John Carew

John Carew

Personal information
Full name	John Alieu Carew
Date of birth	September 5, 1979 (1979-09-05) (age 31)
Place of birth	Lørenskog, Norway
Height	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Aston Villa
Number	10
Youth career
1995–1998	Lørenskog
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1998–1999	Vålerenga	43	(19)
1999–2000	Rosenborg	18	(18)
2000–2004	Valencia	84	(20)
2003–2004	→ Roma (loan)	20	(6)
2004–2005	Beşiktaş	24	(13)
2005–2007	Lyon	35	(10)
2007–	Aston Villa	106	(37)
National team‡
1995	Norway U15	7	(5)
1996	Norway U16	2	(2)
1996–1997	Norway U17	3	(1)
1997	Norway U18	5	(5)
1997–2000	Norway U21	24	(8)
1998–	Norway	83[1]	(22)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19:13, 9 May 2010 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 4 September 2010

John Alieu Carew (born 5 September 1979 in Lørenskog, Akershus), is a Norwegian footballer who currently plays for Aston Villa and the Norwegian national team. His father is Gambian and his mother is Norwegian; he was born and raised in Norway.

Club career

Early career

John Alieu Carew began his footballing career with his local club Lørenskog, a minor club within the Akershus region. He was considered to be a highly talented youngster and had gained some media attention before he was picked up by Vålerenga. During his two year period at the club he won the Norwegian Football Cup while his profile rose even more due to his skill and goal scoring ability. Eventually Norwegian football's most successful club of the past decade and champions league mainstays Rosenborg, signed a deal with the then still only 20-year old. During his short spell at the club, Rosenborg proved to be a highly formidable team winning many of their UEFA Champions League group matches. After a string of impressive displays in the Champions League, he moved to Spanish club Valencia in a €8.5 million transfer,^[2] where they then managed to win the La Liga title twice. Carew was part of the Valencia side that lost on penalties in the 2001 UEFA Champions League Final, though scoring on his attempt. His goals in that campaign were crucial, including a 75th minute header in a 1–0 home win against Arsenal in the second leg of the quarter-final, which saw Valencia advance to the semi-final. In the 2002–03 Champions League campaign, Carew was once again responsible for the exit of Arsenal. With Valencia needing a win in their final game of the second group phase at home against Arsenal to progress to the quarter finals, Carew scored twice in a 2–1 victory. He then moved to Roma before arriving in Turkey with Beşiktaş in 2004.^[3] After the 2004–05 season, he was snapped up by Lyon for €7.6 million.^[4][5]

Aston Villa

2006–07 season

On 22 January 2007, Carew signed for Aston Villa in an exchange deal with Lyon for Milan Baroš.^[6] Carew penned a three-and-a-half year deal at the Birmingham-based club.

Carew went on to receive the #10 jersey – left vacant by Baroš' departure.^[7]

Carew made his debut in the 3–1 loss to Newcastle United, but went onto score his first goal for the club in a 1–0 victory against West Ham United just three days later. The Norwegian international has been a popular figure at Villa Park due to his good scoring record. The faithful often sing the tune "John Carew, Carew, he's bigger than me and you, he's gonna score one or two, John Carew, Carew" (to the tune of "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)") and occasionally "Carew, Carew, Carew's on fire". He finished the season with three goals from 11 appearances.

2007–08 season

Carew began the season as Villa's primary forward and was under high expectations from the Villa faithful. However, despite some good performances, it took Carew nearly two months to score his opener for the season against Everton in a 2–0 victory. Unfortunately, he also injured himself in the same game and was out of action for six weeks with a hamstring problem.

He scored on his second match back in the Villa side in a 3–0 away win against Middlesbrough in November. He then followed this up with a headed goal against Blackburn Rovers in a 4–0 victory as Aston Villa began to climb the Premiership table. December brought just one goal for Carew—a 30-yard run and shot against Manchester City—but he was instrumental in several of the goals Villa scored.

Carew scored two goals against Reading on 12 January and was unlucky not to be awarded Man of the Match (which went to Martin Laursen). After two torrid results for Villa (a 1–1 draw at home to Blackburn Rovers and a 2–1 away loss to Fulham) he scored his first hat-trick for seven years and his first ever for Aston Villa against Newcastle United on February 9 in a 4–1 win. Gareth Barry allowed him to do so by kindly relinquishing his usual penalty taking duties so Carew could score his third.

On 12 April 2008, Carew scored for Aston Villa against Derby County at Pride Park in the Premier League, in the 26th minute and Villa went on to win the game 6–0. On 20 April 2008, Carew scored twice against Birmingham City in the Birmingham derby at Villa Park, which Villa went on to win 5–1. He continued his scoring run with a header the following week, in a crunch game at Everton's Goodison Park, which finished 2–2. It would be his 13th and final goal of the season, crowning him as Villa's top scorer for the 2007–08 season.

2008–09 season

Carew at an open-training session at Villa Park with team-mate Nigel Reo-Coker

Carew scored his first goal of the 2008–09 campaign by scoring the first goal in Aston Villa's 2–2 draw over Odense in the Intertoto Cup. On 14 August 2008, Carew signed a 12-month extension to his contract, thus taking him through to 2011 with his current deal.

Carew scored the opening goal in Villa's 4–2 win over Manchester City at Villa Park. He then scored his second league goal against Stoke City as they went on to lose the match 3–2 when Mamady Sidibe scored a late winner.^[8] He quickly added his 3rd of the season in the 2–1 defeat of local rivals West Bromwich Albion; and with Gabriel Agbonlahor on the scoresheet again the pair began to form a formidable partnership. They both scored again and assisted each other's goals in a 4–0 victory in the Premier League at Wigan Athletic on 26 October 2008. Carew scored the winning goal in the UEFA Cup for Villa in a Group F match away to Slavia Prague on 6 November 2008, Villa midfielder Steve Sidwell struck the ball towards goal but it hit Carew and went in, therefore the goal was credited to Carew; it turned out to be the winning goal and continued Villa's 100% record in the competitions group stages and the 1–0 victory saw Villa go to the top of the group. Carew made the headlines in late October due to his personal behaviour. He was fined two weeks wages by Martin O'Neill for being in a pub near a Birmingham lap dancing club the night before Villa's UEFA cup group stage match with Ajax.^[9]

Soon after the controversy, Carew sustained a back injury that kept him out of the side for several months. During this time, Villa boss Martin O'Neill signed England international striker Emile Heskey to fill the gap left by Carew's absence. Heskey appeared to have taken Carew's place in the starting line-up for a number of weeks. However, his own injury woes and Carew's good form on return have meant that the Norwegian has regained his place in the side. Carew played his first game after his injury on 31 January 2009 in a goalless draw with Wigan Athletic. In the last 32 of the UEFA Cup, Carew earned Villa a first leg draw with CSKA Moscow, after going 1–0 down to Vágner Love's goal. On 1 March 2009, Carew came off the bench to score a lob-shot volley in the 2–2 draw against Stoke City in the Premier League, which was later voted the team's goal of the season. He scored an equalizing goal in the away fixture against Manchester United at Old Trafford before also netting the first goal in the home tie against Everton as Villa fought back from 2–0 and 3–1 down to draw 3–3. Further goals against Hull City and Middlesbrough took his league total to an impressive 11 goals from just 25 appearances.

2009–10 season

Due to the persistence of fellow strikers Heskey and Agbonlahor, Carew initially struggled to hold down a regular spot in the starting eleven at the beginning of the 2009–10 campaign. Nevertheless, while being used as a substitute Carew still managed to score several important goals for Aston Villa. On March 7, 2010, manager Martin O'Neill chose to include Carew in the starting eleven in an FA Cup game against Reading. He took the opportunity characteristically and scored a hat-trick as Aston Villa came from two goals behind to defeat Reading 4–2 in the FA Cup quarter final. This made Carew the competitions top scoring striker, raising questions as to why the Norwegian was rarely included in Villa's starting eleven.^[10] Carew began to feature in the Villa team once more as the season progressed; goals against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sunderland and Chelsea helped the Norwegian go neck and neck with Gabriel Agbonlahor as the club's joint top scorers for 2009–10.

International career

John Carew's kit at the Norway national team.
From the changing room at Ullevaal Stadion

John Carew has played 83 times for Norway, scoring 22 goals (as of September 2010), and was part of their Euro 2000 squad. He made his full international debut on 18 November 1998, and was the first black player to play for Norway. During the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, Carew scored four goals and two assists in ten games. Norway failed to qualify for Euro 2008, ending up third place, one point behind Turkey.

International goals

John Carew: International goals

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	22 January 1999	Umm al-Fahm, Israel	Estonia	3–3	Draw	Friendly
2	4 February 2000	La Manga, Spain	Sweden	1–1	Draw	Friendly
3	3 June 2000	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Italy	1–0	Win	Friendly
4	28 February 2001	Windsor Park, Belfast	Northern Ireland	4–0	Win	Friendly
5	24 March 2001	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Poland	2–3	Loss	World Cup 2002 Qualifier
6	6 June 2001	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Belarus	1–1	Draw	World Cup 2002 Qualifier
7	5 September 2001	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Wales	3–2	Win	World Cup 2002 Qualifier
8	6 October 2001	Yerevan	Armenia	4–1	Win	World Cup 2002 Qualifier
9	6 October 2001	Yerevan	Armenia	4–1	Win	World Cup 2002 Qualifier
10	7 September 2002	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Denmark	2–2	Draw	Euro 2004 Qualifier
11	4 September 2004	Palermo	Italy	1–2	Loss	World Cup 2006 Qualifier
12	13 October 2004	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Slovenia	3–0	Win	World Cup 2006 Qualifier
13	3 September 2005	Celje	Slovenia	3–2	Win	World Cup 2006 Qualifier
14	15 November 2006	Belgrade	Serbia	1–1	Draw	Friendly
15	24 March 2007	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1–2	Loss	Euro 2008 Qualifier
16	6 June 2007	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Hungary	4–0	Win	Euro 2008 Qualifier
17	6 June 2007	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Hungary	4–0	Win	Euro 2008 Qualifier
18	22 August 2007	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Argentina	2–1	Win	Friendly
19	22 August 2007	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Argentina	2–1	Win	Friendly
20	12 September 2007	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Greece	2–2	Draw	Euro 2008 Qualifier
21	26 March 2008	Podgorica City Stadium, Podgorica	Montenegro	3–1	Loss	Friendly
22	14 November 2009	Stade de Genève, Geneva	Switzerland	0–1	Win	Friendly

Career statistics

Personal life

Carew is now noted for being a religious Christian person and often makes donations to charity.^[12] He also contributes to organizations like Soccer Against Crime, MOT and Ungdom mot Vold (Youth Against Violence) and was awarded the Kniksen award as Kniksen of the year in both 2005 and 2007. Since joining Aston Villa, Carew is noted for visiting children in hospitals around Birmingham and supporting Villa's initiative to donate from the payroll towards hospital running costs.

Carew's sister, Elisabeth, is an R&B singer.^[13] She released her debut single, Destructive, in 2008.^[14]

Honours

Club

Vålerenga

• Norwegian Football Cup (1): 1997

Rosenborg

• Norwegian Premier League (1): 1999

Valencia

• La Liga (1): 2001–02
• Champions League: Runner up 2001
• Supercopa de Espana: Runner up 2002

Lyon

• Ligue 1 (1): 2005–06
• Trophee des Champions: (1) 2006

Aston Villa

• Peace Cup: (1) 2009
• League cup: Runner up 2010

Individual

• Kniksen of the Year (3): 2005, 2007, 2008

References

External links

• John Carew career stats at Soccerbase
• BBC News – Carew sent home
• Aftenposten – Carew's career keeps rolling
• Aftenposten – Riise looking forward to seeing Carew

Norway squad – UEFA Euro 2000 1 Myhre • 2 Bergdølmo • 3 Bragstad • 4 Berg • 5 Andersen • 6 Strand • 7 Mykland • 8 Solbakken • 9 T. Flo • 10 Rekdal • 11 Skammelsrud • 12 Olsen • 13 M. Bakke • 14 Heggem • 15 Riise • 16 Eggen • 17 Carew • 18 Iversen • 19 E. Bakke • 20 Solskjær • 21 Riseth • 22 Bjørnebye • Coach: Semb