page_title: Craig Bellamy
section_title: Cardiff City loan
hierarchical_section_title: Craig Bellamy / Club career / Cardiff City loan
caption_attribution_description: Craig Bellamy in Cardiff V Derby, Championship, Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales
context_page_description: Craig Douglas Bellamy is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a forward. Born in Cardiff, Bellamy began his career with Norwich City, where he made his professional debut in 1996. He went on to play for Coventry City and Newcastle United in the Premier League, becoming the record signing for the former. He was relegated in his single season with Coventry before achieving two top-four finishes during his four years with Newcastle. Bellamy fell out with manager Graeme Souness in 2005 and spent the latter part of the 2004–05 season on loan at Celtic, where he won the Scottish Cup.
  Bellamy returned to the Premier League later that year, playing one season at both Blackburn Rovers, where he was named the club's player of the year, and Liverpool. In 2007 he signed for West Ham United but injury disrupted his time there and in 2009 he joined Manchester City. For the 2010–11 season, Bellamy dropped a division to the Championship to represent his boyhood club Cardiff City on a season-long loan. He helped Cardiff reach the playoffs before they were defeated in the semi-finals.
context_section_description: On 17 August 2010, Bellamy signed for Cardiff City on a season-long loan from Manchester City. Cardiff manager Dave Jones confirmed Bellamy would become team captain for the season with former captain Mark Hudson named club captain. Manchester City had been wary of selling Bellamy to a potential divisional rival and had suggested the idea of a move to Cardiff, paying a large percentage of his wages to make the move.
  Bellamy made his debut for Cardiff on 21 August in a 4–0 win over Doncaster Rovers, in which he scored from a 35-yard (32 m) free kick. After playing the subsequent game against Portsmouth, Bellamy missed the next five games due to a buildup of fluid on his knee that required rest. He returned and scored in a 2–1 win against Barnsley on 2 October. Bellamy wanted to avoid further injury problems and hired Raymond Verheijen, his former fitness coach at Manchester City, to work with him during the season and paid Verheijen's wages himself. Bellamy scoreed in four consecutive home-league matches against Coventry, Leeds, Watford and Reading but rarely trained as much as the first team to rest his knee, which was swelling profusely after games. Bellamy scored the winning goal in the South Wales derby against Swansea City on 6 February 2011 with a long-range shot in the final minutes of the match; it was the first time Cardiff had won at their rival's ground since 1997.
  Bellamy's influence on the Cardiff team proved pivotal in the push for promotion, which included a 2–2 draw with league leaders Queens Park Rangers in April in which he scored the second goal. Cardiff had led the game twice before Adel Taarabt's brace held them to a draw. Cardiff were challenging Norwich City for the second automatic promotion place in the final stages of the season when Norwich were due to meet Derby County. Before the match, Bellamy telephoned his former Norwich and international teammate Robbie Savage who played for Derby, and offered the players £30,000 if they won the match. Norwich, however, won 3–2 following a late-injury-time goal. A defeat to Middlesbrough the following week confirmed a playoff place for Cardiff and Bellamy scored his last goal of the season with a volley in the 90th minute to draw away at Turf Moor against Burnley. In the play-offs, he suffered a hamstring injury in the opening 20 minutes of the first leg away to Reading, forcing him out of the game. Cardiff drew the match but were defeated 3–0 in the second leg with Bellamy absent.
  Bellamy stated that he would like to stay with Cardiff beyond his loan spell to achieve his dream of them one day playing in the Premier League. After Cardiff manager Dave Jones' sacking, Bellamy became a surprise favourite to take over. The new Cardiff boss Malky Mackay, who knew Bellamy from their days at Norwich, did not confirm whether he would attempt to sign Bellamy. Bellamy asked Manchester City to release him on a free transfer after they priced him at £4,000,000.
caption: Craig Bellamy playing for Cardiff
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