Nathan Delfouneso

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MINI PROFILE

By the age of 20, Nathan Delfouneso achieved the impressive feat of scoring for Villa in all three domestic competitions as well as in Europe.

Although the Birmingham-born striker only featured twice in 2011-12, he completed the clean sweep by netting against Hereford United in the League Cup to add to his Barclays Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Cup goals.

It was a relatively quiet campaign for Delfouneso, but he did also manage four appearances during a loan spell at Leicester City.

Nevertheless, the young striker still has high hopes of building on a promising start to his claret and blue career.

His big breakthrough came in 2008-09 when, at the age of 17, he became the youngest player to represent Villa in European competition.

He made his first competitive start against MSK Zilina in the UEFA Cup and scored with a stunning left-foot volley after just 30 minutes.

Delfouneso also netted a consolation strike against Hamburg in December 2008.

Manager at the time Martin O'Neill regularly used Delfouneso in cup competitions and the young hotshot produced another goalscoring display in an FA Cup replay victory over Doncaster in February 2009.

A top-flight debut followed a month later when the forward replaced Gabby Agbonlahor in a defeat against Tottenham.

If his breakthough season was impressive, things got even better for The Fonz in 2009-10.

A fourth senior goal for the club came in an FA Cup success against Blackburn Rovers, while he netted in the next round against Brighton & Hove Albion too.

But Delfouneso well and truly announced himself on the big stage with a last-gasp winner against Portsmouth at Fratton Park in April 2010.

Villa were suffering from a striker crisis a few months into the 2010-11 campaign, meaning new boss Gerard Houllier turned to Delfouneso for a Premier League clash at Fulham.

It was the catalyst for a run of games for the England U21 ace, who added to his goal tally by scoring in a victory over Blackpool at Villa Park.

As senior strikers John Carew, Gabby Agbonlahor and Emile Heskey all returned to fitness, Delfouneso made a loan switch to Burnley where he marked his debut by scoring past claret and blue colleague Brad Guzan, who was on loan at opponents Hull City.

INTERESTING FACT 

Nathan Delfouneso's nickname is 'The Fonz'.