Dwight Yorke Bio Send To Friend  

One of the game's rare characters, Sunderland veteran Yorke has become a midfield player after converting from the striking position in which he made his name as a player with Aston Villa and Manchester United.

He teamed up with his former Manchester United team-mate Roy Keane, with whom he won the treble in 1999, at Sunderland in August 2006 after starring in Trinidad and Tobago's midfield at the 2006 World Cup.

Initially signed on a two-year deal after his £200,000 transfer from Sydney FC, the evergreen Yorke was handed a one-year contract extension in July 2008 after helping the Black Cats to promotion and then retaining their Premier League status.

Renowned for playing with a smile on his face and for his relaxed attitude Yorke has been nervous only once in his life, or so he says. His debut for Manchester United kept him awake the night before. He needn't have worried.

A £12.6million record-signing from Villa, Yorke was an instant hit with the United fans and by the end of that first season was named Player of the Year.

Brought from Tobago by Graham Taylor, he spent several seasons at Villa. But it was with United, and particularly in his partnership with Andy Cole, that Yorke emerged as a world-class striker.

That relationship with Cole came as a surprise to critics who anticipated that the players were too similar. How wrong they were: the pair set scoring records in that first season and developed a style dubbed 'calypso football'.

During his time at Old Trafford Yorke won the Premier League on three occasions (1999, 2000, 2001), the Champions League (1999), the FA Cup (1999) and the Intercontinental Cup (1999)

But it went downhill from there for Dwight, and by the 2001/02 season it became clear he did not figure in Sir Alex Ferguson's plans. A series of much-publicised off-field antics proved to be his downfall - not least his relationship with model Jordan which eventually saw her fall pregnant with his child.

Yorke was put on the market at £6million but after a long process of haggling, Yorke eventually signed for Blackburn Rovers for just £2million in July 2002.

Yorke, who scored 64 goals in 151 games for United, was reunited with Cole at Ewood Park, who had moved to Rovers just months earlier but his first season at Blackburn was average, with just eight Premiership goals to his name.

And in the 2003/04 campaign he had a number of run-ins with boss Graeme Souness. The duo exchanged a couple of painful tackles on the six-a-side pitch and became involved in a heated exchange in the canteen at the Brockhall training centre.

Yorke had been unhappy at being dropped from the Rovers starting XI and would have left in January had another club been prepared to match his wages.

He bagged just four Premiership goals in 2003/04, and a poor start to the following campaign saw Yorke move on, opting to join Birmingham over Celtic.

Yorke joined another former united Player at Birmingham in Manager Steve Bruce but the slide of form at Blackburn continued at Blues where he spent much of his time on the bench.

A move to Sydney FC followed, where he rekindled his love for the game, winning the title in the inaugural A-League season and converting to a midfield playmaker.