Kevin Phillips Bio Send To Friend  

Phillips has resurrected his career at Birmingham after a career that has earned him a reputation as one of the English league's finest marksmen.

The former European Golden Boot winner actually started his career at Southampton but was not offered professional terms by the south coast club. On his release he played for non-league Baldock Town as a right-back before moving to striker where his predatory finishing alerted the attention of Graham Taylor, who snapped him up for Watford for £10,000.

He was then signed for a mere £325,000 by Sunderland boss Peter Reid in 1997 and the deal proved to be a real bargain, as Phillips would go on to break Brian Clough's post-war club scoring record with 35 goals in his first season.

Phillips scored 25 goals in 1998-99 despite missing more than three months of the campaign with a toe injury, a performance which won him a first England cap against Hungary in April 1999.

He was a real contender for the PFA Player of the Year award during the 1999-2000 season after he smashed in 30 goals to become the Premiership's leading scorer in his first term in the top flight. And in the process he won the European Golden Boot.

However, by the end of the 2000-01 season he had scored less than half the total of Premiership goals he got in the previous campaign. His form continued to dip in the 2001-02 campaign - probably an indication of why Sunderland struggled so badly and he failed to make Sven Goran Eriksson's squad for the 2002 World Cup.

After he scored just six in the League as Sunderland went down with the worst record in Premiership history, it was always certain that he would leave, partly due to ambition but also his £32,000-a-week wages. Eventually, Southampton came in to sign the player they once rejected for a fee of £3.25m just days before the start of the season in August 2003. He signed a four-year contract at St Mary's - on half the wages he was at Sunderland.

After a small drought, Phillips went on a blistering run of 11 goals in 16 games for his new club, signalling his return to the Premiership scoring charts. The 2004-05 season saw him score 13 goals, ten of those in the Premiership, but the Southampton defence was not so impressive and they were relegated at the end of the season.

With Phillips moving into the last year of his contract, and determined to remain in the Premiership, Saints cashed in by agreeing a deal with Aston Villa. However, he did not make the same impression and a series of short-term injuries meant he was unable to get a regular position in the first team. He soon made a quick exit to West Bromwich Albion.

Finding his form again he hit 22 in 38 games in his first season. The following year West Brom gained promotion and Phillips picked up Player-of-the-Year awards from both the West Bromwich Albion Supporters Club and from the club itself, after scoring 24 goals from 30 starts and finishing as the Championship's second top goalscorer.

He didn't make return to the top flight though, instead, choosing to join Birmingham and help them reach the promised land again. His 14 goals, including the one that sealed promotion in 2008-09, did that and one of the Championship's most potent strikers gave himself the chance to prove himself in the Premier League once again.