Teddy Sheringham

Edward Paul "Teddy" Sheringham MBE (born 2 April 1966) is a retired English footballer, and the father of footballer Charlie Sheringham. Sheringham played as a striker, and had a successful career at the club level, winning almost every domestic honour available with his clubs, most notably the Treble with Manchester United in the 1998–99 season. The pinnacle of his career came when he scored the equaliser and provided the assist for Manchester United's winning goal in the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final against Bayern Munich. Sheringham also represented England at international level. He was given an MBE in June 2007. He retired from competitive football at the end of the 2007–08 season with Colchester United, at the age of 42.
Sheringham began his professional career at Millwall in 1982 at the age of 16, after impressing a scout when playing for non-league club Leytonstone & Ilford during a youth team game against Millwall. He was signed up, initially as an apprentice and scored on only his second appearance for the club in a match away at Bournemouth in January 1984. After being loaned out by the club twice in 1985 to Aldershot and later a Swedish side, Djurgården, he quickly became a first choice selection at Millwall and during the late 1980s formed a striking partnership with Tony Cascarino. He was the club's top goalscorer in four seasons (1986–87, 1987–88, 1988–89 and 1990–91) and played in every game of the season twice, in 1986–87 and 1990–91.
The 1987–88 season saw the club promoted to the First Division, then the highest tier of English league football, for the first time. Sheringham scored the first goal in Millwall's first home game in Division One. Millwall briefly topped the table at the start of October 1988 and the goals of Sheringham (15) and Cascarino (15) kept Millwall in the top four for most of the season before fading after Easter to finish in 10th position. Sheringham said in his autobiography that, "It was a crazy exhilarating time. There we were, little Millwall, in our first season in the First Division and topping the table until about March. Everybody said it couldn't last and of course it couldn't and it didn't, but we gave them all a good run for their money. We were beating the best teams when we shouldn't and getting away draws to which we had no right."
Millwall's spell in the top flight was not to last as they were relegated in the following season, finishing bottom of the Division after briefly topping the table again early in the season. Sheringham was again top scorer for Millwall with twelve goals, having missed ten league games through injury. The club had an opportunity to bounce straight back up at the end of the 1990–91 season, reaching the semi-finals of the Division Two play-offs, but they were beaten by Brighton & Hove Albion and remained in the Second Division. Sheringham's outstanding form during the 1990–91 season saw him finish as the league's highest scorer with 37 goals, a haul which included four hat-tricks. With Millwall failing to return to the top flight, a departure for Sheringham looked inevitable. In his final season at Millwall, Sheringham broke all of the club's goalscoring records, scoring a total of 111 goals in all competitions in his eight years at the club.
The 25-year-old Sheringham was sold to Nottingham Forest in a £2 million deal in July 1991[10] to play alongside Nigel Clough. He did well for Forest and helped them finish eighth in the First Division at the end of the 1991–92 season as well as to reach the League Cup final, where they lost to Manchester United. Sheringham scored Forest's first Premiership goal against Liverpool in August 1992 (which was also the first ever live goal shown on Sky Sports) but a week later he was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for £2.1 million.[10] Forest went on to be relegated in 1992–93, having failed to adequately replace Sheringham in attack.
Sheringham had a successful start to his career at the club by being the Premier League's top goalscorer in its inaugural season, scoring 22 goals (21 with Tottenham and one with Forest). His strike partners at White Hart Lane included Gordon Durie, Ronny Rosenthal, Jürgen Klinsmann and finally Chris Armstrong. In 1993–94, he was Tottenham's top scorer with 14 Premiership goals but played in just 19 games due to injury and this impacted negatively on Tottenham's league form. Spurs finished 15th and were not completely safe from relegation until the penultimate game of the season. They have not finished lower than this ever since.

The following season was better, as he helped Spurs finish seventh in the Premiership and reach the semi-final of the FA Cup, just missing out on European football for the 1995–96 season.
Jürgen Klinsmann, who partnered Sheringham during the 1994–95 season, was later quoted as claiming that Sheringham was the most intelligent strike partner he had ever had.

Sheringham was hugely popular with the Tottenham fans and by the mid 1990s was recognised as one of the best strikers in the Premiership. However, despite his prolific strike rate by the end of the 1996–97 season he was 31 years old and had yet to win a major trophy in a career which had so far spanned 15 years; many pundits considered him past his best and likely to finish his career without major honours.