While few people may recall Emile Heskey for spectacular individual performances or prolific goalscoring numbers throughout his career, he should be regarded as one of the best English centre forwards of his time because he managed to prove the importance of such players for the team. This former professional football player, known as one of the best and self-sacrificing strikers during his prime, was born in Leicester, England on January 11, 1978. Throughout his club and national team career, Heskey has become a well-respected centre forward due to numerous impressive achievements.

The early years and his first steps at Leicester

Having grown up in his home country, Heskey joined his native Leicester City youth squad in order to prove the value of his game and get an opportunity to play at higher levels. By the time he made his first appearance for the Leicester City senior team, he was still young and inexperienced. Still, as the first game showed, Heskey was ready to play in the starting eleven, demonstrating such qualities as great aerial ability, good hold-up skills in the box, and the ability to play as the target man for his partners.

During the years Heskey spent with Leicester, he developed the qualities required of a striker. Besides goal-scoring ability, he mastered the qualities that allow him to make the team work effectively and to facilitate the build-up process and passing game for other players. It became his trademark – he has proven to be successful not only as a goalscorer, but also as the facilitator of the team's attacking process. It explains the success the striker achieved throughout his Premier League career and even in the national team, where his abilities have been especially valuable due to some peculiarities of the formation the team has used since then.

  • At his first club, Leicester, which allowed him to gain popularity within England
  • Later, at Liverpool, where he earned all the major awards with the team, thus proving the quality of his game
  • In the England national team, where work rate played a very big role

Career at Liverpool and England

The most important move that Emile Heskey made in his career was undoubtedly his switch from Leicester City to Liverpool, where he could establish himself as one of the best strikers not only in England, but, in addition, win prestigious club trophies with his new team. The move became a real challenge for him and required a lot of effort from Heskey in order to adapt quickly to his new role within the squad.

At Anfield, alongside Michael Owen, he was one of the key players for his team, showing excellent performance both in the attacking and defensive phases of the play. While Heskey had not been able to score many goals in his first years at Liverpool (mainly due to the presence of Owen and the quality of his teammates), he provided his manager with additional options to form a good formation. Heskey had become a vital part of the team due to his great technical ability and his ability to link-up play, creating great opportunities for his partners.

In the 2000/2001 season, Heskey won three titles with Liverpool: he was able to help his team win three competitions – the FA Cup, the League Cup, and the UEFA Cup – and became a memorable player for the Reds. This fact proves that Heskey had been playing successfully at the level of one of the best English football players despite discussions around him, based primarily on his low goalscoring numbers.

As for the England national team, Heskey was a frequent member of the team's starting lineup because it mostly played with formations including two central strikers, and thus he could use his great skills and qualities to benefit his team.

Later clubs and legacy

Apart from Leicester and Liverpool, Emile Heskey has played for some other football clubs. He played for Birmingham City, Wigan Athletic, Aston Villa, Newcastle Jets in Australia, Bolton Wanderers, and Oldham Athletic in the final years of his career. This fact speaks about his ability to be an efficient player no matter which team he plays. Every club that Heskey has played for benefited a lot from his professionalism, experience, and quality of play. At every next stop, he was the same kind of player as he was at his first club, thus proving the efficiency of such a striker.

He became the kind of player that helps the team to achieve better results in terms of the team game, and, therefore, he has become famous among his peers for such traits. Despite the common opinion that a centre forward should score goals constantly throughout the season, Heskey has managed to play in such a way that it is easy to use his qualities and the way he plays for his manager. Such players are not that popular among football spectators but they are really useful for any team.

Conclusion

Heskey's reputation has passed the test of time, mainly because in modern football players like Emile Heskey are very much needed, and modern football is more aware of such concepts as pressing, link-up play, and off-the-ball movement, when players like Heskey become very helpful for their teams. He has become an example of a good forward, whose role should be evaluated according to his abilities and qualities.