Black History Month Players: Marlon Harewood

  As October is Black History Month in the UK, I will spend this month publishing threads on X (formerly Twitter) on certain players who have been part of a long and distinguished line of Black representation at West Ham United. With this being the second year I have undertaken this exercise, I thought it would be fair to publish a blog post for those who don't have X or find threads on the platform difficult to read. Feel free to read last year's threads, via this link,. With West Ham playing Aston Villa this afternoon, today's post and thread on X focuses on another player who played for both clubs, Marlon Harewood. 

Born on the 25th of August 1979 in North-West London, Harewood grew up in the capital to Barbadian parents, where he would mostly play & watch cricket growing up, due to his dad's love of the game from his home country. According to Brian Belton’s book, ‘The Black Hammers’, Harewood first got into football at the age of 11 when he was invited to play by one of his mates. However, his career wouldn’t get off to the best of starts as he and his dad couldn’t find where a game was being held once.

But once his dad found where the football game was held, young Marlon progressed amazingly quickly in the following few years. This progression was rewarded as at the age of 15, he was recruited by Nottingham Forest to join their academy, with Harewood moving to Nottingham to join the club’s academy, living on his own in accommodation put on by the club, which obviously forced him to grow up very quickly and credits for his mental fortitude throughout his career. 

Harewood would eventually make his debut for Nottingham Forest in 1998 at the age of 19. But wouldn’t become a first-team regular until a year later. He would spend that year on loan at Ipswich and in Finland with Haka, where he won the Finnish domestic double. When Harewood did break into the Nottingham Forest team, he would grow into one of the best forwards outside of the Premier League, scoring 55 goals in 172 league appearances, with a great period between 2001-03 resulting in 47 goals in 91 league games.

By 2003, Harewood was looking for a new challenge and after rejecting a contract offer from Nottingham Forest, Harewood would sign for West Ham in November 2003 for £500,000. As a regular starter alongside either Bobby Zamora or Teddy Sheringham, Harewood would score 36 goals in 2 seasons to help West Ham get promoted back to the Premier League in 2005. During his first two seasons with West Ham, Harewood would be the top scorer for the club in the 2004/05 season, also winning the club’s goal of the season competition with this spectacular effort against Sheffield United.

But it was the 2005/06 season where Harewood’s contributions really live in the memory of West Ham fans, scoring 16 goals, which included a hat-trick in his first premier league start against today's opponents Aston Villa  & the winner in the FA Cup semi-final to send the club to their first FA cup final in 26 years.The less said about that fa cup final, the better…

But after an underwhelming final season, Harewood would eventually leave West Ham in 2007, having scored 56 goals in 170 appearances, moving to Aston Villa. But he is still loved at the club by fans to this day, who affectionately nicknamed him Marlene. Harewood says his 4 years at the club were the best years of his career.  

At Villa, Harewood was often a sub. But he would endear him to Villa fans with his often game-changing cameos off the bench, earning him the chant “Feed the hare & he will score”. He would score 7 goals in 40 games for Villa in a 3-year spell where his game time was limited. With few opportunities, Harewood would go out on loan, spending time with Wolves & Newcastle, where he won the Championship title with Newcastle in 2010 under Chris Hughton, a star of an earlier thread and post this month. Additionally, during his time with Villa, Harewood was approached in 2008 by Barbados about starting an international career. Harewood rejected them on the basis of wanting to focus on his club career. He was never approached again and would sadly never have an international footballing career, despite being good enough to do so. 

Harewood would then move to Blackpool for their only season in the Premier League so far. He would make an immediate impact there, scoring a hat trick on his debut for the club, whilst setting up the other in a 4-0 win, but couldn’t save Blackpool from relegation. After Blackpool, Harewood had an eccentric few years that included a 6-month stay in China, moves to Barnsley, Bristol City, Hartlepool & a return to Nottingham Forest all in the space of 4 years between 2011-15. He would retire at 36 after a season with non-league Nuneaton Town. 

Since retiring, Harewood has kept himself busy with interests in & outside of football. 

Wanting to remain in football, he has earned all of his coaching badges, spending time as a youth coach with Nottingham Forest and has also stated an interest in becoming a manager one day. Outside of football, Harewood owns AC13 Premier, a bespoke car company that provides vehicle customisation, which he started during his time with Blackpool in 2010. Harewood has had great success with the company, with many current Premier League players using his services. 

Harewood also does a lot of charity work, serving as an ambassador for multiple charities, with the Midlands Air Ambulance to name but one. But the love between Harewood & West Ham has never died, which is why Harewood was invited back to the club as an ambassador. He also continues his charity work as a representative of the club’s charity wing, the West Ham United Foundation. In his official club biography for the role, Harewood states that he is passionate about supporting positive pathways for young people, particularly in football, something that the WHU foundation aim to do in the local community in whatever way they can.

But after a successful career in football & outside of it, Harewood is just really like all West Ham fans, having been drawn back to the club by a love of the club that unlike our famous song never seems to “fade & die”.

Once again, thanks for reading today’s thread. 

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If you’d like to learn more about the West Ham foundation, you can read more about them on West Ham's official Club website at: https://www.whufc.com/club/community/foundation