Craig Bellamy

Craig Bellamy

Bellamy attending a Cardiff City match in 2014
Personal information
Full name	Craig Douglas Bellamy[1]
Date of birth	(1979-07-13) 13 July 1979 (age 45)[1]
Place of birth	Cardiff, Wales
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)[2]
Position(s)	Forward
Team information
Current team	Wales (head coach)
Youth career
1988–1990	Bristol Rovers
1990–1996	Norwich City
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1996–2000	Norwich City	84	(32)
2000–2001	Coventry City	34	(6)
2001–2005	Newcastle United	93	(28)
2005	→ Celtic (loan)	12	(7)
2005–2006	Blackburn Rovers	27	(13)
2006–2007	Liverpool	27	(7)
2007–2009	West Ham United	24	(7)
2009–2011	Manchester City	40	(12)
2010–2011	→ Cardiff City (loan)	35	(11)
2011–2012	Liverpool	27	(6)
2012–2014	Cardiff City	55	(6)
Total		458	(135)
International career
1995–1997	Wales U18	9	(6)
1997–1998	Wales U21	8	(1)
1998–2014	Wales	78	(19)
2012	Great Britain Olympic (O.P.)	5	(1)
Managerial career
2019–2021	Anderlecht (U21)
2024–	Wales
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

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 the Wales national team.^[3]

Born in Cardiff, Bellamy began his senior playing career with Norwich City, where he made his professional debut 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. He helped Cardiff reach the play-offs before they were defeated in the semi-finals. 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; the first time in more than fifty years that Cardiff had played in the top tier of English football. He played one more season with the club in the Premier League, 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.