Vokes: Samuel Michael (Sam)

2009-Current (Player Details)

Striker

Born: Lymington: 21/10/1989

Debut: v Norwich City (h): 19-10-2009

6’2” 14st 3lb (2009)

A product of Bournemouth's youth setup, Vokes graduated into the first-team on 5th December 2006, in a 2-0 home win over Nottingham Forest. His first goal soon followed on 16th December 2006 in a 1-1 draw at Gillingham. On 20th January 2007 his good form was rewarded with a three and a half year contract which kept him with Bournemouth until 30th June 2010. By the end of his first season he had made eight starts and five appearances from the bench and scored four goals in the League and one F.A. Cup tie from the bench. In his second season, 2007-08, he was a first team regular and scored twelve goals in thirty starts and eleven League games as a substitute as well as starting one F.A. Cup, one League Cup and two Johnstone’s Paint Trophy games without scoring, but was unable to stop his club from being relegated to League Two. He featured regularly for the Welsh Under-twenty-one team, qualifying to play because of Welsh ancestory, his grandfather being Welsh, and was regularly linked with a number of bigger clubs. It came as no surprise when the young striker was snapped up by CCCL side Wolverhampton Wanderers on 23rd May 2008 for an undisclosed fee on a four-year contract. He made his full international debut just days after signing for Wolves, coming on as a substitute in a friendly victory over Iceland. He also appeared as a substitute against Holland and scored a crucial first international goal, a late winner having come off the bench in a World Cup qualifier against Azerbaijan. The big striker also made an impressive start to life at Molineux, coming off the bench to notch an equaliser on the opening day of the season at Plymouth Argyle on 9th August 2008 and producing a late brace in the 3-1 win at Charlton Athletic on 13th September 2008. With the Wolves senior strikers Chris Iwelumo and Sylvan Ebank-Blake in exceptional goalscoring form and with Wolves leaders in the CCCL for almost the entire season, Vokes found making the starting line-up very hard but, although his appearances were limited to mostly impact appearances from the bench, his goals were not an insignificant factor in Wolves gaining promotion to the EPL as Champions of the CCCL. In the summer Wolves strengthened their strike power with the addition of Kevin Doyle and Stefan Maierhofer to add to the competition which already had the two senior strikers and Irish International Andy Keogh. This meant that Vokes, still only nineteen, was not called upon as much as in the previous season and his boss, Mick McCarthy believed that first-team experience was vital for him to fulfil his considerable promise. Having already accumulated twelve Under-twenty-one caps for Wales and scored four goals, he had also scored twice in earning thirteen full caps, his pedigree was there for all to see and it was League One Leeds United that pipped several other CCCL teams to gain his signature on a loan until the end of the calendar year on 19th October 2009 and he made his debut that evening at Elland Road against Norwich City. He did not have the impact that Leeds would have liked and after his return to Molineux he was used sparingly and he had only started four League games but was used as a substitute on thirty-seven occasions in the League and did well to knotch six goals. He had also scored twice in four F.A. Cup starts and one from the bench and also started two League Cup ties without scoring, by the end of the 2009-10 season. At the end of that season he had his contract extended for a further three years and it now is current to June 2013. To date his International career is still in its embryonic phase but when he became twenty-years-old on 20th October 2009 he had already had almost eighteen months International experience. He made his International debut as a substitute in the friendly game with Iceland in Reykjavik on 28th May 2008, coming on as a forty-ninth minute substitute. He quickly gained a second cap as a seventy-third minute substitute in a friendly against Holland in Rotterdam. He scored his first international goal in eighty-second minute of his third game, after coming on as a seventy-second minute substitute in the World Cup qualifier at the Millenium Stadium against Azerbaijan on 6th September 2008. He started his fourth International game against Russia in Moscow four days later again in the World Cup qualifiers and just over a month later he started once more in his fifth game against Leichtenstein again in the World Cup in Cardiff. He was substitute in the friendly against Denmark in Bronby and in the friendly against Poland in Portugal, before starting in the home World Cup games against Estonia and Germany. He was substitute for his tenth game, again in the World Cup in Baku against Azerbaijan and he scored his second goal in forty-seventh minute of his ninth game, after coming on as substitute in the friendly against Montenegro in Podgorica just two minutes earlier. He gained another two caps, both as substitutes, in World Cup qualifiers in Cardiff aginst Russia and in Helsinki against Finland. Four days later on 14th October 2009 he was an unused substitute in Vaduz against Lichtenstein. He had scored four times in fourteen appearances for Wales at Under-Twenty-one level and scored twice in sixteen appearances at full level by the end of the 2009-10 season.