Steven Fletcher (footballer)
Steven Kenneth Fletcher ( born March 26, 1987 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England) is a Scottish football player.
Life and career
Youth
Fletcher is the son of a product originating in Liverpool soldiers of the British Army. He spent his childhood often on military bases in Germany and England until his father died of cancer when Fletcher was just ten years old. The Scot and his mother moved then to Hamilton in Scotland to be closer to the relationship. At the age of 13 he joined the youth team of Hibernian, which was coached by John Park.
Clubs
For the season 2003/ 04 Fletcher came at the age of 16 years to professional team of Hibs. His debut in the league he was in a 3-0 win over Kilmarnock at the end of the season. The breakthrough in the first team he managed in the following season, as 26 times played and scored five goals. In the season 2005/06 brought Fletcher to ten goals. After the 2006/07 season the two strikers Derek Riordan and Garry O'Connor had left the club to Fletcher definitively established in the starting eleven. His personal highlight of the season, he experienced the final of the Scottish League Cup, when he with his club 5-1 FC Kilmarnock defeated and even twice met. Against Gretna FC he scored on 13 February 2008 his first hat-trick. In the same year he was voted the best young player of the year.
On 3 June 2010, he moved for £ 6.5 million to the Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he signed a four year contract. In his first game for his new employer, he scored against Stoke City also equal to his first goal.
After two seasons, 44 league games in which he joined Fletcher scored 22 goals in the summer of 2012 to the English first division club Sunderland AFC. He signed a four-year contract.
National
Fletcher took part with the U-19 division of Scotland on the U-19 European Championship 2006 in Poland, where he reached the final. On 17 March 2008 he made his debut for the senior team against Croatia. He was the template for Kenny Miller's 1:1, which is also the final score was. At half-time Fletcher was replaced.
Achievements
- Scottish League Cup: 2006/ 07
- Best Young Player of the Year in Scotland: 2007/ 08