Gavin Harris

Gavin Harris (born 14th March 1977) is an ex-professional footballer who played for Chelsea FC, Newcastle United and Real Madrid. He is considered to be one of the greatest strikers of all time.

## Youth career

### Middlesborough

In 1988 when Gavin Harris was 11 years old, he played for Middlesborough's youth squad and impressed his coaches with his good goal scoring, his vision of where to score and he was good at penalties. In 1993, Jack Harrison, Middlesborough's youth coach stated "Out of my 22 years of being a Fulham youth coach. Gavin Harris is the most impressive player I've ever seen and he's got good dedication, he is a bit cheeky but it's not that big of a deal, as long as he does not let that get in the way of a bright future this star has." After graduating school in 1993 and the Middlesborough youth academy, Gavin Harris decided to play professional for Fulham.

## Club career

### Middlesborough

Gavin Harris joined his boyhood club Middlesborough and performed incredible for them, getting them to the Premier League and becoming the Football League's top goal scorer (What the EFL Championship was known as at the time), scoring 29 goals in 48 apperances. He was only 18 at the time. He performed well for Middlesborough in the 95/96 season, scoring 19 goals in 33 appearances. Harris was performing astonishingly for Middlesborough at the age of 18, however he was sold because Middlesborough wanted to make money out of him and Leicester City bought him.

### Leicester City

In 1996 at the age of 19, Gavin Harris joined Leicester City and performed well for them in 2 seasons (96/97, 97/98), getting both 9th and 10th place with them, scoring a combined amount of 37 goals in 66 apperances. Chelsea then bought Gavin Harris.

### Chelsea

Gavin Harris joined Chelsea in 1998, since then until 2004, he performed very well with the Blues. In the 1999/00 season, Gavin Harris' talent was attractive to big clubs due to him winning the FA Cup and the FA Community Shield. Clubs thought that Harris was the big deal. However winning 2 trophies with the Blues, his goal scoring talent made him the 2nd highest goal scorer in Chelsea's history. He scored 206 goals in 316 games, Frank Lampard beating him to 1st place with 211 goals in 648 apperances.

### Newcastle United

When Mourinho joined, he did not want Gavin Harris playing for Chelsea. So Mourinho wanted to sell him, the owner agreed. In 13th July 2004, Gavin Harris joined Newcastle United for £42M and on £150,000 a week. Gavin Harris performed really well for Newcastle, scoring 14 goals in 28 appearances. He was sold to Madrid for £68M and was on €250,000 (£214,223.75) a week.

### Real Madrid

During his time at the Santiago Bernabéu, Gavin Harris was incredible, he helped Real Madrid win the Champions League in 2006, helping them win the 05/06 Champions League and scored 21 goals in 31 apperances. He won the La Liga with Real Madrid and became La Liga's top goal scorer with 29 goals in 36 apperances, and became La Liga's top goal scorer in the 07/08 season as well scoring 30 goals in 34 apperances and in the 08/09 season as well, scoring 35 goals in 37 apperances. Becoming La Liga's top goal scorer 3 times in a row. LA Galaxy bought Gavin Harris for $90M.

### LA Galaxy

Gavin Harris played for LA Galaxy for 6 years and scored 168 goals in 259 apperances, becoming LA Galaxy's top goal scorer and becoming the MLS' top goal scorer 6 times in a row. In May 2015, Gavin Harris retired at the age of 38 and retired as an icon.