Teddy Sheringham began his professional football career with the unfashionable south London club, Millwall. Together with striking partner Tony Cascarino they won promotion to the top flight of English football and scored a phenomenal 99 goals for Millwall in just three seasons; and though Millwall were relegated the following season, both went onto to celebrate illustrious careers.
In 1991 Brian Clough bought Edward Paul Sheringham for £2 million to play for Nottm Forest alongside his son, Nigel Clough. But this proved only to be a stepping stone. The next season Sheringham was sold to Tottenham where he scored 76 goals in 166 appearances.
Jürgen Klinsmann, a strike partner with Sheringham during the 1994–95 season, has claimed that Sheringham was the most intelligent strike partner he had ever played with. But it wasn’t to be the pinnacle of Teddy’s football career.
In 1993 Teddy Sheringham won his first England cap at the age of 27. But it was under the management of Terry Venables, who had brought him to Spurs, that Sheringham was the first choice partner for Alan Shearer. Together they helped England to the semi-finals of Euro 96 – their best performance coming in a 4-1 drubbing of a shell shocked Holland.
In 1997 Sheringham joined Manchester United for £3.5 million as a replacement for Eric Cantona. But Sheringham’s strained relationship with Andy Cole was one of the factors why United finished the season trophy-less and Alex Ferguson bought Dwight Yorke the following season. Yorke and Cole was a successful strike force that meant Sheringham had few first-team starts and instead was used generally used as a second-half impact player. No greater than when he was brought on in injury time in the 1999 Champions League Final where United had scored a very late equaliser. As Sheringham ran onto the pitch he told David Beckham, who was waiting to take a free-kick, to find his head. Beckham duly delivered an inch perfect cross and Teddy Sheringham scored the winning goal that won Manchester United the treble of Premier League, FA Cup & Champions League. Along with his 51 England caps, this was probably the pinnacle of Teddy’s playing career.
In 2001 he returned to Spurs as a free transfer before playing for Portsmouth and West Ham, before finishing his professional playing career making 19 appearances for Colchester United in the 2007-08 season.
Sheringham was an intelligent player and this coupled with his experience playing for the likes of Clough, Venables, Ferguson and Hoddle, I assumed he would step effortlessly into coaching or football management. But instead he turned to football analysis for television before following his old striking partner Tony Cascarino into making money playing poker.
Sheringham now plays poker professionally and apparently is as sharp and quick thinking around the card table, as he was around the penalty area.
