Jonathan Woodgate

Jonathan Woodgate

Jonathan Simon Woodgate (born 22 January 1980) is an English footballer who plays as a defender for Middlesbrough.

Woodgate started his career at Leeds United where he established himself in the starting eleven. However, Woodgate was sold to Newcastle United for £9 million in January 2003. He impressed at Newcastle but he also suffered a number of injury problems. His performances in Europe for Newcastle led to Spanish giants Real Madrid signing Woodgate for £13.4 million in August 2004. Injuries blighted his time in Madrid as he failed to make a single appearance during the entire 2004–05 season. He endured an awful debut for Real Madrid as he scored an own goal and was later sent off for two bookable offences.

He went on to play 14 times for Los Blancos before re-joining his hometown club Middlesbrough on loan before joining the Teesside club permanently for a fee of £7million. He then joined Tottenham Hotspur for the same amount in January 2008. He scored the winning goal for Spurs in the League Cup Final against Chelsea and went on to play 44 times during the 2008–09 season. However after more injury problems he only made four appearances in the next two seasons and was released in June 2011. In July 2011 he signed on a pay-as-you-play deal with Stoke City. He spent the 2011–12 season at Stoke and after his contract expired he re-signed for Middlesbrough.