Strong in the air, with an ability to carve out goals from mere half chances, he possesses an extraordinarily powerful shot which has born fruit at every level of the game.
Shearer emerged as a promising young player at Southampton in the late 1980's, quickly earning a place in the England U-21 team for whom he scored 13 times in only 11 matches. He briefly appeared for the England B side before joining the full international team where, on his debut, he scored a terrific goal against France at Wembley in February 1992. During the summer, he missed the European Championships due to a serious knee injury, but completed a record 3.6 million pound transfer to newly promoted
Blackburn Rovers under the management of Kenny Dalglish. Despite more injury problems, Shearer still finished his first season with 22 goals, then helped the Ewood Park outfit to the
English Premier League runners-up spot a year later (scoring 34 goals) and was presented with the Footballer of the Year award. In 1995 Shearer vindicated the big spending of chairman Jack Walker by blasting Blackburn to their first Championship triumph since 1914, but could not resist the temptation of a world record 15 million pound transfer to
Newcastle United before the 1996-97 season.
Shearer endured an uncommonly lean spell for England during the early stages of his international career. However he repaid the faith England manager Terry Venables kept in his ability to perform at the highest level by shooting himself into the world spotlight during the 1996 European Championships with five goals in as many games.
However, the player's form in recent times has suffered as he picked up another serious leg injury. The injury kept him out for the majority of Newcastle's 1997-98 season, but also adversely affected his performance at the
World Cup in 1998, when he appeared not a patch on the player of two years earlier. His performance during the Euro 2000 tournament was lacking as well, and Shearer has yet to return to his best at the club level.
Career Stats:
Team Season GP G
Southampton 1987/1988 5 3
Southampton 1988/1989 10 0
Southampton 1989/1990 26 3
Southampton 1990/1991 36 4
Southampton 1991/1992 41 13
Blackburn Rovers 1992/1993 21 16
Blackburn Rovers 1993/1994 40 31
Blackburn Rovers 1994/1995 42 34
Blackburn Rovers 1995/1996 35 31
Newcastle United 1996/1997 31 25
Newcastle United 1997/1998 17 2
Newcastle United 1998/1999 30 14
Newcastle United 1999/2000 37 23
Totals 371 199