Written by Chris McQuiggin
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Darius Vassell is the second player and also the second forward signed by Stuart Pearce.
Vassell is a product of the Aston Villa youth system and made his league debut in 1998/1999 season but it wasnt until a UEFA cup match with Villa trailing 2-1 with 10 minutes to go until he made his impact. He scored his first goals for the club in the 91st and 94st minutes to grab a win making him a hero immediatly.
His goals for Villa in the 2001/2002 season got him into the England team, Where he took his chance with a great goal against Holland. He kept his England place and played in the World Cup opener in Japan and Korea but was dropped until a brief appearence against Brazil when It was too late to make an impact.
He had a few patchy seasons for Aston Villa never replicating his brilliant England form, scoring the winners against Turkey and bagging two goals vs Iceland.
In the 2003/2004 season he linked up well with target man Juan Pablo Angel and scored fairly reguaraly.
In 2004 he had a nightmare moment as he missed the crucial penalty against Portugual and had an equally poor season breaking his ankle in October after a horror tackle by Carlos Bocnegra of Fulham.
His key attributes are his pace, strength and ability to run with the ball. His time at Villa came to a sudden end in July 2005 when Manchester City put in a £2m bid for him that was accepted by David O'Leary, and Vassell wrapped up the move by signing a four-year deal that he will hope can rejuvenate his career.
D.O.B:13/05/80