Collins_John

Collins John

Collins John (born 17 October 1985) is a Dutch footballer currently playing for NEC Nijmegen on loan from Fulham. John was born in Liberia, but his family emigrated to the Netherlands after the murder of his father, during the Liberian Civil War. He was a member of the Dutch squad that won the UEFA U-21 Championship in 2006.

Club Career

John started his career at Dutch Eredivisie side FC Twente, for whom he had already scored 11 league goals. He was signed by Fulham in January 2004, for a fee thought to be in the region of £600,000. His debut for the club came against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on 20 March 2004.

He scored 11 Premiership goals in the 2005–06 season, despite only starting 15 of the 37 games he appeared in. With a further two goals in other competitions, he was Fulham's top goalscorer that season. A goal against Middlesbrough, a volley from his weaker foot, was later to be named "Goal of the Month" by the BBC and was in the running for "Goal of the Season".

John started six of the first seven Premiership games of 2006–07, but then lost his place and started only three more times in 2006. Coming on as a second half substitute, and having had two goals disallowed earlier in the match, he scored his twentieth goal in the Premiership at Manchester City in November 2006.

John signed for Leicester City on 23 October 2007 on a three-month loan deal. He made his debut in a 1–0 defeat to Sheffield United a few hours later, and scored his first league goal in a 2–0 win over Barnsley on October 27. John scored his last goal against Colchester six days later, which ended in a 1–1 draw. He returned to Fulham after making a total of eleven league appearances for Leicester.

In January 2007, Fulham accepted an offer from Watford for John but the move fell through. On 25 January 2008, John joined Watford on a loan deal until the end of the 2007–08 season, with the option of a permanent move after that. He struggled with his fitness during his time at the club, making only three starts and two substitute appearances. In April 2008 he returned to Fulham after tearing a thigh muscle.

NEC Nijmegen

On transfer deadline day 2008 he moved to NEC Nijmegen on a one year loan deal, with NEC also obtaining a transfer option.

International Career

John was part of the Netherlands Under-21 side – John also received two caps for the Dutch senior side.

Career statistics

|- |2002-03||rowspan="2"|Twente||rowspan="2"|Eredivisie||16||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2003-04||18||9|||||||||||||||| |- |2003-04||rowspan="5"|Fulham||rowspan="5"|Premier League||8||4|||||||||||||||| |- |2004-05||27||4|||||||||||||||| |- |2005-06||35||11|||||||||||||||| |- |2006-07||23||1|||||||||||||||| |- |2007-08||2||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2007-08||Leicester City||Championship||11||2|||||||||||||||| |- |2007-08||Watford||Championship||5||0|||||||||||||||| |- |2008-09||Fulham||Premier League||||||||||||||||||||34||11||||||||||||||||111||22||||||||||||||||145||33|||||||||||||||| |}