Cadamarteri: Daniel Leon (Danny)

2004-2004 (Leeds Player Details)(Player Details)

Forward

Born: Cleckheaton: 12-10-1979

Debut v Swindon Town (h) (substitute): 21-09-2004

5’7” 11st 11lb (2004)

Cadamarteri was taken on by Everton in October 1996 and scored four goals in five games, including one from the bench, for the Reserve team. He then burst onto the scene on 18th October 1997, with the goal of his career that sealed a 2-0 win over neighbours Liverpool. Everyone believed Everton had uncovered a genuine star for the future. Capitalising on a defensive error, the then seventeen-year-old took the goalkeeper on one-on-one, coolly faked a shot to send him the wrong way before burying the ball into the empty net. Howard Kendall rewarded him with a run in the first team that yielded five goals from seventeen starts in all competitions and the world seemingly lay at the feet of the Cleckheaton-born forward whose family tree meant he qualified to play for any one of England, Italy, Nigeria, Jamaica or Ireland! However, the hype surrounding him proved too much. The decline in Everton's fortunes, the arrival of Walter Smith, over-exuberance and perhaps a touch of complacency lead to a loss of form over the next two seasons and Danny looked to be going the way of Michael Branch and Stuart Barlow, players who had been tipped for Goodison Glory but eventually found their level in the lower divisions. Brief revivals, first when Duncan Ferguson was sold to Newcastle in November 1998 and the team was forced to play football on the floor, and second when Smith employed him effectively as a winger, didn't translate into a full-time return to the first team set-up and Cadamarteri's star continued to fade. Hampered by a lack of flair, natural goalscoring ability and imagination, he was eclipsed by the arrival of Kevin Campbell and the rise to prominence of Francis Jeffers in 1999. Appearances after that were few and far between and, in November 1999, in a bid to revive his career, he was loaned out to Fulham for a month, where he scored once in five League games, two of which were as a substitute. Instead he was to reach his nadir in 2000 as the result of an incident off the field, when he went on trial and was found guilty of physically assaulting a woman outside a Liverpool nightcub. And, although he began the search for a new club, few were forthcoming. A proposed move to his home county of Yorkshire collapsed after an aborted trial at Barnsley, but he was called upon to ease the first team injury crisis at Goodison that winter, when both Kevin Campbell and Duncan Ferguson succumbed to long-term injuries. He was injured himself just thirty-five minutes into his comeback game and played just one more game in Everton Blue before moving to Bradford City on 21st February 2002. He had scored thirteen goals in thirty-eight starts and fifty-four games as a substitute in the League, he had failed to score in nine F.A. Cup ties of which three were as a substitute and managed three goals in six starts and three more games off the bench in the League Cup when Everton decided not to renew his contract. His lack of faith was disturbing, but his play had a class which was not often seen outside the Premiership. If fully fit he could be a powerful force. The trouble was he had never been fully fit. Ever since his opening salvos for Everton he had been liable to spend as much time on the treatment table as he did on the field. Too often good displays gave way to injury and the truth of the matter was that, in a City team that was full of inconsistent performers, Cadamarteri was one of the worst. He left when the club went into administration and rightly so. He belonged at a club that could afford strikers to use sparingly and not a team like City which built a team based on solid performers. He had managed five goals in fifty-two League games, of which ten were as a substitute, played in five F.A. Cup matches without scoring but scoring in his only League Cup appearance. He left Bradford, on 2nd July 2004, and lasted only a few months at Leeds United, after calling Manager Kevin Blackwell "Not a proper Manager" and telling him to "F*ck off", which probably explains why he remained well thought of at Valley Parade. From Leeds he joined Sheffield United for £50,000 on 30th September 2004, but was injured more often than not and was transfer listed and freed on 14th June 2005 to rejoin Colin Todd at Bradford City. He scored once in twenty-one League games, of which seven were as a substitute, while at Bramall Lane. After twenty-five starts and fourteen substitute League appearances brought just two goals and three F.A, Cup ties, of which one was as a substitute, brought no goals and he had scored in his only League Cup appearance but failed to find the net in another game, he was released on 8th May 2006. He moved into Non-League with Gray’s Athletic, signing for them on 8th December 2006, but failed to score in his only game. He joined Leicester City on 1st January 2007, but was loaned to Doncaster Rovers, for a month on 16th March 2007, where he scored once in six League games, and returned to Leicester at the end of the loan period but was released by them in May 2007. While at Leicester he had made only nine substitute appearances in the League and scored once in two substitute appearances in the F.A. Cup. Huddersfield Town took a chance on him on 26th June 2007 and, after early injury problems, he started to play and score regularly. However, it was not to last and injuries severely restricted his appearances, but he was back in the Terriers team for the start of the 2008-09 campaign. He was given a free transfer by Town on 31st May 2009, and his record with them was five goals in thirty-four starts and ten games from the bench in the League and one start and two substitute appearances in the F.A. Cup, two appearances in the League Cup and one other game. He signed with Scottish club Dundee United on 1st July 2009. Cadamarteri scored twice on his debut in the 2-0 win against Heart of Midlothian on 17th August 2009 and scored again in the following home match, winning the August Player of the Month award. He finished his first season scoring four goals in twenty-one Scottish League appearances, of which six were from the bench, and also played twice in the Scotish League Cup and once as a substitute in the Scottish Cup, without scoring. He stayed for eighteen months at Tannadice, scoring four times in the Scottish League from seventeen starts and fourteen games from the bench. He also made two substitute appearances in the Scottish Cup, two starts and two games from the bench in the Scottish League Cup and was a substitute in one other game, all without scoring. On 27th January 2011 his contract was terminated "by mutual condent" and once more he returned to the county of the White Rose when he signed for Huddersfield Town on 31st January 2011. By the end of the 2010-11 season he had scored three times in the League from two starts and nine games as a substitute and also came on as a substitute in three play-off games. He signed a one year contract with Town on 30th June 2011. However, he will be remembered for his drug indiscretion and general indiscipline rather than an international career which initially promised so much. He played five times for the England Under-Eighteen team and three times for the England Under-Twenty-one team and was considered the “Wayne Rooney” of his day.