On the ball

I'll be honest. I really don't know very much about football and care about it even less. And yet I've attempted to write an article about a footballer who's called David Thompson. If you don't want to know the result, look away now.

The man wearing Blackburn Rovers shirt number 20 was born in 1977 in Birkenhead, near Liverpool. (Have you ever noticed how you meet a lot of people who insist that they come from near Liverpool and very few who claim to come from the city itself?) David Thompson began his football career on home turf, at Liverpool, and also played for the England under-21 team, before moving to Coventry City in 2000. After an inauspicious start - he got sent off in his first match - he went on to score 16 goals for Coventry in 72 games. By August 2002, Coventry was desperate for cash, and sold the midfielder to Blackburn Rovers for £1.5 million. It sounds like rather a lot of money to me, but it proved to be a real bargain for Blackburn, with Tommo (as he is known to the fans) scoring two goals in his first three appearances with the club.

A serious knee injury kept David Thompson away from the football pitch for most of 2003, but after undergoing surgery in the USA he's ready for action again.

Graeme Souness, the manager of Blackburn Rovers, says: 'Tommo is a proper little Scouser in that he is spiky, easily upset, but then he is also a joy to work with every day of the week.... He sees the picture and he is a great free-kick taker and I think he should be in the England team.' But if he's hoping to become the world's most famous footballer called David, he's still got quite a way to go. And however successful he is, he can't reasonably expect the fans to start chanting, 'One David Thompson, there's only one David Thompson'.