I won one cap with England and came on against France alongside Gerrard – three years later I was playing in Thailand

JAY BOTHROYD played for England at the age of 28 and looked set for bigger and better things.

However, Bothroyd’s career quickly experienced a dramatic nosedive as he ended up playing in Thailand just three-and-a-half years later.

The now 40-year-old began with plenty of promise as he started out at Arsenal’s academy and won the FA Youth Cup in 2000.

However, the former striker never managed to break into the Gunners’ senior team and went on to have quite the nomadic career.

The Islington-born athlete played for the likes of Coventry, Blackburn, Charlton, Wolves, Stoke and Perugia, where he won the Intertoto Cup in 2003.

Bothroyd’s big break finally came when he moved to Cardiff back in 2008.

The ex-centre-forward registered 20 goals across all competitions in the 2010/2011 season and won over then England manager Fabio Capello.

And so he became one of the very few Championship players to ever receive an international call-up.

Bothroyd picked up his one and only cap in an international friendly against rivals France as a substitute on November 17, 2010.

The forward joined in with the likes of Steven Gerrard, Peter Crouch as well as Rio Ferdinand and made his debut on the same night as Jordan Henderson.

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Bothroyd became the first ever Cardiff player to compete for England and almost stole the headlines as he nearly led the Three Lions to a major comeback while they were 2-0 down.

The one hit wonder almost scored on a night that saw Capello’s side ultimately lose 2-1.

But his debut led him to a move to newly-rich club Queens Park Rangers just a few months later but failed to stand out and was loaned out to Sheffield Wednesday before his release in 2013.

After six months as a free agent, Bothroyd went from England international to a Muangthong United player in Thailand.

The forward’s career was obviously at its twilight but he still managed to absolutely dominate the Thai league before continuing his stint in Asia for Japanese outfit Jubilo Iwata in 2015.

Bothroyd continued to shine bright for his new team and moved to Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo in 2017 where he retired four years later.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk