Jermain Defoe is still scoring goals for Rangers but he could and should have been a West Ham United legend.
Instead he is remembered for all the wrong reasons at the club where he made his name in the Premier League.
At 37 Defoe still cuts the same diminutive but deadly lithe figure for Rangers as the boy who burst onto the scene with West Ham 21 years ago.
Defore scored nearly a goal every other game for the Hammers with 45 in 105 matches and had a one in three ratio in the Premier League.
Today he is maintaining those standards with 25 goals in 52 games for Steven Gerrard’s Rangers.
Hell hath no fury like a Hammer scorned
West Ham had made headlines by poaching Defoe from Charlton. And just as his time at West Ham had started with controversy, so it ended in controversy too.
Handing in a much-publicised transfer request the day after West Ham were relegated on 42 points – a record which still stands today – instantly killed his relationship with the fiercely loyal Hammers faithful.
Once you cross West Ham fans, there is rarely any turning back.
Defoe’s request was turned down and he remained at the club in the Championship. He was sent off three times in quick succession, missing 12 matches for his behaviour.
And fans believed he was doing it deliberately to force a move to bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Boos, bites, bugs and bygones have followed over the years.
Now the Rangers star has spoken out on the infamous incident again in a wide-ranging interview with Sky Sports.
Defoe has apologised to West Ham once again, revealing he feels like he betrayed his family – many of whom were West Ham fans.
And he made a stark admission, the West Ham transfer request is the one and only regret of his goal-laden career.
Defoe apologises for betraying his ‘West Ham family’
“I felt like I was betraying a family member,” Defoe told Sky Sports.
“These people had given me an opportunity, and then years later I’m going in and handing in a transfer request saying, ‘I don’t want to be here, I want to leave’. I made a big mistake. When I done it and realised what had happened, I felt like I had to get my head down and try to win the fans back.
“Being an East London boy it was an easy decision (to join West Ham). West Ham wasn’t far from home, I watched them as a kid, a lot of my family are West Ham fans and I could go and play with the best young players in the country, so it was the perfect environment.
“When I look back at it now, I think I was maybe naïve at the time (when I handed in the transfer request). It felt like I was at school knocking on the headmaster’s door. If I saw someone do that now I’d be like, ‘Wow, that’s strange, you shouldn’t do that’.
“As a young player you should never ask to leave the football club and hand in a transfer request. I didn’t even know about transfer requests then. I spoke to my agent at the time. He basically said to me and my family, this is something you need to do because you want to be playing in the Premier League and if you hand in a transfer request it gives you a better chance to leave the club.
‘I was going into reckless challenges, it was silly’
“I should have turned around and asked more questions like, ‘Do I really need to do this?’ because if someone wanted me they’d come and get me. Of course it was a massive regret. It’s honesty from the heart, but I just didn’t know what I was doing at the time. I felt like I was on my own. All the stick that I got after was about me, not the agent or anyone else. In the paper is my face on a rat.
“I was so fired up (because of the criticism). Instead of focusing on goals and playing well, I was going into reckless challenges. It was silly… I didn’t need to do that, but there were a lot of eyes on me at the time. I was actually coaching the kids in the evenings because I wasn’t preparing for any games, so I was coaching them to try and give something back and make me feel better.”
It is not the first time Defoe has apologised.
A few weeks after he left the club back in 2004, Defoe fronted up as he told BBC Sport he was deeply sorry.
But his candid assessment all these years on shows the club does hold a special place in his heart.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge. And West Ham fans will undoubtedly appreciate Defoe’s efforts to repair their relationship.
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