Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson (born 10 February 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker.

He played for Birmingham City, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers.

A legend at Crystal Palace, Johnson scored more than one goal per every other game in 140 appearances and helped Crystal Palace win promotion to the Premier League

He was capped eight times for England.

Johnson was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire, and started his career at Luton Town's Academy.

He moved on to Birmingham City, where he signed his first professional contract on 11 March 1998.

He missed a deciding penalty in the 2001 League Cup Final penalty shoot-out defeat to Liverpool.

After making over 100 appearances for the Blues, he was sold to Crystal Palace in 2002, following Birmingham's promotion into the Premier League.

Johnson was used as the makeweight in a transfer deal for Clinton Morrison, valued at £750,000 for the purposes of the transaction.

Johnson's made a strong start to his career at Palace by scoring a hat-trick in the 5–0 thrashing of rivals Brighton & Hove Albion on 26 October 2002, and then another, in the next match, at Walsall.

Despite this, he made few appearances until manager Trevor Francis was dismissed with the Eagles mid-table, and replaced by Steve Kember.

Kember was replaced by Iain Dowie a few months into the 2003–04 season.

Under the new manager, Johnson ended the season as top scorer in the 2003–04 First Division season with 32 goals.

Palace reached the play-offs and were promoted into the Premier League for 2004–05 after beating West Ham United 1–0 in the final.

Despite Palace's relegation back into the Championship the following season, Johnson was the highest scoring English player with 21 goals and the second highest overall in the Premier League.

his form attracted the attention of England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson.

Johnson requested a transfer, but signed a new five-year contract with Palace in August 2005.

Johnson was soon playing alongside Clinton Morrison, who had rejoined Palace from Birmingham for a fee of £2 million, three years after Birmingham had bought him in a deal for £4.25 million plus Johnson.

However, due to injury to Johnson, and Morrison's lack of form, the pairing was limited in the early part of the season.

With a return to fitness and form, the two soon became Dowie's first choice pairing as the season progressed, with Dougie Freedman adding experience to the strike force.

Palace comfortably made it into a top-six position but in the play-offs failed to recover from a first leg defeat at the hands of Watford, being beaten on aggregate in the semi-final.

Johnson scored 15 goals in the Championship that season.

In 2005, Johnson was voted into Palace's Centenary XI, the only player at the club at the time to be selected, and, together with Nigel Martyn, the only members of the XI then playing on a professional basis.

After Crystal Palace's failure to return to top-flight football, speculation about Johnson's future at the club began with a transfer to a Premier League club seeming highly likely.

However, when an initial bid from Everton of £7.25 million was rejected, it looked more likely that the club would be able to keep Johnson for a further year after all.

Nevertheless, the departure of manager Iain Dowie only increased the likelihood of Johnson's departure, and on 24 May 2006 Palace accepted an £8.5m million offer from Wigan Athletic for Johnson.

This bid was matched by fellow Lancashire club Bolton Wanderers a day later, which was also accepted.

With Johnson having indicated a preference for a move to Merseyside, Everton, prompted by the two other bids, improved their offer to £8.6 million the following day.

On 30 May 2006, he passed his medical and completed the move to Goodison Park, signing a five-year contract.

Johnson's move set new club transfer records, both as Everton's most expensive purchase and Palace's most expensive sale.

Johnson scored his first goal for Everton on his debut on 19 August 2006, in a 2–1 win over Watford.

He continued a good start to his Everton career by scoring against Tottenham Hotspur away to end a 21-year victory drought there and then scoring twice in the 3–0 derby victory against Liverpool.

Johnson was Everton's top scorer in the 2006–07 FA Premier League with 11 goals (and one in the FA Cup).

However, Johnson was allegedly affected by allegations of simulation, going 13 matches without scoring a goal at one stage.

After a league match with Chelsea on 17 December 2006, Chelsea manager José Mourinho branded Johnson "untrustworthy" following a challenge with Chelsea goalkeeper Henrique Hilário.

Everton issued a statement threatening legal action and calling on Mourinho to apologise, which he did two days later.

Mourinho was not the first to air such sentiments about Johnson; former Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock also having accused Johnson of resorting to "gamesmanship" to win a penalty in a Premier League match between the two clubs.

Everton manager David Moyes took the unusual step of contacting the Professional Game Match Officials Board in order to counter these accusations.

The board's general manager Keith Hackett agreed that Johnson was being treated harshly and had been denied several clear penalties.

On 6 November 2007, Johnson signed a new five-year contract with Everton.