Darren Bent (born February 6, 1984 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire) is an English professional football player. Bent, a striker, plays for Charlton Athletic and wears the shirt number 10.
He was a product of the Ipswich Town youth academy and was the club's top goalscorer in the 2004/05 season (with 19 goals) and completed a £2.7 millon transfer to Charlton that summer after Ipswich failed to reach the Premier League for a third successive season. He was a prolific forward at Ipswich scoring 56 times in 116 games.
He has also represented England at Under-19 level with an impressive 8 goals in 12 appearances and at Under-21 level with an equally impressive 9 goals in 14 appearances. At the start of the next U21 campaign (in September 2006) Bent will be 22, and thus ineligible.
On August 13 2005, the opening day of the 2005/06 Premiership season, Bent had a dream debut which saw him score a brace for Charlton playing at Sunderland. That same day, he was also called up to the England senior team for the August 17, 2005 friendly against Denmark.
He continued his scoring record on August 20, 2005 against Premiership newcomers Wigan Athletic, a game which ended in a 1-0 win to Charlton. Bent was then called into the full England squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Wales and Northern Ireland. He also was named the August Premiership Player of The Month.
Bent continued scoring regularly for Charlton and scored his 9th goal in just 11 games for 'the Addicks' when he netted past Carlo Cudicini of Chelsea on the 26th of October 2005 on the way to knocking 'The Blues' out of the Carling Cup. He had also scored against Hartlepool in the previous round.
As of January 14, 2006, Bent has made 19 league starts for Charlton and scored 11 goals.
