King: Marlon Francis (Marlon)

2005-2005 (Player Details)

Centre Forward

Born: Dulwich: 26-04-1980

Debut: v Millwall (h) (substitute): 06-03-2005

6’1” 12st 3lb (2007)

His early career was spent playing for his local team, Dulwich Hamlet, before moving intoLeague football with Barnet in August 1998. He scored forteen goals in only sixty appearances of which twenty-two were off the bench, before moving on to Gillingham in June 2000 for £255,000, where he made a hundred and sixteen appearances, including twenty-three as substitute and scoring forty-seven goals. Although the club had intended him to be a back-up to their established striker Carl Asaba, injuries to key players saw King thrust into the starting line-up, where he quickly established himself as the club's main striker. His career was nearly derailed in 2002 when he was given an eighteen month prison sentence for handling a stolen car. After an appeal, the sentence was reduced to five months and King returned to Gillingham's team within two days of his release. He returned to action at the end of October and continued his scoring form, hitting another seven in twelve games before getting injured. One of the highlights of his Gillingham career was his strike against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the F.A. Cup in 2002. His overall record at Gillingham was good enough to persuade Paul Hart and Nottingham Forest that he was the man to replace the outgoing Marlon Harewood, and he signed for the former European Champions in November 2003 for £950,000. But King's stay at the City Ground proved unsuccessful as he made only forty-six starting appearances and eleven from the bench in two seasons, scoring only fifteen goals. In 2004-5, and five league goals in the season, weren't ever going to help Forest stay up. After relegation, the need to cut costs, plus the fact that Megson was apparently not much of a King fan meant that he was on his way again, his departure not exactly mourned by the Forest fans. Looking for regular football, he was loaned out to Leeds two months at the tail end of the 2005-06 season, where he made four starts and five off the bench appearances without scoring, before moving on again on loan to Watford. It was there that King found his feet as, in just six months at the start of last season, he made twenty-one starts and scored a dozen times before signing permanently in December 2005 for £500,000, and went on to make a further twenty league appearances and add a further nine goals as Watford were promoted via the play-offs in which the beat Leeds 3-0 in Cardiff. King finished as the leading marksman in the CCCL and Watford “Player of the Year”. A successful 2006/07 season in the Premier League followed. He scored his debut EPL goal against West Ham United in the second game of the new season. It would later be named goal of the season. His second Premiership goal, the first in 3-3 draw with Fulham on 2nd October 2006 marked his one hundredth goal in domestic competition. In the following game, away at Arsenal, he sustained a knee injury which kept him out of the next three games. During his return to fitness he suffered a relapse, and in an exploratory operation it was discovered that some bone had flaked away from his femur. The injury kept him out of action for six months, and he did not return until 14th April 2007 when he came on a substitute in the 4–1 FA Cup semi–final loss to Manchester United at Villa Park. He scored in the final two games of the season, away at Reading and at home to Newcastle United to bring his season tally to four. Watford were relegated and returned to the Championship for the 2007-08 season. With Watford topping the table for much of the first half of the season, King scored ten goals before the end of 2007, including five in successive games in October. After the Hornets were relegated talk of a move was mooted, and it eventually came into fruition. On 25th January 2008, it was announced that King had moved to Wigan Athletic on a three and a half year contract. While at Vicarage Road including his loan period King scored thirty-six League goals in seventy-seven starts and four games from the bench, he made two starts and one game off the bench in the F.A. Cup and score once in three starts in the play-off finals. The fee was said to be £3 million rising to £4 million, dependent on appearances and Wigan keeping their Premiership status. King would be doubling his wages to £40,000. On 13th August 2008, Hull City, who had earlier failed in a bid to sign the player, agreed a deal to sign him on a loan basis for the rest of the season. on 13th September King scored his first goal for the Tigers from the penalty spot against Newcastle United and then scored a second in a 2-1 win. On 21st January 2009, Hull curtailed his loan period because of his refusal to sit on the bench after being omitted from the starting eleven against Arsenal. He had scored five times in nineteen League starts and one game from the bench and appearing as a substitute in one game, without scoring, in each of the F.A. and League Cup. The following day he signed for Middlesbrough on loan until the end of the season. On 28th January 2009 he made his debut against Chelsea. On 14th March 2009 he scored his first Middlesbrough goal against Portsmouth and on 11th April 2009 he had hisrevenge on the Tigers when he scored against them. He scored twice in nine League starts and four games from the bench at the Riverside. He returned to Wigan for the 2009-10 season but had his contract cancelled by the club after he had been sentenced to eighteen months jail for assault and sexual assault. He scored once in eighteen League appearances, of which ten were as a substitute. He also played one League Cup game without scoring. After his release from jail, the Coventry City Manager Aidy Boothroyd allowed King to train with his club so that he could regain his fitness. King impressed during that training and after much negotiating he signed a one year deal on the 20th September 2010. He quickly became a crowd favourite at the Ricoh Arena and at the end of the 2010-11 season he topped the Sky Blue goalscorers with thirteen goals and was selected as the Coventry City "Player of the Year". Negotiations appeared to be in place for King to extend his contract with the club, but on 1st July King announced he had signed a three year contract with Birmingham City and, as his previous contract had now expired, he joined the Blues on a Bosman. Coventry were justifiably disappointed. Knee ligament damage, sustained in pre-season training, stopped him from making his St Andrew's debut, but finally, on 11th September he came on as a sixtieth minute substitute in a 3-0 win over Millwall. Birmingham finished fourth in the Championship and were eliminated by Blackpool 2-3 on aggregate in the Play-off Semi-Finals. King scored sixteen goals in forty League games, three of which were as a substitute, he also made one substitute appearance in both the F.A. Cup and League Cup, scored twice in two starts and three games from the bench in the UEFA Cup and played twice in the play-offs without scoring. In International football, despite researching the possibility of playing for The Republic of Ireland, he found himself selected to play for Jamaica in April 2004, scoring just eight minutes into his debut against Venezuela, and he has, at the end of the 2011-12 season, twenty-one caps and twelve goals to his name (including a hat-trick against Haiti). At the end of his first year he was the only footballer to be short-listed for the Jamaican Sportsman of the Year alongside cricketer Chris Gayle and sprinter Asafa Powell, amongst others. He had played an important part in Jamaica's unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, scoring six goals in eight games. on 29th May 2006, he played in the 1-4 Friendly loss to Ghana. After that game he was named in the squad for the next game, to face England, on 3rd June 2006 in a Friendly, but was sent home for an alleged breach of discipline. As a result of the incident, the Jamaican Football Federation banned King from international football until May 2008. When Captain Horace Burrell returned as the JFF president he lifted the ban. King played in Jamaica's 1–1 draw with Costa Rica in February 2008, where he provided the cross for Jamaica's goal. King also played for Jamaica in a friendly against Trinidad and Tobago scoring a goal and captaining the team in the absence of the injured Ricardo Gardner. King made his first appearance for Jamaica since 2009 when he came on as a second-half substitute in a 0-1 loss to Panama in a friendly on 27th May 2012, and played in the next game, once more as a substitute. However, he was once more in trouble with the authorities when he and Chris Humphrey were then suspended from the next two World Cup qualifiers for breaking the curfew.