Craig Bellamy

Craig Bellamy (born July 13, 1979 in Cardiff) is a
Wales|Welsh international football
(soccer)|football player. A quick, hard-working
striker, he currently plays for Blackburn Rovers
F.C.|Blackburn Rovers in the English FA Premier
League|Premiership.

His Wales national football team|Welsh
international record (as of 30 March 2005) is 33
caps and 9 goals.

Earlier in his career Bellamy played for Norwich
City F.C.|Norwich City (1997-2000) and Coventry
City F.C.|Coventry City (2000-2001), before moving
to Newcastle United F.C.|Newcastle United in the
summer of 2001 for £6,000,000. He scored on his
Newcastle debut, in their 4-0 defeat of Belgian
side K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen|Lokeren. Under
manager Bobby Robson he formed a productive
striking partnership with Alan Shearer, Bellamy's
pace complementing the former England national
football team|England captain's guile. Bellamy has
a very direct style of play - he can terrorize the
opposition's defence with his speedy runs while on
the ball.

Probably his most important moment for Newcastle
United was scoring 2 goals (including the winner)
in the 3-2 win over Feyenoord Rotterdam|Feyenoord
which took them through to the second group stage
of the UEFA Champions League in 2002.
Unfortunately in the next match (a 4-1 defeat to
Internazionale|Inter Milan) he was sent off for
kicking out at an Inter defender, which resulted
in a 3-match ban. His aggression seems to be one
of his bad points: in March 2003 he was alleged to
have racially attacked someone at a nightclub in
Cardiff.

After Bobby Robson's departure in August 2004,
Bellamy had a very public falling-out with his
replacement as Newcastle manager, Graeme Souness.
On 23 January 2005, Bellamy was omitted from the
team for a Premiership match with Arsenal
F.C.|Arsenal. Before the match, Souness said that
Bellamy had a hamstring problem, but contradicted
himself in a post-match interview, claiming that
Bellamy was benched for being unprepared to play
as a right-side midfielder. Minutes later, Bellamy
gave an interview of his own saying that he was
prepared to play in any position. He admitted that
he had threatened to fake injury ahead of the
Arsenal match, and in a later interview accused
Souness of lying about him. Two days after the
match, the club fined Bellamy two weeks' wages
(about £80,000), and he was loaned to Celtic F.C.
of the Scottish Premier League for the remainder
of the season after he rejected a move to
Birmingham City F.C.|Birmingham City.