Magician Football: Gabriel Agbonlahor

Profile Football Stars | Gabriel Agbonlahor | Agbonlahor's Premier League debut for Villa came on 18 March 2006 at the age of 19, under manager David O'Leary, against Everton at Goodison Park. Agbonlahor had played every minute of Aston Villa's campaign in 2006-07, until he was replaced by Patrik Berger, in the 2-0 away fixture against Reading, on 10 February 2007. The Following was the first match of the season did not start Agbonlahor That-he instead Appeared from the bench, Replacing new Villa signing Shaun Maloney. Following this break, Agbonlahor went on a scoring spree. He scored from the right-wing against Everton on 2 April, to gain Villa a valuable point. Following this match, Agbonlahor signed a new four-year contract at Aston Villa. Agbonlahor made it three in a row on Easter Monday, again scoring an equalizer, adjudged to have crossed the line by Assistant referee Dave Richardson.

However, this was a high point in a dismal run of form in the which he scored just one goal in 12 league games. After the heavy defeat to Liverpool and Despite his lack of form Agbonlahor was recalled to the starting 11 and went on to score a goal against Manchester United on 5 April in a 3-2 defeat for Villa. Gabriel Agbonlahor was nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year with team mate Ashley Young winning the honor. Agbonlahor scored his first goal of the 2011-12 season in Aston Villa's 3-1 home win over Blackburn Rovers on 20 August 2011, and Followed this up with the Levellers in a 2-2 away draw against Everton 10 days later. This Meant That Agbonlahor had equaled his Premier League goals tally from 2010-11 after just five games in to the new season. Meanwhile on the pitch Agbonlahor continued to impress, scoring the first goal and setting up Darren Bent for the second in a man of the match performance against Wigan Athletic on 1 October. On 3 April 2012, after Aston Villa captain Stilyan Petrov's diagnosis with acute leukemia, Agbonlahor was named club captain upon Petrov's diagnosis.

Agbonlahor's Ancestry qualifies him to play for Scotland or Nigeria at international level, but he chose to play for his Homeland of England. On 20 September 2006, Agbonlahor was penciled in as a player in the Nigeria U-20 team for the match against Rwanda. On 28 September 2006, Agbonlahor received his first call-up to the England Under-21 squad, and won his first U21 cap as a substitute against Germany on 6 October. Agbonlahor was then omitted from the England's Under-21 Championship squad, by manager Stuart Pearce, on 30 May 2007, as a result of missing the England U21 training camp in Spain.

On 1 February, Agbonlahor was named in Fabio Capello's 23-man England squad to play Switzerland in February 2008, although a hamstring injury forced him to withdraw from the game. On 15 November 2008, he was called up to Capello's squad for the upcoming match against Germany in Berlin, joining three other players in the Aston Villa squad: Ashley Young, Curtis Davies and Gareth Barry.

Personal information
Full name Gabriel Agbonlahor Imuetinyan
Date of birth 13 October 1986 (age 25)
Place of birth Birmingham, England
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position Striker, Winger

Club information
Current club Aston Villa
Number 11

Youth career
1994-2005 Aston Villa

Senior career
years Team
2005-Aston Villa 216 (53)
2005 Watford (loan) 2 (0)
2005 Sheffield Wednesday (loan) 8 (0)

National team
2006-2009 England U21 16 (5)
2008-England 3 (0)