Jermain Defoe, an English footballer, was born on October 7, 1982 in Beckton and is a devout Christian. He lives in Hertfordshire and plays for the England national football team. He was included in the England Under-21 squad in 2000 and played his first match for the team in May 2001 against Mexico U-21. He scored the second goal and contributed to England’s 3-0 win in the match. Jermain Defoe went on to earn twenty three caps for England U-21 team, in which he scored seven goals. In March 2004, he made his debut for the senior England national football team as a substitute in a match against Sweden.
Sven-Göran Eriksson, the then England manager, credited Jermain Defoe as a technically good player who can do very well even in international football. He was included in the starting line-up in a World Cup qualifier against Poland in September 2004 and netted in the 2-1 win. Jermain Defoe established himself as a part of the national squad and featured in the qualifying and friendly matches at Euro 2008. On June 1, 2008 he scored a brace in a friendly match against Trinidad and Tobago and brought his tally of international goals to five.
While playing for Senrab, a Sunday league team, Jermain Defoe was picked by Charlton Athletic, who registered him at the Football Association (FA) National School of Excellence at Lilleshall in 1997, when he was 14. After his two-year stay with the youth club, he joined the youth ranks at West ham United in 1999. Jermain Defoe scored twice in the play-off final against Arsenal and was instrumental in helping the Under-19 team win the Premiership Academy title in 1999-00. He made his first team appearance in a League Cup match against Walsall in September 2000 and netted the only goal in its 1-0 win.
Jermain Defoe was loaned to Bournemouth in 2000 and scored in ten successive matches, equaling the post-war record of John Aldridge, a former Irish striker. Harry Redknapp, the former West Ham manager, credited that Jermain Defoe is a confident goal scorer and had made a terrific achievement by scoring 10 goals in 10 games. He netted 14 goals in 39 league and cup appearances, including a match in which he scored the only goal in the team’s 1-0 win over Manchester United and his team finished seventh in the premiership.
After scoring 41 goals in 105 league and cup appearances for West Ham, Jermain Defoe moved to Tottenham Hotspur in January 2004. Following his transfer to Tottenham, David Pleat, the then manager, credited him as an exceptional 21-year old player, who had achieved much in a short span of time. Jermain Defoe scored in his debut for the Spurs in a 4-3 win against Portsmouth in February 2004 and followed it six more goals in the rest of the 2003-04 season.
During the 2004-05 season, Jermain Defoe scored a hat-trick in a 5-1 win against Southampton in December 2004 and went to net 13 goals at the Premier League and nine goals at the Football Association (FA) Cup and League Cup. In April 2005, he signed a new four-and-half year contract with the club. In December 2006, Jermain Defoe scored his 50th goal for Tottenham in a 2-1 win over Aston Villa, in which he scored both goals and on September 20, 2007 he scored his first goals of the 2007-08 season by netting a brace in a match against Famagusta.
Jermain Defoe joined Portsmouth in January 2008 and scored the leveling goal on his debut, which was a 1–1 draw against Chelsea. He scored two goals in a match against Wigan and became Portsmouth’s first player to score in first five home games. On August 30, 2008, he netted the opening goal in a 3-0 win over Everton, which was Portsmouth’s first goal of the 2008-09 season and on September 13, 2008 he netted a brace against Middlesbrough, scoring the club's first home goals of 2008-09. Jermain Defoe also contributed a goal against Vitória Guimarães on September 18, 2008, which was Portsmouth's first match in a major European competition. As of 2008, Jermain Defoe has appeared for Portsmouth in 16 games and has 11 goals to his credit.
