Black History Month Players: Jermain Defoe

 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, but this post and today's thread on X is on the birthday boy Jermain Defoe. 

Born in 1982 in Beckton, Defoe grew up playing Sunday league football, featuring for East London’s famous youth team Senrab. He would be scouted by Charlton, who sent him to the FA School of excellence in 1997 when he was 14, where he was part of the last class to graduate. It was here where he met Joe Cole, who was in the year above, who convinced him to move to West Ham. And when Defoe graduated from the School of Excellence in 1999, he did just that, which obviously infuriated Charlton, who had spent years nurturing his talent. For Defoe moving to West Ham, they would pay Charlton £1.4 million, which was a small fee to pay for the player Defoe would become. 

In his first season with the club, Defoe was key to the 1999-2000 youth side that would win the Premier League academy title. Defoe’s form in youth football would result in his pro debut at 17 when he played for West Ham in the league cup, scoring the winning goal on his debut in a 1-0 win over Walsall. However, shortly after this, he was sent out on loan to Bournemouth to develop further. At Bournemouth, Defoe would show what he was truly capable of, scoring 19 goals in 30 games. He would also match a football league record of scoring in 10 consecutive games. What’s more remarkable is that Defoe was only 18 at the time.

Returning to West Ham, Defoe would feature regularly the following season, scoring 14 goals in 39 games that season, finishing as the club’s top scorer. The following season, he would score 11 goals as West Ham were relegated from the Premier League. But it was Defoe’s actions following the club’s confirmed relegation that left a bitter taste in supporters’ mouths for a very long time. Handing in a transfer request less than 24 hours after relegation was a move that was not welcomed by anyone & was swiftly rejected by the club. Defoe retrospectively admitted it was a bad choice “I mishandled that move & I can only apologise. I was young & I've learned from it.” Defoe has since admitted that he acted poorly during this time and that he had been advised badly & didn’t have the experience to deal with it. But in his final half-season with the club, it was evident that Defoe was unhappy there, receiving 3 red cards due to a newfound ill-temper. He would eventually leave the club in January 2004 for 7 million pounds, joining Tottenham, with West Ham receiving Bobby Zamora in return.

Defoe would spend the next 4 years with Spurs making 176 appearances & scoring 64 goals. He would also win the league cup there in 2008, although he would not receive his medal until 2018, as appearances in the early rounds of the competition weren’t eligible for a medal then.

During his time with spurs, Defoe would make his full England debut in March 2004. Despite never being a regular starter for England, Defoe would play 57 times for his country & scored 20 goals in a 13-year international career between 2004 and 2017.

Defoe would then spend a year with Portsmouth with former manager Harry Redknapp, joining in January 2008. He would score 17 goals in 36 games before moving back to Spurs, once again under Redknapp in January 2009. Defoe would spend another 5 years with Spurs, making an additional 186 appearances & scoring 79 goals. Across his two spells with Tottenham, he accumulatively scored 143 goals in 362 games.

After spending the best part of the previous decade with Spurs, Defoe moved to the MLS with Toronto FC, having been persuaded by former Spurs teammate Ryan Nelsen & Drake. Before you ask, yes, the world-famous rapper Drake, asked Jermain Defoe to join a Canadian football club. In a year in Canada, Defoe would score 12 goals in 21 games, before moving back to England with Sunderland, where he spent 2 and a half years, with Defoe regularly scoring the goals that kept Sunderland in the Premier League. He would score 37 goals in 93 games for the club. 

It was during his time with Sunderland where Defoe became more than a footballer, showing his kind heart and charitable spirit off the pitch with his friendship with a young Sunderland fan called Bradley Lowery. Lowery, a terminally ill 6 year old who suffered with Neuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer, became friends with Defoe, with the player saying that his friendship with Lowery was the “highlight of his season". Lowery sadly died at the age of 6 in July 2017. Defoe still keeps in touch with the Lowery family to this day and helps them in whatever way he can. Defoe has always spoke highly of Lowery, stating: “As a person he has changed me because of what he's going through at such a young age". 

In the final years of his career, Defoe would have brief spells with Bournemouth, Rangers and a return to Sunderland before retiring in March 2022. 

But despite a successful career on the pitch, Defoe has perceived to be a force for good off it, with the launching of his eponymous charity, the Jermain Defoe Foundation, being launched in 2013 in addition to his heartwarming story with Bradley Lowery. With a St Lucian mother, Defoe has always held the Caribbean island close to his heart. Following Hurricane Tomas in 2010, Defoe donated money to a school in St Lucia to refurbish their library. Upon visiting the island, Defoe was appalled by the poverty he saw, which is why he launched his foundation. The foundation seeks to support homeless, vulnerable and abused children in his family’s home country of St Lucia, but has since expanded the foundation’s operations to other Caribbean islands & in the UK too. And while some of us may still feel bitter about Defoe’s departure from the club, we cannot deny the quality that he possessed on the pitch and the good qualities he possesses off the pitch to try & make the world a better place. So let’s bygones be bygones is what I say.

Once again, thanks for reading today’s post. If you’d like to learn more about the Jermain Defoe foundation, their website is here: https://jermaindefoefoundation.org.