Full name	Alan Martin Smith
Date of birth	21 November 1962 (1962-11-21) (age 46)
Place of birth	Bromsgrove, England
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Playing position	Striker
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1981–1982 1982–1987 1987–1995	Alvechurch Leicester City Arsenal Total	200 0(76) 265 0(86) 465 (162)
National team
1988–1992 1990–1992	England England B England C	013 00(2)[1] 004 00(4)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Alan Martin Smith (born 21 November 1962 in Bromsgrove) is an English former football striker. He played for Leicester City and Arsenal at professional level, and won thirteen caps for England. He now works as a media pundit.

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Leicester City

A striker, "Smudger" Smith started his career at non-league Alvechurch, before signing professional forms with Leicester City in June 1982. In his first season, he scored 13 goals in a partnership with Gary Lineker, as the Foxes won promotion to the First Division. He spent five seasons at Leicester, scoring 84 goals in 206 appearances.

[edit] Arsenal

Smith was signed by George Graham's Arsenal for £850,000 in 1987, and scored a hat-trick in his fourth game for the club, although it took some time for him to find consistent form. Though he was in the squad for the 1988 League Cup defeat to Luton Town, scoring one of Arsenal's two goals. By the 1988–89 season, Smith had become an established goalscorer though, with 23 goals to his name that season, making him the First Division's top scorer.^[2] The most crucial of those goals was Arsenal's first in their final match of the season, away to Liverpool; Arsenal needed to win 2–0 to claim the Championship title, and did so, with Michael Thomas scoring their second in the 90th minute to win the Gunners' first League title in 18 years.

Smith won the League again with Arsenal in 1990–91 (scoring 22 goals that season); in the meantime he had made his début for England. His international career was less auspicious than his club career; he played only 13 times and scored just two goals for his country. He played in two matches during England's disappointing Euro 92 campaign, scoring in neither; most notoriously, in England's last match of the tournament, manager Graham Taylor sent Smith on as a substitute for Gary Lineker, the England captain, who was playing his final match for his country and seeking to equal Bobby Charlton's goalscoring record. Smith also played four times for the England B team, scoring four goals.

Despite disappointment at international level, Smith continued to enjoy success at Arsenal; he was part of the side that won the FA Cup and League Cup "double" in 1993, but with the arrival of Ian Wright in 1991, Smith became less of a goalscorer and more of a provider. He would still score crucial goals for the club though, most notably the only goal of Arsenal's 1–0 victory in the Cup Winners' Cup final against Parma in 1994.

His last season at Arsenal was dogged by injury, and he decided to call it quits in the summer of 1995. In all, he scored 115 goals in 345 matches for Arsenal, making him the club's 12th-top goalscorer of all time, as of 2005. Notably, Smith only ever received one booking in his entire footballing career, coming in extra-time of the 1993 FA Cup Final replay against Sheffield Wednesday.

Since retirement, Smith has worked as a pundit for Sky Sports and as a columnist for The Daily Telegraph.

[edit] Career Statistics

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Alan Smith career stats at Soccerbase
• Photos and statistics at sporting-heroes.net

v • d • e England squad – UEFA Euro 1992 1 Woods • 2 Curle • 3 Pearce • 4 Keown • 5 Walker • 6 Wright • 7 Platt • 8 Steven • 9 Clough • 10 Lineker • 11 Sinton • 12 Palmer • 13 Martyn • 14 Dorigo • 15 Webb • 16 Merson • 17 Smith • 18 Daley • 19 Batty • 20 Shearer • Coach: Taylor