Andrew Johnson

Birmingham City

Johnson was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire, and started his career at Luton Town's Academy. He moved on to Birmingham City, where he signed his first professional contract on 11 March 1998. He missed a deciding penalty in the 2001 League Cup Final penalty shoot-out defeat to Liverpool. After making over 100 appearances for the Blues, he was sold to Crystal Palace in 2002, following Birmingham's promotion into the Premier League. Johnson was used as the makeweight in a transfer deal for Clinton Morrison, valued at £750,000 for the purposes of the transaction.

Crystal Palace

Johnson's made a strong start to his career at Palace by scoring a hat-trick in the 5–0 thrashing of rivals Brighton & Hove Albion on 26 October 2002, and then another, in the next match, at Walsall. Despite this, he made few appearances until manager Trevor Francis was dismissed with the Eagles mid-table, and replaced by Steve Kember. Kember was replaced by Iain Dowie a few months into the 2003–04 season. Under the new manager, Johnson ended the season as top scorer in the 2003–04 First Division season with 32 goals. Palace reached the play-offs and were promoted into the Premier League for 2004–05 after beating West Ham United 1–0 in the final. Despite Palace's relegation back into the Championship the following season, Johnson was the highest scoring English player with 21 goals and the second highest overall in the Premier League. his form attracted the attention of…

Johnson was first capped for England at U20 level, being selected in the team for the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship alongside Stuart Taylor, Ashley Cole, Peter Crouch and Matthew Etherington. The team finished bottom of their group, losing all three matches without scoring. As the top English goalscorer in the 2004–05 Premier League, there were many calling for him to be selected for the full England squad. Midway through the season, Johnson revealed that he would accept a call-up to the national team of Poland, after being eligible through his grandfather being born in Poland. This subsequently hurried then England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson into giving Johnson his first call-up, to face the Netherlands on 9 February 2005, and he made his first international appearance in that match. A second cap came when Johnson made his full debut for England, in a 2–1 friendly win over the United States, during England's tour of America in the summer of 2005. On 9 May 2006, Johnson was put on standby by Eriksson in his squad for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He was also an unused substitute in the England B match against Belarus and the first team's wins over Hungary and Jamaica. When Steve McClaren was installed as England coach, Johnson got further opportunities to play for his country in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifiers. Johnson made substitute appearances against Andorra (at Old Trafford on 2 September 2006) and away to Macedonia (on 6 September 2006). Johnson then made his…

Club

International

Johnson now runs a property company, and also works for BAND, a business advisory firm. In February 2024, Johnson was appointed to the role of director of football at AFC Croydon Athletic, a non-league club.