Kevin Alexander Stephens (born 28 July 1984) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who last played for

Boreham Wood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly known ...

. He played as a defender for

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

. In 2009, Stephens refused to play for Newport County again after opposition striker,

Stuart Douglas Stuart Anthony Douglas (born 9 April 1978 in London Borough of Enfield, Enfield) is an English retired association football, footballer and television presenter. In October 2020, he was appointed as physiotherapist at AFC Bournemouth. Career D ...

, received racist abuse from Newport fans in the stadium. Under the name "Stevo the Madman" he has gained attention for videos on

Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of Snapchat is that pictures and messages are usually only available for a short time before the ...

Career

Leyton Orient

Stephens started his footballing career at

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the f ...

side

as a trainee in 2001. He made his first of four league appearances for the club, all of them away from home, in a 3–2 defeat away to

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

on 9 November 2002, a game in which he received a booking. His second appearance was on 18 March 2003 in a 3–1 defeat at

A.F.C. Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

, in which he was substituted in the 89th minute for

Gabriel Zakuani Gabriel Abdala Zakuani (born 31 May 1986) is a Congolese retired professional footballer who played as a defender. He was most recently manager of Spalding United. Zakuani began his career with Leyton Orient, and was a vital member of the sid ...

. His final appearance in the 2002–03 season was in a 1–0 defeat at

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

on 22 March 2003, coming on as a substitute in the 65th minute for

Simon Downer Simon Downer (born 19 October 1981) is a former English footballer who played as a central defender or right back. Club career Downer's previous clubs include Leyton Orient, Aldershot Town (loan), Weymouth, Grays Athletic, Wivenhoe Town, Rus ...

. His final league appearance for the club would be in the 2003–04 season when he came on as an 82nd minute substitute for Matt Joseph in a 1–1 draw at

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...

on 16 August 2003. Stephens was then loaned out for one month to

Billericay Town Billericay Town Football Club is a football club based in Billericay, Essex, England. The club are currently members of and play at New Lodge. They are the second most successful club in FA Vase history, having won the competition on three o ...

in the

Isthmian League Premier Division The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 teams ...

, after impressing in a pre-season friendly between Orient and Billericay. He went on to play for Redbridge,

Enfield Town Enfield is a large town in north London, England, north of Charing Cross. It had a population of 156,858 in 2018. It includes the areas of Botany Bay, Brimsdown, Bulls Cross, Bullsmoor, Bush Hill Park, Clay Hill, Crews Hill, Enfield Highway ...

Chelmsford City Chelmsford City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Chelmsford, Essex, England. Currently members of they play at the Melbourne Stadium. History Chelmsford Chelmsford Football Club was established in 1878 by members o ...

, and

Newport County

Stephens was one of three defenders manager

Dean Holdsworth Dean Christopher Holdsworth (born 8 November 1968) is an English former professional football player and manager. As a striker he scored 193 goals in 610 league games over a 22-year career. Despite playing for 16 clubs in 19 spells the majority ...

brought with him from

Isthmian League Division One North The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 teams ...

club Redbridge to

Conference South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

side Newport County at the start of the 2008-09 season, along with left-back David Collins and centre-back Nick Skelton. In his first two months at the club, he was regarded as their most consistent and impressive outfield player. However, just three months after signing, all three former Redbridge players were released by Newport County. Holdsworth wanted to keep Stephens, but the board decided that paying his travel expenses from his home in London would not be feasible. Stephens was re-signed by the club later in the same season . He left the club in March 2009 after vowing to never play for them again after hearing racist chants from his own fans directed at

Bath City Bath City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Bath, Somerset, England. The club is affiliated to the Somerset FA and currently competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club have ...

striker

in Newport's 4–0 loss at home to Bath.

Career statistics

After football

While working as a recovery driver, Stephens constantly filmed his day-to-day life as a 'van man' which saw the inception of 'StevoTheMadMan'. Stephens has been featured on numerous TV shows. Between 2016 and 2020, he was a regular host of a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

series for

JD Sports JD Sports Fashion plc, more commonly known as JD Sports or JD, is a British sports-fashion retail company based in Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Pentlan ...

called ''Take a Bow''. The show saw its hosts discuss the latest football news, matches and gossip on a weekly basis. In January 2019, Stephens, coupled with music artist

Big Narstie Tyrone Mark Lindo (born 16 November 1985), known by his stage name Big Narstie, is a British MC, author, rapper, singer, songwriter, comedian and television presenter. He started his career in 2002 as a member of grime crew "N Double A," though ...

finished 3rd in the fourth series of

Celebrity Coach Trip ''Coach Trip'' is a British reality game show originally broadcast on Channel 4 from 7 March 2005 to 30 June 2006. The programme returned after a three-year break, from 25 May 2009 to 9 March 2012. In early 2013, the show went into hiatus agai ...

. During December 2019, Stephens also starred in the '' Come Dine with Me'' Christmas special in a bid to win £1,000 for charity over a week of competitive cooking and hosting. Also in December 2019, Stephens appeared on comedy, music and talk show ''

The Big Narstie Show ''The Big Narstie Show'' is a British chat show, presented by rapper Big Narstie and comedian Mo Gilligan, that debuted on Channel 4 on 29 June 2018. Big Narstie is a rapper from the grime scene and has been cited as one of the original purveyor ...

'' with friend

and comedian

Mo Gilligan Mosiah Bikila Gilligan (born 19 February 1988) is a British stand-up comedian. He is known for his observational comedy. After several years of uploading comedy clips to social media, he found global success in 2017. He hosted ''The Lateish Show ...

where they discussed his content and upcoming projects. He covered the 2020

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

for

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC television, radio and online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadcasting the sport live or alongside flag ...

on the opening night - interviewing the players, teams and coaches ahead of the game. In June 2021, Stephens was a featured artist on the song ''Come On England'' by Plain Old Kev. The music video for the song has cameos from former

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

international footballers

Rio Ferdinand Rio Gavin Ferdinand (born 7 November 1978) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back, and is now a television pundit for BT Sport. He played 81 times for the England national team between 1997 and 2011, and was ...

Peter Crouch Peter James Crouch (born 30 January 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He was capped 42 times by the England national team between 2005 and 2010, scoring 22 goals for his country during that time, and ...

and

Sol Campbell Sulzeer Jeremiah Campbell (born 18 September 1974) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of club Southend United. He previously managed Macclesfield Town from November 2018 to August 20 ...

, as well as music artists

Example Example may refer to: * '' exempli gratia'' (e.g.), usually read out in English as "for example" * .example, reserved as a domain name that may not be installed as a top-level domain of the Internet ** example.com, example.net, example.org, ex ...

Olly Murs Oliver Stanley Murs (born 14 May 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and television presenter. He was runner-up on the sixth series of ''The X Factor'' in 2009 and was subsequently signed to RCA Records and Sony Music in the United Kingdom, ...

Joel Corry Joel Corry (born 10 June 1989) is an English DJ, producer and television personality. He came to prominence in 2019 with the release of his single " Sorry", featuring vocals from Hayley May (who was not credited in the official music video), whi ...

and

Danny Howard Danny Howard (born 14 July 1987) is a British dance music DJ, producer, and current host of ''Radio 1's Dance Party''. Howard attended Edge Hill University, where he studied sport and exercise science. During his time at Edge Hill, Howard had a ...

. The song peaked at #78 on the British

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

Chart. In February 2022, it was announced that Stephens would be part of the cast of E4 cooking show ''Celebrity Cooking School''.

Filmography

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stephens, Kevin 1984 births Living people Footballers from Enfield, London English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Leyton Orient F.C. players Billericay Town F.C. players Hornchurch F.C. players Redbridge F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players Enfield Town F.C. players Boreham Wood F.C. players English Football League players British video bloggers Chelmsford City F.C. players Black British sportsmen Black British comedians