Tony Cottee

West Ham United

Born in Forest Gate, London, Cottee began his career at West Ham, where he made his first team debut in the First Division against Tottenham Hotspur on 1 January 1983, at the age of 17, scoring in the process. He played a total of eight games in the 1982–83 season, scoring five goals. He established himself in the first team during the 1983–84 season, when still only 18, and scored 15 times in the league. He did even better in 1984–85, when he scored 17 First Division goals. By the age of 20, he had already managed an impressive 37 league goals. He was a prolific scorer in first spell at West Ham, where he was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1986, the year where West Ham finished third (their highest league finish to date) and came just four points away from the title. He scored 20 times in the league during that season, though his strike partner Frank McAvennie did even better with 26 league goals. Still, their 46-goal strike partnership was the most prolific in the league that season. 1986–87 saw Cottee score 22 league goals – which would be the highest of his career. However, Frank McAvennie alongside him could only manage seven league goals that season and this contributed to a downturn in West Ham's form as they finished 15th. Cottee managed a further 13 league goals in 1987–88, but McAvennie had been sold to Celtic early in the season and the failure of manager John Lyall to find an adequate replacement contributed to West Ham…

After being released by Norwich on 31 October 2000, he took over as player-manager of Barnet, a team closer to his home in London. After winning his first game with the club 7–0 vs Blackpool, Barnet hit a run of poor form which left them facing relegation from the Football League. Cottee resigned on 16 March 2001, however his replacement, John Still (who left the club just before Cottee's appointment six months earlier), was unable to rescue the team from relegation. However, Cottee did manage an impressive nine goals from 16 Division Three games.

Cottee made his debut for England against Sweden on 10 September 1986 as a substitute and went on to win 7 caps, starting once against Scotland at Hampden Park in the 1989 Rous Cup in a 2–0 win.

Cottee has stated that he diligently maintains a scrapbook containing press cuttings of every goal he scored throughout his playing career.

Media career

He is currently a commentator with Sky Sports and occasional pundit for Malaysian network Astro, appearing on its 2010 World Cup and Premier League studio coverage in Kuala Lumpur.

Film career

Cottee made a cameo appearance in the 2018 action film, Final Score in which he was murdered on live television.