Kevin Davies

Chesterfield

Born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, Davies played as a schoolboy with his boyhood club Sheffield United, but was released at the age of 15. He was taken on trial at Chesterfield and served his traineeship with the club. Davies broke into the club's first team after several months. He became Chesterfield's second youngest ever first-team player when he appeared against West Ham United in a League Cup tie, aged only 16, on 22 September 1993. He signed his first professional contract with the club in April 1994. Generally, Davies' goalscoring form at Chesterfield was unspectacular, playing mostly wide in midfield and scoring his best total of 11 goals in the 1994–95 promotion season from the Third Division via the play-offs. In his final season at Saltergate he managed a mere three goals from 34 Second Division matches but made a major contribution to the Spireites' best-ever FA Cup run, including a hat-trick at Burnden Park in a fourth round tie against Bolton Wanderers and an earlier strike against Scarborough in the 2nd round. Despite his relative lack of goals, his skilful play was still attracting attention from Premier League and First Division clubs during his contribution to Chesterfield's FA Cup exploits, which culminated in a semi-final replay defeat against Middlesbrough. At Chesterfield, although very well-built and strong for a teenager, he was known for his skill and intelligence, and it was these qualities that attracted the attention of…

Davies was asked near the end of the 2009–10 season if he was eligible to play for Scotland. Davies is, to his own knowledge, ineligible to represent Scotland, but further explained he would reject any call-up to the Scottish or Welsh teams even if it was possible. At the age of 33, Davies was called up to the England squad for the first time in his career for the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying match against Montenegro on 12 October 2010. He made his debut as a 69th-minute substitute for Peter Crouch and received a yellow card. At 33 years and 200 days, he became the oldest England debutant since the 38-year-old Leslie Compton in 1950.

Davies was known for his bustling, physical playing style; he has committed more fouls than any other player in the history of the Premier League, although conversely he is also one of the most fouled. He was more of a "goal architect" than a goalscorer.

Davies was appointed manager of National League North club Southport on 18 October 2017 on a two-and-a-half-year contract. On 30 April 2018 Southport announced that Davies had been released from his managerial duties.