Kerry Dixon

Kerry Michael Dixon (born 24 July 1961) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a striker.

His club career was spent most notably at Chelsea, where he won the Second Division twice. His 193 goals for the club across all competitions made him their third-highest goalscorer of all time.

For three consecutive seasons (1982–83, 1983–84 and 1984–85), he was the top goalscorer in his teams' divisions, 3 (with Reading), 2 and 1 (with Chelsea) respectively.

Dixon scored four goals in eight international appearances for the England national football team, and represented the nation at the 1986 FIFA World Cup.

Playing career

Early years Dixon was born in Luton. A tall and athletic striker who had pace, an impressive heading ability and was effective with both feet, he started out as an apprentice with Tottenham Hotspur but was released by the club.

Reading After spells with Chesham United and Dunstable,

Chelsea struggled in the following two seasons after a series of clashes between key players and the management saw the successful mid 1980s side gradually broken up. Dixon himself was dropped from the side after losing form and was close to joining Chelsea's London rivals Arsenal, though the deal eventually collapsed after chairman Ken Bates intervened. Chelsea were relegated in 1988, an event which, ironically, rejuvenated his career with the club. He scored 25 league goals as Chelsea returned to the First Division as champions at the first attempt in 1988–89. A year later he scored a further 26, including a final day hat-trick against Millwall, to help Chelsea finish fifth, their highest league position since 1970. He spent two more seasons with the club and continued to score on a regular basis, although Chelsea failed to finish higher than mid table in 1991 or 1992. Dixon's final serious chance of a major trophy with Chelsea came in the 1990–91 season, when they went on a good run in the League Cup but lost to Sheffield Wednesday in the semi-finals. They did win the short-lived Full Members Cup twice (1986 and 1990) during Dixon's spell at the club, although Dixon was injured on the occasion of the first victory in this competition.

With 193 goals in total to his name, Dixon is Chelsea's third highest goal scorer of all time, behind only Bobby Tambling and Frank Lampard. He is also tenth in the club's all-time appearances list. His only honours with the club, however, were the two Second Division championship medals and the Full Members Cup. He also never got to represent the club in European competitions.

Southampton After nine years at Stamford Bridge, Dixon left Chelsea in the summer of 1992 and joined Southampton in a £575,000 deal, where he briefly linked up with Speedie again, though not with the same success. During his time at Southampton, he only managed nine league appearances and two goals in the new FA Premier League. The highlight of his time at Luton was reaching the FA Cup semi-finals in 1994, where he faced his old side Chelsea and lost 2–0. He scored 20 goals in 88 appearances for Luton.

Millwall and Watford In March 1995, Dixon joined Millwall, also in Division One, for a mere £5,000. After 31 appearances and nine goals, he was sold to Watford for £25,000 in January 1996. Dixon appeared in 11 matches for Watford, who along with Millwall were relegated from Division One that season.

Doncaster Rovers The final league club he played for was Doncaster Rovers during the 1996–97 season. This came after he was appointed player-manager of the cash-strapped Division Three club. He appeared in 16 matches for the Rovers, scoring three times.

Basildon United For a short period of the 1997–98 season Dixon played for Basildon United in the Essex Senior League but he picked up a hamstring injury stretching to score a goal against Great Wakering Rovers in what turned out to be his last game for the club.

International career His scoring feats earned him an England call-up; he made his debut against Mexico in 1985 during a friendly international tournament in Mexico City. Three days later Dixon scored twice and set up Bryan Robson for the other in England's 3–0 win over West Germany. He scored two more four days later against the USA in Los Angeles.

1986 World Cup After his injury in 1985, he was nevertheless selected for the England squad for the 1986 FIFA World Cup but the presence of Lineker and Peter Beardsley in the side limited him to a six-minute substitute appearance against Poland. He played only one more game for England after that, and finished his international career with eight caps and four goals.

Managerial career

Doncaster Rovers After his playing days were over, he became Doncaster's player-manager, but was sacked in August 1997.

Boreham Wood, Letchworth and Hitchin Town Since then, Dixon has had stints coaching non-League sides Boreham Wood, Letchworth, and Hitchin Town.

Personal life Dixon does occasional work for Chelsea TV. He commentated on Chelsea matches with Gary Taphouse from 2002 to 2008 on both the club's own digital radio station, then on Smooth FM. He is also involved with matchday hospitality at the club. He was also joint manager at Dunstable alongside Paul Reeves and involved in community work in the area.

In June 2014, he was charged with a class-A drugs offence. The charge was subsequently dropped.

In June 2015, Dixon was found guilty of assault of a man in a pub in Dunstable. On 19 June 2015, he was jailed for nine months for the offence.

In October 2016, in an interview with the BBC, he spoke of his long term addiction to gambling and how he was working as a heating engineer's assistant.

His father Mike was also a footballer.

Career statistics