John Carew

John Carew arrived at Aston Villa in January 2007 in a swap deal involving the enigmatic Czech Milan Baros. It seemed a shrewd move by Aston Villa's inspirational manager Martin O'Neil replacing Baros with a man who seemed ideally made for the English game, big and strong with great aerial ability and with the pacy Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young alongside him it is a potentially exiciting strikeforce, with Carew scoring 3 goals in 11 games. Carew began his career at Valerenga in 1998 scoring 7 goals in 18 games and then enjoying a decent second season with 7 goals in 15 league matches, infact midway through the second season he was transferred to Rosenborg where he continued to find the net, scoring 8 goals in 10 games. He began the 2000 season in similarly excellent style scoring 10 goals in only 8 league matches which was enough to him earn him a move to Valencia in La Liga. He played 84 league matches for Valencia between 2000 and 2003 scoring a respectable 20 goals but his most memorable moment while with Valencia was playing in the 2001 Champions League Final losing out on penalties to Bayern Munich.

After his time in Spain he was transferred to Serie A, playing for Roma for one season in 2003/4 scoring 8 goals in 20 league matches before moving on to Besiktas in Turkey and again enjoying a fine season with 13 goals from 24 league games. Lyon coach Gerard Houlier then brought Carew to the club and he had an immediate impact scoring on his league debut against Le Mans, Carew actually scored in his first three consecutive league games for Lyon and finished the season with 8 goals from 26 league matches. He started the 2006/7 season with Lyon but his first goal of the season in Le Championnat against Nancy also proved to be his last as in January he was transferred to Aston Villa.

Carew made his debut in 1998 against Egypt, interestingly his father had also played international football for Gambia. Carew's first goal for Norway was in 1999 in a 3-3 draw against Estonia. He was part of Norway's squad for the 2000 European Championships making two appearances but not scoring a goal. Norway didn't enjoy a successful qualifying campaign for the 2002 World Cup but Carew did manage 5 goals including 2 against Armenia in the last match of the qualifying campaign. It was a case of so near and yet so far for the next two major championships as Norway missed out on the 2004 European Championships losing in a playoff to Spain and being edged out by the Czech Republic in a play off for the 2006 World Cup.

However Norway have an excellent chance of reaching the 2008 European Championships, victory in their final home match against Turkey will see them qualiy, Carew has scored three goals so far in this qualifying campaign including 2 in a 4-0 win against Hungary. He now has 20 goals for his country and while the all time record held by may prove just too far away there is no doubt that Carew has proved to be one of Norway's most successful goalscorers of recent times.