Matthew Taylor (footballer)

Matthew Taylor (2007)

Matthew John Taylor ( born November 27, 1981 in Oxford ) is an English professional footballer, who currently plays for West Ham United. He can play on the position of a wing defender, but also to that of a wing midfielder.

Career

Taylor grew up in Abingdon and was at a young age very successful. Several times he reached the finals with school teams of youth tournaments and won the 1995 " Vale of the White Horse School Cup". In his youth he was a fan of Tottenham Hotspur, which is why in his later career always came up rumors about a move to London.

He started in the season 1999/2000 his professional career at Luton Town, after he had been previously rejected " too fat" in his home at the club Oxford United at a trial as. In his first season, he was named Rookie of the Year.

The resistant strong performances Taylors in the following years attracted the interest of various clubs from the Premier League, but in 2002 he moved for a transfer fee of 750,000 pounds for Portsmouth FC in the First Division. Within a year he went with his new club up to the Premier League. But an injury to the end of the season forced Taylor to take a break, so he missed the start of the season. After that first he failed to re- capture a regular place. Only at the end of the season 2003/ 04 he was back in the root formation. But with the addition of David Unsworth lost Taylor in the following season again his place in the starting lineup. But Unsworth could in " Pompey " not prevail, so he left the club again in the summer of 2005. Since then, Taylor was again a regular player in the team of coach Harry Redknapp, completed 69 league games in the next two years.

After he had recently rejected an offer from Sunderland, Taylor changed on 17 January 2008 to Bolton Wanderers.

National

Taylor came for the English U-21 national team in 2002 and 2003 to three inserts, followed in 2007 against Albania, an insert in the English B- team.