Johnson: Adam

2005-2005 (Leeds Player Details)(Player Details)

Left Midfield

Born: Sunderland: 14-07-1987

Debut: v Leicester City (h): 17-10-2006

5’9” 9st 11lb (2006)

Brought up in Easington, County Durham, he was a Newcastle United fan as a child and acted as a ball-boy for them and was on their books before reaching his teens. However, he joined Middlesbrough and soon became a product of the prodigious Middlesbrough Academy, where he played mainly as a left-winger. He took the well trodden path from the Academy to the first team that has seen the rise of several bright stars in recent years and he was part of the squad that won the FA Youth Cup in 2003-04. He was tipped as a future star of the game by the coach, Nigel Hunter. Johnson made his senior debut aged seventeen on 17th March 2005 in the UEFA Cup in the 1–0 defeat away to Sporting Lisbon. Almost six months later he made his EPL debut, and first senior start, deputising for an injured Stewart Downing in a 2–1 home win against Arsenal. He made his debut for the England Under-Nineteen on 6th September 2005 in a 3-2 win over Belgium at Darlington's Football Stadium, setting up two goals in a ‘Man of the Match’ display. He made eight appearances for them in the 2005-06 season before playing his final game on 22nd May 2006 against Serbia & Montenegro. The 2005-06 season also saw Johnson used increasingly in the first team and he claimed his first goal in a 1-1 draw at Bolton Wanderers on 3rd May 2006. His progress was rewarded with an improved four-year contract on 30th June 2006 but struggled to make regular inroads in the first team, only making three Premiership starts. On 16th October 2005 he joined Leeds United on a month’s loan, making four starts and one game from the bench. Johnson’s stay at Leeds was short and not very successful as the team struggled. He went straight into the team in the 2-1 home defeat by Leicester City and he played virtually a full game, being substituted after ninety minutes. A 5-1 trouncing at Luton Town followed in which he was still there at the final whistle. Middlesbrough did not allow him to play in the League Cup game at home to Southend, but he was back for Denis Wise’s first game in a 2-0 victory over the Shrimpers, setting up the first goal and only being substituted with three minutes to go. There was another shellacking in store in another defeat, this time 4-1 at Preston, where he was subsituted at half time after a poor first half. In his final match he only got ten minutes when coming on as a substitute as United failed again, this time 3-2 at Barnsley. Later on in the season he came on as a substitute in the FA Cup replay with Bristol City and played a vital role in seeing Middlesbrough through to the next round by setting up one goal and scoring the winning penalty in the shoot-out. He finished the 2005-06 season with eighteen games and one goal to his name and continued this fine form in 2006-07. On 15th September 2007 Johnson joined CCCL side, Watford, on a three month loan. He started eleven and came on as a substitute in another League game for the club, scoring five times. He was recalled prematurely by Middlesbrough after less than two months, on 11th November 2007, and went straight into the first team and on 26th January 2008 he starred in their 2-0 FA Cup 4th Round tie win at Mansfield Town. Middlesbrough lost their EPL status at the end of the 2008-09 season and this saw the departure of Stewart Downing to Aston Villa. Johnson soon became an integral part of the Boro' side in the CCCL scoring three times in the first five games. He was a standout performer for Middlesborough and his name was linked with several clubs. His record at the Riverside was, thirteen goals in ninety-six League appearances, of which forty-seven were as a substitute. He made fourteen F.A. Cup appearances, of which six were from the bench, without scoring, while in the League Cup he scored three times in six games of which one was off the bench and he started two and came on twice as a substitute in UEFA Cup games without scoring. While the club said he was not for sale they failed to extend his contract past the 2009-10 season and the winter transfer window saw his exit. He moved to Manchester City on 1st February 2010 for £7 million and he scored one goal in sixteen League games, of which two were as a substitute by the end of the 2009-10 season. He made his debut for the England Under-Twenty-One team on 21st August 2007 in a 1-1 draw with Romania at Ashton Gate, Bristol, when he came on as a half-time substitute for Michael Kightly of Wolverhampton Wanderers. He made his run-on debut when he gained his fourth cap in a 1-1 draw with Portugal in Agueda on 20th November 2007 and it was in that match that he also scored his first Under-Nineteen goalwhen he scored the equaliser in the forty-ninth minute. He scored three further goals, in the thirty-fifth minute of the game at Ninian Park Cardiff, when he gave England a 2-1 lead in first leg of the UEFA play-offs in a game which they finished up winning 3-2 on 10th October 2008. He gave England a 1-0 lead in the fourteenth minute of a friendly with the strong Ecaudor team reinforced by several more senior internationals in Malaga on 10th February 2009 in a game they eventually lost 3-2. His final goal was in a 5-0 win in Sandefjord over Norway on 27th March 2009 when he scored England's second goal in the twenty-ninth minute. His nineteenth and final Under-Nineteen cap came on 29th June 2009 in the final of the UEFA European Competition when England went down to Germany 4-0 in Malmo. In May 2010, Johnson was named in England's thirty-man World Cup squad, and made his full England debut on 24th May 2010, as a substitute for James Milner against Mexico at Wembley. When the England twenty-three-man World Cup squad was finalized on 1st June 2010 Johnson was omitted. To date he has accumulated ten caps at the top International level, of which he has made just three starts and come on as substitute on seven occasions and has been replaced once, that being in his tenth game against the Netherlands at Wembley on 29th February 2012, when he was replaced by Stewart Downing after sixty-one minutes. He made his run-on debut on 11th August 2010 in a 2-1 win over Hungary at Wembley. He has scored two goals, the first coming in the eighty-third minute to give England a 3-0 lead against Bulgaria in the UEFA European Championship at Wembley in a game they won 4-0 and Johnson came on as a substitute in the seventy-fourth minute. His other goal came in the next game of the same competition at St Jakob Park Basel four days later, when he came on for Theo Walcott in the thirteenth minute, and scored in the sixty-ninth minute to give England a 2-0 lead in a game they eventually won 3-1. He is contracted to Manchester City until 2014 and many wonder whether he will fulfill his true potential with so much competition for places in the starting eleven at the Etihad Stadium. To date he has scored eleven goals from thirty-nine starts and thirty-four games from the bench in the League, scored once in four starts and one substitute appearance in the F.A. Cup, which is exactly the same as his record in the League Cup, and he has also scored twice in seven starts and seven games from the bench in other games.