Jamie Cureton (born 28 August 1975) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker. He is currently a coach at Maldon & Tiptree.
He began his career at Norwich City in 1994, and after the club's relegation from the Premier League at the end of the season, has spent the majority of his career in England's lower leagues, apart from a season at South Korean side Busan I'Cons in 2003. One of only 29 footballers in the world to have made over 1,000 competitive appearances, his career has spanned nine tiers of the football pyramid from the Premier League to the Essex Senior League, and has seen him score over 350 goals.
He has played professionally in the Football League for AFC Bournemouth, Bristol Rovers, Reading, Queens Park Rangers, Swindon Town, Colchester United, Barnsley, Shrewsbury Town, Exeter City, Leyton Orient and Cheltenham Town, as well as in non-league for Dagenham & Redbridge, Farnborough, Eastleigh, St Albans City, Bishop's Stortford and Hornchurch. He represented England at under-18 level.
Playing career
Early years
Born in Bristol, Cureton began his professional career with Norwich City, before moving on to Bristol Rovers. In 1993, he turned down an offer from Manchester United to stay at Carrow Road. An England youth international, he achieved significant status with the Norwich fans when he dyed his hair yellow and green for an Old Farm derby game against Ipswich Town in 1996 and subsequently scoring in the same fixture. He was sold by Mike Walker to Bristol Rovers in 1996.
Bristol Rovers
Cureton enjoyed a prolific spell at his hometown club. This was particularly the case during the 1999–2000 season where he struck up a partnership with Jason Roberts that almost took the club to promotion. After the club dipped out of the play-off places on the final day of the season he decided his future lay with pastures new, and headed to Reading.
Reading
Cureton moved to Reading in 2000, playing there for three years. While at the club, the Reading supporters' trust had a newly discovered star in the "Perseus" constellation named after him. Here he struck a formidable partnership with Martin Butler, becoming one of the most feared combinations in the Football League. In his first season (2000–01), he scored 30 goals, including a goal in the play-off final against Walsall, a game which Reading went on to lose 3–2. The following season however, it was Cureton who scored the goal to get Reading promoted. He scored the equaliser against Brentford in the closing stages, with a deft flick to help it over the keeper, into the corner of the net.
Busan I'Cons
Cureton then made a mid-2003 switch to K League side Busan I'Cons (now Busan IPark), playing under former Chelsea manager Ian Porterfield. He failed to settle in East Asia however, describing the move as "another big mistake" in 2014. Cureton's time playing in South Korea is documented in the book, Who Ate All the Squid?: Football Adventures in South Korea.
Return to England
After being released from his contract at Busan, he returned to England and joined Queens Park Rangers on 30 January 2004. One of the more memorable of the six goals he scored there was a volley from a tight angle against Coventry City which echoed Marco Van Basten's goal against USSR in the Euro 1988 final. After a mostly unsettled season at Loftus Road though, he joined Swindon Town in June 2005.
He failed to make his mark in his first spell at the club and subsequently joined Colchester United on loan. He then briefly returned to Swindon Town as they failed to avoid relegation to League Two. After Swindon's relegation, Cureton activated a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave Swindon on a free transfer, and rejoined Colchester on a permanent basis. His first full season with the U's proved to be hugely successful as the Essex club managed a 10th-place finish in the Championship, partnering Chris Iwelumo.
One of Cureton's main highlights in a Colchester shirt was the hat-trick he scored in the 3–0 away win against Essex rivals Southend United on 7 April 2007.
His 23 goals in the 2006–07 season gave him the Championship Golden Boot as the league's top scorer, and made him the first Colchester United striker since Tony Adcock to score 20 league goals in a season; the first for 22 years.
On 5 June 2007, due to agent demands, Cureton handed in a transfer request to Colchester United, citing Colchester's ambitions differing from his own. This inevitably fuelled speculation that Cureton might return to Norwich City, the club where he began his career. Cureton himself stated that he would like to return to the club.