Dean Ashton Bio Send To Friend  

A powerful striker with great aerial ability who is more akin to the traditional powerful English centre-forward, Ashton is a quality performer who has earned international recognition with England, although he has struggled with injury.

In fact, it was while with England in August 2006 that Ashton injured an ankle which kept him out of action for a year. He missed the whole of the 2006-07 campaign and then took some time to rediscover his form. But for the injury he would have been an important player in England's bid to qualify for Euro 2008.

He came through the quality youth system at Crewe Alexandra, breaking into the first team in October 2000. Ashton bagged eight goals in his debut season and followed that up with ten goals in 2001-02, and another 16 in the 2002-03 Second Division campaign.

By this point Ashton was becoming hot property, still in his teens and improving his goal tally with each passing season. And in 2003-04 he reached the 20-goal mark for the first time as Crewe battled to safety in the Championship.

Norwich moved to bolster their strikeforce as soon as the transfer window opened in January and Ashton left Crewe after scoring 74 goals in 177 games, an outstanding record for a player aged only 21 when transferred. He joined the Canaries from Crewe for a fee of £3m and netted seven goals in 16 leagues games - a fine return for a player in a struggling team in his first top flight stint.

The striker only remained with Norwich in the Championship for the first half of the season before moving to West Ham for £7m on a four-and-a-half-year deal.

He lost the FA Cup final, but after a great 2005-06 season, Ashton was called up to the full England squad for a friendly against Greece. However, in a training ground incident, he broke his ankle and he was out of action for a full year.

Fully fit, Ashton is one of the most impressive strikers in the league and after a season on the sidelines, Hammers fans finally began to see the best of him. And that form handed him an England recall as he finally made his debut in June 2008 in a friendly in Trinidad & Tobago.

Injury ruled him out of the 2008-09 season again, as he struggled to regain fitness - playing only five games - and with West Ham growing frustrated with his lack of playing time he was linked with a move away from Upton Park.