Stan Collymore

Early career

Collymore was born in Stone, Staffordshire. As a young boy he supported Aston Villa. A centre forward, Collymore played junior football for Cannock Peelers and Penkridge Juniors before starting his career as an apprentice footballer with Walsall, and also Wolverhampton Wanderers, before being released and signing for then Conference team, Stafford Rangers.

It was there he caught the eye of several football league clubs by demonstrating the ability to score spectacular goals before being given his chance as a full-time professional with Crystal Palace at the age of 19, when he signed for them in December 1990.

Crystal Palace and Southend United

After nearly two years of learning his trade as understudy to the prolific Crystal Palace partnership of Mark Bright and Ian Wright, Collymore dropped down a division in the autumn of 1992 to sign for Southend United and there scored 18 goals in 31 games to help keep the club in Division One (now Championship) when relegation had seemed likely.

Collymore enjoyed his time at Southend saying, "I count helping to keep Southend in the First Division in my season there as one of my finest achievements."

Nottingham Forest

In June 1993, he signed for Nottingham Forest in an initial £2 million deal rising to £2.75 million based on certain clauses being met, including an international cap. He was signed by newly appointed Frank Clark, who had just taken over as manager at the end of Brian Clough's 18-year reign as manager. Forest had just been relegated from the Premier League, but Collymore's good form in the 1993–94 campaign helped take them back to the top flight as Division One runners-up. He scored 22 Premier League goals in 1994–95 as Forest finished third in the league and achieved UEFA Cup qualification to secure their first European campaign of the post-Heysel era.

Halfway through the 1994–95 season, Collymore came close to joining Manchester United. Alex Ferguson was looking for a younger striker to sign as a possible long term successor to the 31-year-old Mark Hughes, and had identified Stan Collymore and Andy Cole as the two players who best fitted the bill. For a while it seemed certain that Collymore was on his way to Old Trafford, but United signed Cole instead and Collymore remained at the City Ground until the end of the season, by which time Newcastle United, Liverpool and Everton were in the hunt for his signature.

Liverpool

Collymore signed for Liverpool in June 1995, for an English record fee of £8.5 million. He scored on his Liverpool début against Sheffield Wednesday and would spend two years at Anfield. He scored at a ratio of a goal every 2.5 games and created many goals in a partnership with Robbie Fowler, ousting the veteran Ian Rush. He scored two goals, including the winner, against Newcastle United at Anfield in a game that was regarded as one of the most exciting in the history of the Premier League – a game which helped severely dent Newcastle's title challenge (which they had led by 10 points at Christmas 1995) and eventually hand the title to Manchester United. In 2003, it was voted by viewers of Sky Sports as the greatest sporting moment in the channel's first ten years.

At the end of his first season with Liverpool, Collymore and Fowler's partnership was one of the most feared attacking partnerships in the Premiership (having plundered 55 goals between them), while Collymore had also received an International call up. Collymore was in the Liverpool side for the FA Cup Final, but was substituted in favour of Ian Rush (in his final appearance for Liverpool) in the 74th minute with the match still goalless, and watched from the sidelines when Manchester United's Eric Cantona fired home the winning goal with five minutes left on the clock. It would be the closest that Collymore would come to winning a major trophy in his playing career.

In the following season, Collymore again scored double digits and create several goals, as the team went closest to winning the Premier League title in the 1990s. At the time, Collymore was tainted together with teammates for the rise of a Spice Boys culture at the club, while on the pitch, his partnership with Fowler was not as prolific, and several off field issues arose that saw him in and out of the side, dropped by manager Roy Evans, and with Patrik Berger and later Michael Owen taking his place in the attack; with a move back to the Midlands planned for him at the end of the season.

Despite his controversies at the club, Collymore helped Liverpool to third place in the Premier League. After two seasons at Anfield the striker was sold to Aston Villa in 1997, for £7 million, making him Liverpool's most expensive sale at the time, and Villa's most expensive signing.

Aston Villa and Leicester City

In the three years that he spent at the club, Collymore scored 15 goals but failed to hold down a regular place. Highs included being only the third Aston Villa player in history to score a hat-trick in European competition (the other two being his boyhood idols Gary Shaw and Peter Withe) and also bagging two goals against former club Liverpool in a 2–1 home victory. Poor form and Clinical Depression saw Collymore receive treatment at the Priory Hospital Roehampton for several weeks, and on his return to professional football he went on a three-month loan to Fulham, where he scored once in the League Cup against West Bromwich Albion.

Ultimately he was allowed by manager John Gregory to leave on a free transfer to Leicester City, where, under Martin O'Neill, he regained some of the early form when he scored a hat trick against Sunderland in a 5–2 victory, in which O'Neill went on record to describe the Leicester City side on that day, as the best side he has managed to date. Another highlight was scoring in a win against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. He was however cup-tied for the 2000 Football League Cup Final.

Collymore was notoriously involved as the Leicester City team was sent home from a four-day break in La Manga Club. He let off a fire extinguisher in a hotel bar.

Shortly after, O'Neill left Leicester City to Manage Celtic and Collymore, Steve Walsh and others were forced to depart following the arrival of new manager Peter Taylor.

The Daily Telegraph wrote in 2004: "...that Until Wayne Rooney came along, Collymore was as naturally talented an individual as British football has produced in 40 years. According to John Gregory, one of his many former managers, he 'had everything Thierry Henry has got and more'. His tragedy, as director John Moulson's fascinating portrait of him revealed, was to be totally unsuited temperamentally to the business into which his enormous skills led him. The concept of being a team player was way beyond someone so self-absorbed."

Bradford City, Real Oviedo, and retirement

He moved to Bradford City in October 2000 on a free transfer. He scored an overhead kick on his debut against Leeds United in a West Yorkshire derby at Valley Parade on 29 October, which ended 1–1. However, Collymore celebrated in front of the visiting Leeds fans and subsequently faced Football Association charges. He was substituted at half-time in his second game as Bradford lost 4–3 to Newcastle United in the League Cup, and missed the following game at Charlton Athletic because of flu and a sore wisdom tooth. In Collymore's absence, City lost 2–0, and manager Chris Hutchings was sacked two days later. Jim Jefferies was appointed as new City manager, and he won his first home game in charge 2–1 against Coventry City when Collymore scored Bradford's first goal. However, only a month later, Collymore, and other highly paid players Benito Carbone and Dan Petrescu were transfer-listed. Collymore was linked with various clubs, but eventually signed for Spanish La Liga side Real Oviedo on 31 January 2001, when he was greeted by 1,500 fans. He had played just eight games for Bradford, scoring two goals.

Collymore's début for Oviedo was as a second-half substitute away to Las Palmas on 4 February 2001, which resulted in a 1–0 defeat. He was again brought on during the second half of his home debut a week later against Villarreal, but was then dropped by coach Radomir Antić and warned to improve his fitness. He played just one more game for Oviedo, before he announced his retirement at the age of 30, on 7 March 2001, just five weeks after he had joined the Spanish club. A statement issued through his spokesman said, "Stan Collymore has decided, after discussions with his family and close friends, to give up playing professional football. He has just turned 30 and believes that the time is right to explore other career opportunities which are available to him." He was offered a chance to return to Southend United and he was also approached by Boston United and Wolverhampton Wanderers, but never made a return to football, and was also turned down for the manager's position at Bradford City, following the dismissal of Jim Jefferies in December 2001. Before the end of 2001, Oviedo began court proceedings against Collymore for breach of his contract.

International career

After an impressive debut season in the Premier League, Collymore was called up to Terry Venables' England squad for the Umbro Cup in June 1995. He made his début at Wembley Stadium against Japan, partnering Alan Shearer in a 2–1 win. He won his second cap as a 90th minute substitute against Brazil.

Collymore made his third and final appearance for England as a substitute in a 4–0 win over Moldova during qualification for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

Post-football career

Collymore contributed to his biography Stan: Tackling my demons with Oliver Holt which was released to critical acclaim for its portrayal of the modern footballer.

In 2005, he played the character Kevin Franks in the film Basic Instinct 2 alongside Sharon Stone. Collymore is seen and heard regularly on television and radio in the UK, and owns Maverick Spirit Productions, a UK Television Production Company.

In 2007 Collymore went back to full-time sports broadcasting. He summarised for Australian television on the FA Cup Final between Manchester United and Chelsea at Wembley and the UEFA Champions League Final between Liverpool and AC Milan in Athens. Collymore was part of the BBC Radio Five Live commentary team in 2007–08 for the Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea in Moscow and for the station's Premier League coverage that season.

He has hosted the weekly football magazine show, Central Soccer Night on ITV Central, and commentated on the 26th Africa Cup of Nations for British Eurosport. He is also a regular commentator and studio analyst for two foreign broadcasters, GTV (Ghana) & SBS Sport (Australia).

Collymore left 5 Live after the 2008 Champions League final to become a presenter and co-commentator on talkSport he also used to host the phone-in show, Call Collymore which was on after every Premier League game that talkSPORT covered. He also featured as an analyst on the station's matchday live programme. When he first joined talkSPORT he co-presented their evening show with Danny Kelly on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening on the football programme and commentated on the Saturday afternoon matches with Nigel Pearson, replacing Alvin Martin as co- commentator. For the 2009–10 season Collymore moved from Monday to Wednesday nights with Mark Saggers as well as keeping his commitments on Saturday afternoons. Collymore worked at the 2010 World Cup becoming the main co-commentator on talkSPORT and usually commentated with Jim Proudfoot on the biggest matches including the final and all of England's matches. He claimed on Twitter he was the subject of a move for the BBC to move to 5 Live and also do television work but he turned this down and remained on talkSPORT. He also used to appear on Kick Off on Monday to Wednesday nights usually with Mark Saggers and commentating on Champions League on those nights. As well as this he was a pundit on Channel 5 for their Europa League coverage. He has endeared himself to his fans on TalkSPORT by continually repeating his catchphrase "At this moment in time" while on air.

On 20 October 2008, in a landmark case that may have set a precedent for cases in the future, Collymore won more than £1.5 million in damages from his financial advisers, for the poor investment advice he had been given since retiring from professional football in 2001. The judge ruled that Collymore had indeed been given advice that was in breach of statutory obligations.

In May 2014, Collymore was criticised by a Royal Navy veteran after he wrote on Twitter: "Falklands? Wasn't anyone's. We just thieved it, as we do. What glory, what triumph. A f***ing island with sheep. Rule Britannia". Despite numerous demands, Collymore refused to apologise for the comment telling Falklands Radio that the comment was "unambiguous enough for [them] to use common sense".

The subsequent furore resulted in numerous complaints from the veteran community with some staging a protest outside of the broadcasters offices.

Personal life

Collymore had a relationship with Ulrika Jonsson which ended after he punched her in a Parisian bar in 1998. Since talking in 1999 for the first time about his experience of depression, he has supported the charity Depression Alliance.

In 2004, Collymore was accused of taking part in dogging at Cannock Chase by an undercover News of the World reporter. He lost his job at BBC Radio 5 Live over the incident.

He is a supporter of Republic, a campaign group that campaigns for an elected UK head of state. He supported the Labour Party before leaving them for the Scottish National Party in December 2015 after a notable minority of Labour MPs supported airstrikes in Syria.

He stated in his autobiography that he has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder.