Robert Earnshaw

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Personal information
Rob Earnshaw
Full name	Robert Earnshaw
Date of birth	April 6, 1981
Place of birth	Mufulira, Zambia
Nickname	Earnie
Position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Norwich City
Number	10
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1997-2004 2000 2004-2006 2006-	Cardiff City → Greenock Morton (loan) West Bromwich Albion Norwich City	178 (85) 3 (2) 43 (12) 35 (21)
National team**
2002-	Wales	26 (11)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:23, 2 December 2006 (UTC). ** National team caps and goals correct as of 27/08/06.

Robert Earnshaw (Born April 6, 1981) is a Zambian-born Welsh international football player. He is a striker presently playing for Norwich City.

1 Early life
2 Playing career
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Early life

Earnshaw, nicknamed "Earnie", was born on the outskirts of the north central Zambian mining town of Mufulira on 6 April 1981. When he was five, his family moved to Malawi where David Earnshaw took charge of another coal mine and his youngest son began school. Again, the family's stay was to be a short one. In September 1990, following the death of her husband, Rita moved the Earnshaw family to Caerphilly, a small Welsh town to the north of Cardiff, where they lived initially with her sister. Earnshaw still has a house there.

"It was the first time I had been away from Africa." he recalls. "It was just completely different, from one to extreme to another. It was much colder as well, just every little thing was different, everyone spoke English over here and although I could speak a little bit I had to learn. But when you're a kid you just get on with it."

It was in Wales that he began playing football, kicking a ball around with friends between and after classes at Cardinal Newman's, the school he moved on to after a spell at St. Helen's Primary. Cardinal Newman's was a rugby-playing school so Earnshaw's first organised football match came at the age of 12 with local youth side Llanbradadach. "We didn't win anything, we weren't the best," he says. "I only played one year and then I moved to GE Wales, which was a better team and we won a few local titles. I scored a lot of goals, 80 one season, 60 another when I was 14, 15, 16."

[edit] Playing career

Those goals grabbed the attention of Cardiff City youth team coach Gavin Tait, earning the youngster an invite to training, and, on the 1st August 1997, a one-year YTS contract at Ninian Park.

Earnshaw's sporting talent soon attracted the attentions of Cardiff City, who signed him as a YTS trainee aged 16. He came through the club's youth development programme and became a full-time professional in August 1998, despite the attentions of his heroes Manchester United.

Earnshaw made his mark immediately with a superb equaliser at Hartlepool on the opening day of the season. However, loan spells at Middlesbrough and Greenock Morton suggested his prospects at Ninian Park weren't entirely rosy. But the experience gave Earnshaw the motivation to succeed and on his return he soon became one of the Bluebird fans' biggest heroes. He had already been capped by Wales at youth and under-21 level, but his exploits in Cardiff City's promotion campaigns attracted the attention of national coach Mark Hughes.

Earnshaw duly exploded onto the international scene, scoring the winning goal on his debut for Wales against Germany at the Millennium Stadium in May 2002. He was named man of the match and a few months later was named Young Welsh Footballer of the Year. Earnshaw became a key member of the Wales squad during the Euro 2004 qualifying campaign. He staked his claim for a regular slot in the starting line-up with a hat-trick in the 4-0 friendly win over Scotland in February 2004.

Several top clubs including Manchester United, Liverpool and Celtic sent their scouts to look at Earnshaw as his reputation spread. He scored 87 goals in his 175 appearances for Cardiff City.

In 2004 Earnshaw was transferred from Cardiff to West Bromwich Albion for a fee of £3 million. Although he scored some key goals to help West Brom retain their Premiership status, manager Bryan Robson preferred to use him from the bench as an impact player rather than as a starter. Earnshaw remained in the squad for 2005-06, albeit West Brom signed several additional forwards including Diomansy Kamara and Nathan Ellington and competition was even more fierce.

On transfer deadline day, 31 January 2006, Earnshaw signed for Norwich City for a fee of £2.75 million (rising to £3.5 million). He opened his Norwich goalscoring account with a brace, late on in Norwich's 3-0 home win against Brighton on 14 February 2006. Earnshaw scored six more goals in the remaining matches of the 2005-06 season.

As at 12 December 2006, Earnshaw has scored 13 goals during the 2006-07 campaign and is the division's joint leading scorer with Grzegorz Rasiak.

[edit] Trivia

His Premier League hat-trick against Charlton Athletic FC on March 19th 2005 made him the first player to have scored a hat-trick at all levels of English professional football, the FA and League Cups and at full international level; his international hat-trick having been scored against Scotland in Wales 4-0 victory in February 2004.