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Craig Bellamy
Craig Douglas Bellamy (born 13 July 1979) is a Welsh football coach and former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is the current head coach of Wales.
Born in Cardiff, Bellamy made his professional debut with Norwich City in 1996. He signed for Premier League side Coventry City in 2000, breaking the club's record transfer fee, but suffered relegation in his only season. He joined Newcastle United the following year where he helped the club achieve two top-four finishes during a four year spell. Bellamy fell out with manager Graeme Souness in 2005 and spent the latter part of the 2004–05 season on loan at Celtic, where he won the Scottish Cup. Bellamy returned to the Premier League later that year, playing one season with both Blackburn Rovers, where he was named the club's player of the year, and Liverpool, helping the club reach the 2007 UEFA Champions League final. In 2007 he signed for West Ham United but injury disrupted his time there and in 2009 he joined Manchester City. For the 2010–11 season, Bellamy dropped a division to the Championship to represent his boyhood club Cardiff City on a season-long loan. Bellamy returned to Liverpool the following season, winning the 2011–12 League Cup and reaching the FA Cup final, before rejoining Cardiff City permanently in 2012. He later led them to the Premier League and played one more season with the club, setting a new record by scoring for his seventh different club in the division, before retiring from playing in 2014.
Having represented Wales at several youth levels, in 1998 at the age of 18, Bellamy made his senior debut for Wales against Jamaica. Over the next fifteen years, Bellamy gained 78 caps for his country and scored 19 goals. He was the captain of the side from 2007 to 2011, when he stepped down from the role due to recurring injuries. Bellamy retired from international football following the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign. He was also a member of the Great Britain Olympic team at the 2012 Olympics in London, appearing five times and scoring once.
Bellamy has been involved in numerous high-profile incidents during his career with teammates, managers and members of the public and was described by Bobby Robson as "a great player wrapped round an unusual and volatile character". Outside football, he has been a patron of several charities and started his own organisation, The Craig Bellamy Foundation, in Sierra Leone to provide schooling and football coaching to disadvantaged children.
Craig Douglas Bellamy was born on 13 July 1979 at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, the second of three boys born to Douglas and Angela Bellamy. At the time, the family lived on Swinton Street near the Splott district of the city, a traditionally working-class environment. Bellamy's mother worked as a cleaner and his father worked at the nearby Allied Steel and Wire site that overlooked the family home, where he remained until the plant's closure in 2002. With both his parents working full-time, Bellamy spent most of his school holidays at his paternal grandmother's home in Adamsdown. He suffers from asthma; as a child he made frequent visits to hospital to manage the condition. At the age of five, Bellamy and his family moved to the eastern suburb of Trowbridge, which is part of a council estate built in the 1960s.
Bellamy's father was a keen football fan who supported Cardiff City and Bellamy's first experience of professional football was watching a Football League Fourth Division match between Cardiff and Newport County at Cardiff's home ground Ninian Park during the 1987–88 season, which Cardiff won 4–0. His father played amateur football for local Cardiff-based sides; Bellamy described him as a "sluggish right-back". Bellamy's interest in the sport grew rapidly; he regularly attended Cardiff City matches at Ninian Park and played in a park near his home with his older brother Paul and his friends. Bellamy credits playing against older children as making him "into a better player very quickly".
He first attended Baden Powell Primary School before switching to Trowbridge Juniors where he joined the school football team at the age of seven. Despite being younger than most of the other players, he was selected to play and featured in his first match against Gladstone Primary School. Local team Pentwyn Dynamo took an interest in Bellamy but were put off by his small size; his father offered to form a team if Bellamy could find enough players. Soon after, the under-10s side of local team Caer Castell FC was formed, and Bellamy scored all four goals in the club's first fixture. He was later picked to represent both Cardiff Schools and a Cardiff and District side in national competition. He went on to attend Rumney High School, but left the school with no GCSEs.
At the age of 12, Bellamy became friends with a group of mostly older boys and began to regularly drink alcohol and skipped school for up to two weeks at a time. He saw several of his friends using cannabis and sniffing glue but denies ever using the substances himself. He later admitted to acting as a lookout while his friends broke into vehicles to steal car stereos to sell for drug money. He described himself as "a kid who knew he was going to be a footballer and thought he knew it all". By age 14, Bellamy was barely attending school and was smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol every day. In 1993, his brother introduced him to his future wife, Claire; Bellamy credits the relationship as a key factor in moving him away from his early troubles.
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Craig Bellamy
Craig Douglas Bellamy (born 13 July 1979) is a Welsh football coach and former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is the current head coach of Wales.
Born in Cardiff, Bellamy made his professional debut with Norwich City in 1996. He signed for Premier League side Coventry City in 2000, breaking the club's record transfer fee, but suffered relegation in his only season. He joined Newcastle United the following year where he helped the club achieve two top-four finishes during a four year spell. Bellamy fell out with manager Graeme Souness in 2005 and spent the latter part of the 2004–05 season on loan at Celtic, where he won the Scottish Cup. Bellamy returned to the Premier League later that year, playing one season with both Blackburn Rovers, where he was named the club's player of the year, and Liverpool, helping the club reach the 2007 UEFA Champions League final. In 2007 he signed for West Ham United but injury disrupted his time there and in 2009 he joined Manchester City. For the 2010–11 season, Bellamy dropped a division to the Championship to represent his boyhood club Cardiff City on a season-long loan. Bellamy returned to Liverpool the following season, winning the 2011–12 League Cup and reaching the FA Cup final, before rejoining Cardiff City permanently in 2012. He later led them to the Premier League and played one more season with the club, setting a new record by scoring for his seventh different club in the division, before retiring from playing in 2014.
Having represented Wales at several youth levels, in 1998 at the age of 18, Bellamy made his senior debut for Wales against Jamaica. Over the next fifteen years, Bellamy gained 78 caps for his country and scored 19 goals. He was the captain of the side from 2007 to 2011, when he stepped down from the role due to recurring injuries. Bellamy retired from international football following the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign. He was also a member of the Great Britain Olympic team at the 2012 Olympics in London, appearing five times and scoring once.
Bellamy has been involved in numerous high-profile incidents during his career with teammates, managers and members of the public and was described by Bobby Robson as "a great player wrapped round an unusual and volatile character". Outside football, he has been a patron of several charities and started his own organisation, The Craig Bellamy Foundation, in Sierra Leone to provide schooling and football coaching to disadvantaged children.
Craig Douglas Bellamy was born on 13 July 1979 at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff, the second of three boys born to Douglas and Angela Bellamy. At the time, the family lived on Swinton Street near the Splott district of the city, a traditionally working-class environment. Bellamy's mother worked as a cleaner and his father worked at the nearby Allied Steel and Wire site that overlooked the family home, where he remained until the plant's closure in 2002. With both his parents working full-time, Bellamy spent most of his school holidays at his paternal grandmother's home in Adamsdown. He suffers from asthma; as a child he made frequent visits to hospital to manage the condition. At the age of five, Bellamy and his family moved to the eastern suburb of Trowbridge, which is part of a council estate built in the 1960s.
Bellamy's father was a keen football fan who supported Cardiff City and Bellamy's first experience of professional football was watching a Football League Fourth Division match between Cardiff and Newport County at Cardiff's home ground Ninian Park during the 1987–88 season, which Cardiff won 4–0. His father played amateur football for local Cardiff-based sides; Bellamy described him as a "sluggish right-back". Bellamy's interest in the sport grew rapidly; he regularly attended Cardiff City matches at Ninian Park and played in a park near his home with his older brother Paul and his friends. Bellamy credits playing against older children as making him "into a better player very quickly".
He first attended Baden Powell Primary School before switching to Trowbridge Juniors where he joined the school football team at the age of seven. Despite being younger than most of the other players, he was selected to play and featured in his first match against Gladstone Primary School. Local team Pentwyn Dynamo took an interest in Bellamy but were put off by his small size; his father offered to form a team if Bellamy could find enough players. Soon after, the under-10s side of local team Caer Castell FC was formed, and Bellamy scored all four goals in the club's first fixture. He was later picked to represent both Cardiff Schools and a Cardiff and District side in national competition. He went on to attend Rumney High School, but left the school with no GCSEs.
At the age of 12, Bellamy became friends with a group of mostly older boys and began to regularly drink alcohol and skipped school for up to two weeks at a time. He saw several of his friends using cannabis and sniffing glue but denies ever using the substances himself. He later admitted to acting as a lookout while his friends broke into vehicles to steal car stereos to sell for drug money. He described himself as "a kid who knew he was going to be a footballer and thought he knew it all". By age 14, Bellamy was barely attending school and was smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol every day. In 1993, his brother introduced him to his future wife, Claire; Bellamy credits the relationship as a key factor in moving him away from his early troubles.