Marlon King

Early career

King started his career at Dulwich Hamlet, before becoming a trainee at Barnet, where he would go on to make 60 first team appearances

Gillingham

King signed for First Division side Gillingham in July 2000 for £255,000. In August 2001 he signed a new four-year contract with the Kent side. In May 2002 King was jailed for 18 months for driving a stolen car, but returned to the Gillingham team in October 2002 after he was released on appeal. In his three years with the club he scored 40 goals in 101 league appearances, finishing as their top scorer for consecutive seasons.

Nottingham Forest

King left Priestfield to join Nottingham Forest in November 2003 for a fee of £950,000. He scored 15 goals in 57 games. He struggled to win over the fans at Nottingham Forest, before netting an injury-time winning goal in an emotional match against West Ham United, the first after the death of Brian Clough. King was loaned to Leeds United in March 2005 for the remainder of the 2004–05 season. Whilst at Leeds, manager Kevin Blackwell mainly played King out of position on the wing, and as a result King failed to net a single goal for Leeds, including missing a penalty kick against Leicester City. In total he played nine games for Leeds and returned to Nottingham Forest in the summer of 2005 after his loan spell ended.

Watford

In the summer of 2005 King was loaned to Watford for six months, with an option to buy in the January transfer window.…

In 2004 King played an important part in Jamaica's unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, scoring six goals in eight games. He played for Jamaica in the friendly against Ghana on 29 May 2006 which they lost 4–1. He was named in the squad to face England in a friendly on 3 June 2006, but was sent home for an alleged breach of discipline. Jamaica lost the match 6–0. As a result of the incident, the Jamaican Football Federation banned King from international football until May 2008. When Captain Horace Burrell returned as the JFF president he lifted the ban. King played in Jamaica's 1–1 draw with Costa Rica in February 2008, where he provided the cross for Jamaica's goal. King also played for Jamaica in a friendly against Trinidad and Tobago scoring a goal and captaining the team in the absence of Ricardo Gardner due to injury. King made his first appearance for Jamaica since 2009 as a second-half substitute in a 1–0 friendly defeat to Panama on 27 May 2012, and played in the next game, again as a substitute. He and Chris Humphrey were then suspended from the next two World Cup qualifiers for breaking curfew. He was not selected again after the suspension, and announced his retirement from international football in November 2012. He scored 12 goals from 22 senior international appearances. After the resignation of Theodore Whitmore, new coach Winfried Schäfer recalled King to the team for the World Cup qualifiers in September 2013.

Club

As of 2 November 2013

International

Scores and results list Jamaica's goal tally first.

King is married to Julie, a former Miss Zambia, and has three children.

Incidents and legal cases

While on loan to Hull City, King was alleged to have headbutted teammate Dean Windass in a casino in Scarborough. Hull City stated that the matter had been dealt with internally, and both players remained with the club. Windass later described the incident as a "storm in a teacup". As of October 2009, King had convictions for 14 offences. He received fines, driving bans, community service sentences, a rehabilitation order and orders to pay compensation on convictions including: theft from a person and from a car, criminal damage, and attempting to obtain property by deception; fraudulent use of vehicle licence document, driving without insurance, speeding, drink driving; a wounding incident while playing amateur football, and two cases involving assault of young women rejecting his advances in the Soho area of London. Three cases led to imprisonment. In May 2002 he received an eighteen-month prison sentence for receiving stolen goods, in relation to a BMW convertible that he was found driving, but was found not guilty of a charge of assaulting a police officer in a related case. His solicitor commented that "His reputation will be tarnished forever, whatever success he achieves, he'll always be referred to in a Tyson-esque way as someone who has had a criminal past and that is a considerable penalty." Gillingham continued to pay his salary while he was in jail, and…