Clive Darren Allen (born 20 May 1961) 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 ...

who played as a forward for seven different London clubs. Allen was a prolific striker throughout his career. In 1986-87 he won the PFA and

Football Writers' Association The Football Writers' Association (FWA) is an association of football journalists and correspondents writing for English newspapers and agencies. It presents the Footballer of the Year Award, the oldest and most distinguished award given in the d ...

player of the year awards. He also won 5 caps for England from 1984 to 1988.

Early life

Clive Allen was born in

Stepney Stepney is a district in the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The district is no longer officially defined, and is usually used to refer to a relatively small area. However, for much of its history the place name appl ...

, London on 20, May 1961. His father,

Les Allen Leslie William Allen (born 4 September 1937) is an English former football player and manager who played as a inside forward. Playing career Allen started his playing career at amateur club Briggs Sports where he helped them to reach the s ...

, was a member of Tottenham Hotspur's Double-winning team of 1960–61. His younger brother,

Bradley Allen Bradley James Allen (born 13 September 1971) is an English football coach and former professional footballer, who is an academy coach at coach at Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur. As a player, he was a forward who notably played in t ...

, and cousins

Martin Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Aus ...

and

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which h ...

also played football professionally.

Club career

Queens Park Rangers

He started his career at

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus ...

in the late 1970s, and scored 32 league goals in 49 appearances, before moving to

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Arsenal

Allen signed for Arsenal in the summer of 1980 for a fee of £1.25m. He did not play a competitive match for the club, although he did play three pre-season matches. He soon moved on to

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

in a swap deal with

Kenny Sansom Kenneth Graham Sansom (born 26 September 1958) is a former professional footballer who played as a defender. An England international, he played for clubs such as Crystal Palace, Arsenal, Newcastle United, Coventry City, Queens Park Rangers, ...

Crystal Palace

Allen was Palace's top scorer for the 1980–81 season with nine goals in the league and 11 in all competitions, when Palace finished bottom of the First Division. In one of his earliest games for the club, Allen was at the centre of a notorious incident in the defeat against

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed the ...

on 6 September 1980, his shot flying into the goal and rebounding from the stanchion holding up the netting so quickly that it was ruled not a goal, the referee mistakenly ruling that the ball had hit the frame of the goal. Highlights of the match being televised by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

, the incident was captured on camera.

Return to Queens Park Rangers

QPR, still in the Second Division, were now managed by

Terry Venables Terence Frederick Venables (born 6 January 1943), often referred to as El Tel, is an English former football player and manager, and an author. During the 1960s and '70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Qu ...

(who had signed Allen for Palace) and in Allen's first season back at the club ( 1981–82) he scored 13 Second Division goals, though not enough to win promotion. QPR also had their most successful

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

run, reaching the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

for the first time with Allen scoring the goals in 1–0 victories in both the 6th Round (vs

) and semi-final (vs

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional Association football, football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English foo ...

). Allen was injured in the final against Tottenham Hotspur and subsequently missed the replay. Over the next two seasons, Allen scored 27 League goals as QPR first won the Second Division Championship in 1982–83 and then finished fifth in the First Division in 1983–84. He moved to Tottenham for a £700,000 fee.

Tottenham Hotspur

Allen scored twice on his debut on 25 August 1984, a 4–1 away win at Everton, and scored 10 goals from 18 appearances in his first season, in which Spurs finished third behind

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

and Everton. In 1986–87 he scored 33 League goals, and 49 goals in all competitions, a record for the club. He scored, but was on the losing side alongside his cousin

, in the

1987 FA Cup Final The 1987 FA Cup Final between Coventry City and Tottenham Hotspur on 16 May 1987 at Wembley Stadium, London, England was the 106th Final of the FA Cup, English football's primary cup competition. It was the third final for Tottenham Hotspur in ...

. That season he also won the

PFA Player of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Men's Players' Player of the Year (often called the PFA Men's Players' Player of the Year, the Players' Player of the Year, or simply the Player of the Year) is an annual award given to the player who is ...

and Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards.

Bordeaux

He moved from Spurs to join

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture ...

in March 1988, scoring 13 goals in 19 league games.

Later career

In July 1989 he joined

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

, who had just been promoted to the First Division. He scored 10 league goals in his first season, but only four goals in 1990–91. He managed three appearances and scored twice in the league for City the following season, and was transferred to Chelsea in December 1991. He scored seven goals in 16 games over the next three months with Chelsea, scoring the winning goal in an

fourth-round tie against Everton. He then joined West Ham United in March 1992, scoring once in four league games, but was unable to stop them from being relegated. He scored 14 goals in the

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

Division One campaign as West Ham were promoted as runners-up. His goal on the last day of the season, against

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

, secured promotion to the Premier League. He played just seven league games in the 1993–94 in the new Premier League scoring two goals, against

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

in August 1993. He played his final game for West Ham in March 1994 in a 0-0 FA Cup sixth-round game at Upton Park against

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1 ...

, coming on as a substitute for

Lee Chapman Lee Roy Chapman (born 5 December 1959) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker from 1978 until 1996, in which he scored over 200 first team goals. He is best known for spells with Stoke City, Leeds United, Sheff ...

. In January 1994, when Allen was out of favour at West Ham United, Tottenham manager

Ossie Ardiles Osvaldo César Ardiles (born 3 August 1952), often referred to in Britain as Ossie Ardiles, is an Argentine football manager, pundit and former midfielder who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as part of the Argentina national team. He now runs his ...

(who had been his Tottenham teammate the previous decade) expressed interest in bringing Allen back to

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater it had a capacity of 36,284 before demolition ...

as he looked to spend up to £500,000 on buying a striker to cover for the injured

Teddy Sheringham Edward Paul "Teddy" Sheringham, MBE (born 2 April 1966) is an English football manager and former player. He played as a forward, mostly as a second striker, in a 24-year professional career. Sheringham began his career at Millwall, where ...

, but the transfer did not happen. Allen opted to drop down a division and join

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, ea ...

for a fee of £75,000. He ended his career with three league games for

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Park ...

in 1995–96.

International career

In the summer of 1984, Allen was given his first

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 ...

cap against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. In total he made five appearances for England without scoring.

American football career

In 1997, he played for the

London Monarchs The London Monarchs were a professional American football team in NFL Europe and its predecessor league, the World League of American Football (WLAF). The Monarchs played their final season in 1998 as the England Monarchs. In 1999, they were re ...

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

Personal life

His son Oliver is also a footballer. In 2019, Allen published his autobiography, ''Up Front: My Autobiography''. Allen also works as a commentator on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

and

BT Sport BT Sport is a group of pay television sports channels in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe and BT Group, they first launched on 1 August 2013. The channels are based at the former International Broad ...

predominantly for coverage of

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footbal ...

, and

UEFA club competitions UEFA competitions (french: competitions de l'UEFA), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur assoc ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Clive 1961 births Arsenal F.C. players English expatriate sportspeople in France Carlisle United F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Association football forwards England international footballers England under-21 international footballers England youth international footballers English expatriate footballers English football managers English footballers Expatriate footballers in France First Division/Premier League top scorers FC Girondins de Bordeaux players Ligue 1 players Living people London Monarchs players Manchester City F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Footballers from Stepney Premier League managers Premier League players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players English Football League players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. managers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. non-playing staff Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players American football placekickers English players of American football Footballers who switched code

Clive Clive is a name. People and fictional characters with the name include: People Given name * Clive Allen (born 1961), English football player * Clive Anderson (born 1952), British television, radio presenter, comedy writer and former barrister ...

English autobiographers English association football commentators FA Cup Final players