The Scottish national football team is not one of the strongest, it usually does not fight for international trophies, but rather strong players play for it, among which an attacker named Stephen Fletcher can be noted. This player was born in March 1987 and has been fond of football since childhood. That is why he turned out to be a professional in this sport, playing for the national team of his country, as well as having replaced several clubs throughout the UK. So what is the sports biography of this player? What career path from club to club did Stephen Fletcher do?
Carier start
Stephen Fletcher began his football career at the Hibernian Scottish club, whose football academy he joined in 2000 at the age of 13, after being forced to move from England to Scotland after his father died of cancer. At Hibernian, he had high hopes, and already in 2004, the 17-year-old guy was enrolled in the main team, as he showed an incredible game in reserve and youth teams.
He was offered a professional contract much earlier than most players who sign him at the age of 18. Stephen Fletcher managed to play another five matches in the 2003/2004 season, in which he showed himself to the best. Already in his first full season at the age of 18, he played 26 matches, scoring five goals in them.
From the next season, Fletcher became the main player in the club, and the next four seasons played a key role in his success: for example, in 2007 the Hibernian, which never really won any trophies, was able to win the Scottish League Cup. In total, Fletcher played 189 matches for the Scottish club, in which he scored 52 goals. With his speeches, he attracted the attention of other clubs, and in 2009, at the age of 22, he moved to the English Burnley, which paid almost five million euros for the striker.
Going to Burnley
However, this club did not become the place where Stephen Fletcher could stay for a long time. Every year the football player showed an increasingly impressive game, so a year later the striker went on to increase further. He spent only 38 matches for Burnley, in which he scored 12 goals, and then immediately received an offer from Wolves. “Burnley” received seven million euros for the striker, and footballer Fletcher Stephen, whose biography began to go to the peak, received a new chance to prove himself in a higher level team.
The rise at Wolverhampton
In 2010, a 23-year-old young striker became a member of the Wolves, where he spent two seasons that became literally identical. Footballer Fletcher Stephen, whose photos began to appear on the covers of British sports magazines, played 34 matches in both seasons and scored twelve goals in each of them. It was then that the player approached the highest point of his career - because he received an offer from the Sunderland club, which was simply impossible to refuse.
Wolverhampton received as much as fifteen million euros in compensation, and football player Fletcher Stephen, whose rating among young British strikers grew continuously (unfortunately, today his rating has fallen - he takes only 2086th place among all football players and 12th place in Scottish national team), kept his residence in the top division - after all, his previous club took the last place and flew to the Championship, while Sunderland was in the middle of the table and in the next seasons only planned to grow.
The heyday of a career at Sunderland
The first season in the new club for Fletcher went like in a fairy tale - he got a place at the base and played thirty matches in which he scored eleven goals. However, at the end of the season, he received a serious injury, because of which he missed an impressive part of the next season and was able to play only 26 matches and score three goals. It became obvious that the injury knocked down the attacker, and he could not regain his previous form.
In the third season, although he played 34 matches, he scored only five goals. The start of the fourth and last season at Sunderland was again not very good, having played 18 matches in which he scored four goals. The club management decided to give the striker on lease so that he could try to get the condition, and then a decision would be made to extend the contract, which expired in six months. To hire a six-month forward, the French Marseille agreed to rent.
Rent in Marseille
In France, unfortunately, the Scottish footballer did not work out - he periodically went out on the field and managed to play in thirteen matches, but was not particularly effective - he hit the opponent’s goal only three times. Therefore, when the lease term ended, Marseille did not want to redeem the once talented and promising player. Sunderland also refused to renew the contract with him, so in the summer of 2016, the 29-year-old football player was left without a club. Naturally, this was only official, because even before the completion of the contract with Sunderland, Fletcher agreed with the English club from the Championship under the name Sheffield Wensday, with whom he signed a four-year contract.
A new beginning at Sheffield
To date, Stephen Fletcher has already managed to play five matches for the new club - in the first two he came on as a substitute, but in the other three he already started the game in the starting lineup. So far, the player does not think about what will happen to him in the future: whether he can still play at a high level, return to the Premier League or even move to another championship. At the moment, he is set up exclusively for playing for his existing club, as well as for maintaining a place in the Scottish team.
Team appearances
Stephen Fletcher was first called to the Scottish national team in March 2008, when he was still playing for the Hibernian. In the first friendly match against the Croatian team, he gave an assist. In total, he played 29 matches for the national team at the moment, scoring 9 goals and giving three assists.
The last time Fletcher entered the field recently - on the fourth of September 2016 in the qualifying match for the World Cup against Malta, where he replaced Chris Martin and scored a goal in ten minutes.