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James Beattie
Personal information
Full name	James Scott Beattie
Date of birth	27 February 1978 (1978-02-27) (age 29)
Place of birth	Lancaster, England
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Sheffield United
Number	6
Youth clubs
1995-1996	Darwin United Blackburn Rovers
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1995-1998 1998-2004 2005-2007 2007-	Blackburn Rovers Southampton Everton Sheffield United	004 0(0) 204 (68) 076 (13) 020 (12)
National team2
2003	England U21 England	005 0(1) 005 0(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 5 December 2007 (UTC). 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 23 July 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

James Scott Beattie (born 27 February 1978 in Lancaster) is an English football player who currently plays for Sheffield United in the Coca Cola Championship.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Playing career 2.1 Blackburn Rovers 2.2 Southampton 2.3 Everton 2.4 Sheffield United 2.5 International career 3 Career statistics 4 Personal life 5 Honours 6 References 7 External links

At the age of 14, James Beattie attended Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, a co-educational independent school in Blackburn, Lancashire. He was a budding swimmer, rated second in the country at the 100 metres freestyle. A shoulder injury led him to drop swimming and take up football.

He went on to represent his school and play for Blackburn Schools, before joining Blackburn Rovers as a trainee in August 1995.

He made his professional debut in a 2-0 home defeat against Arsenal on 12 October 1996.^[1] He had only made seven appearances with no goals scored for the first team at Blackburn Rovers when he was transferred to Southampton in July 1998.

Manager Dave Jones signed Beattie for a fee of £1,000,000 The Dell^[2]. A series of injuries meant he struggled to make an impact at first with the Saints, but that all changed in November 2000 when he began a long goalscoring run. After 18 months without a goal, he scored ten in ten games, lifting Southampton into a comfortable position to secure their place in the Premiership for the next season. However, his poor form returned after that and he scored only two goals during the rest of the season.

Beattie went 17 games without scoring towards the end of the 2000-01 season and the start of the next campaign. However he was awarded a new four-year contract in March 2001.

Once again though, he found form, but in the match against Manchester United in January 2002, he suffered an ankle injury which kept him on the sidelines for two months. By the end of the season he had scored an impressive 14 goals.

In the 2002-03 season Beattie scored 23 league goals, making him the highest English goalscorer in the Premiership for that season.

His time at Southampton was marred by a conviction for drink driving in 2002.^[3]

He joined Everton in January 2005 from Southampton for a fee of £6m.

Beattie's £6 million transfer to Everton was the largest transfer fee the Merseyside club had ever paid for a player at the time, breaking the record amount paid for Nick Barmby in 1996. This has since been broken by the £8.6 million capture of former Crystal Palace striker Andy Johnson, and the £12 million capture of former Middlesbrough goalscorer Yakubu Aiyegbeni. Initially Beattie found it difficult at Everton. A mixture of injuries and suspensions meant his contribution during the latter half of the 2004-05 season was limited, due to a mix of poor temperament, such as a head butt in an Everton-Chelsea fixture resulting in suspension, and subsequent injuries. The 2005-06 season saw an improvement. He was Everton's top scorer with 11 goals in the 2005-06 season.

During the 2006-07 season, Beattie found himself out of favour with Everton boss; In July 2007, it was reported that as well as interest from Blackburn, Sheffield United were prepared to offer a club record £4m for his services.

On 4 August 2007, Beattie officially signed for Sheffield United in a deal worth £4 million potentially rising to £4.5 million^[4], the most expensive transfer fee ever paid by Sheffield United.^[5] On August 11, he scored on his Championship debut for the Blades against Colchester United. His second goal came against West Brom with a long range header. He scored 2 goals in the 3-1 win over Wolves. He completed another brace against Blackpool in a 2-2 draw.

On 2 October Beattie was named Coca Cola Championship player of the month.^[6] He is the current top goalscorer in the league with 12 goals in 19 games.^[7] He scored his first own goal against Sheffield United in a 0-3 home defeat to Stoke.^[8]

Beattie earned his first senior England cap against Australia in February 2003 after a prolific period during the 2002-03 season. The game was not a success, with England losing 3-1, which caused a controversy over the management of Sven-Göran Eriksson. Beattie scored 24 goals that season, with 23 in the Premiership and one in the FA Cup, with Saints losing in the final to Arsenal.

However, Beattie was not selected for Euro 2004 with Emile Heskey preferred as the "traditional" centre forward by Eriksson despite scoring far fewer goals than Beattie the previous season. Since this snub Beattie's international career has gone downhill, not being selected for the England squad again.

All-Time Club Performance

Club	Season	Domestic League		Domestic Cup1		European Competition		Total
		App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Blackburn	1996-97	1	0	1	0	-	-	2	0
	1997-98	3	0	2	0	-	-	5	0
	Total	4	0	3	0	-	-	7	0
Southampton	1998-99	35	5	4	1	-	-	39	6
	1999-00	18	0	4	0	-	-	22	0
	2000-01	37	11	6	1	-	-	43	12
	2001-02	28	12	3	2	-	-	31	14
	2002-03	38	23	9	1	-	-	47	24
	2003-04	37	14	3	3	2	0	42	17
	2004-05	11	3	0	0	-	-	11	3
	Total	204	68	29	8	2	0	235	76
Everton	2004-05	11	1	2	1	-	-	13	2
	2005-06	32	10	4	0	2	1	38	11
	2006-07	33	2	2	0	-	-	35	2
	Total	76	13	8	1	2	1	86	15
Sheffield United	2007-08	20	12	-	-	-	-	20	12
	Total	20	12	-	-	-	-	20	12
Career Totals		304	92	40	9	4	1	348	103

¹ Includes all Domestic Cup competitions

Beattie married his fiancee Sarah Rendle in Manchester in May 2006. They had a baby son, James Samuel, on September 6, 2006.^[9]

Southampton

• FA Cup finalist 2003

• James Beattie career stats at Soccerbase
• James Beattie England profile at Englandstats
• Profile at Football Database
• Official James Beattie website
• Official James Beattie Myspace Website

Awards
Preceded by Paul Jones	Southampton F.C. player of the season 1998-99	Succeeded by Dean Richards
Preceded by Chris Marsden	Southampton F.C. player of the season 2002-03	Succeeded by Antti Niemi

v • d • e Sheffield United F.C. – current squad
1 Kenny • 2 Bromby • 3 Naysmith • 4 Bardsley • 5 Morgan • 6 Beattie • 7 Shelton • 8 Stead • 9 Hulse • 10 Webber • 11 Hendrie • 12 A. Quinn • 13 Bennett • 14 Carney • 16 Kilgallon • 17 Montgomery • 18 Tonge • 19 Gillespie • 20 Armstrong • 21 Cahill • 22 Lucketti • 24 Sharp • 25 Gerrard • 26 Geary • 28 S. Quinn • 29 Horsfield • 30 Li Tie • 35 Ashmore • –– Seck • Manager: Robson