Chris Armstrong

Early career

Armstrong was born in Newcastle upon Tyne to an Irish father and Nigerian mother, and moved to London at age three. He was raised by foster parents in Wales, where he began playing as an amateur goalkeeper in local leagues, before leaving school and giving up on football aged 16. A friend reintroduced him to the game by bringing him to Llay Welfare in the Welsh National League, while he packed burgers during the day for £30 a week. He gained the attention of local professional club Wrexham. At Wrexham, Armstrong made his professional debut as a teenager during the 1989–90 Football League season in the old Fourth Division, and managed to score three times through the course of the season. In his two-year spell at the club, he went on to play 60 games, scoring 13 times. He took part in the 1990–91 European Cup Winners' Cup, where he scored the only goal of the first round tie against Denmark's Lyngby before elimination by eventual champions Manchester United in the second round. He moved to Bruce Rioch's Millwall for £50,000 in August 1991.

Crystal Palace

After one season with Millwall, Armstrong joined Steve Coppell's Crystal Palace for £1 million in 1992, ahead of the inaugural season of the Premier League. He found a home at Selhurst Park, where he was the club's top-scorer with 15 league goals in his first campaign. In January 1995, Kevin Keegan's Newcastle United bid £4.7 million to sign Armstrong, but Palace rejected the offer. In March…

Towards the start of his professional career, Armstrong was tracked by Wales, and was called up by Nigeria ahead of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, but turned them down in hope of representing England. Republic of Ireland managers Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy also tried to enlist Armstrong in the late 1990s; he later revealed that his Tottenham contract said that he could only play for England to avoid limits on foreign players in European fixtures. Armstrong played his only international match on 10 May 1994, a 3–2 friendly win for England B over Northern Ireland at Hillsborough. He came on as a 65th-minute substitute for Chris Sutton. He received a call up to the England squad by Kevin Keegan to play Poland in March 1999, but was ultimately never capped for the senior side.

Source: Chris Armstrong at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)

In July 2016, Armstrong was arrested for possession of cannabis, cocaine and ecstasy after a raid in West Kensington. He pleaded guilty to possession of Class A and Class B drugs at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court and was fined £375. He denied having a drug problem. In July 2021, Armstrong caused £2,000 of criminal damage and assaulted staff at a Tesco in Chelsea, London. The staff had refused to open for him to buy cigarettes. He admitted to the offences at Westminster Magistrates' Court the following January. In March, he received an 18-month community order and treatment for his drug and alcohol problems, as well as court costs of £180.