Rickie Lambert

By Craig · Published 31 October 2026

Liverpool let him go at 15. At 18 he was bottling beetroot in a factory. At 31 he came off the bench at Wembley and beat Scotland with his first touch for England. Rickie Lambert took the long way to the Premier League, and when he got there he refused to miss a penalty.

Clubs

Blackpool, Macclesfield Town, Stockport County, Rochdale, Bristol Rovers, Southampton, Liverpool, West Brom, Cardiff City

Premier League

119 appearances, 31 goals

Honours

Football League Trophy 2010, League One Golden Boot 2008/09, Championship Golden Boot and Player of the Year 2011/12

International

England, 11 caps, 3 goals, 2014 World Cup squad

Fantasy price

£8.5m in 2012/13

How he arrived

Lambert grew up in Kirkby, joined Liverpool's academy at 10 and was released at 15. Blackpool gave him three first-team games and then let him go too, in November 2000. For almost four months he had no club, and he worked at a beetroot bottling plant to get by.

Macclesfield signed him in March 2001, and the climb began: Stockport, then Rochdale, then Bristol Rovers, where he won the League One Golden Boot in 2008/09. Southampton, then in League One themselves, paid more than £1m for him in August 2009.

He scored 36 goals in his first season at St Mary's. Southampton went up in 2011, then went up again in 2012, with Lambert scoring 27 league goals and winning the Championship's Golden Boot and Player of the Year. He reached the Premier League with the club he had dragged there, at the age of 30.

The moment: Manchester City, opening day of 2012/13

His first Premier League game started on the bench at the champions. Four minutes after coming on, he curled a loose ball home from the edge of the box to equalise. Southampton still lost 3-2, but the point was made: the League One striker belonged.

He finished that season with 15 Premier League goals. One of them was a 30-yard free kick past Petr Čech in his 500th career league appearance.

The moment: Scotland, Wembley, 14 August 2013

The England call came on the day his third child was born. Six days later, at 31, he replaced Wayne Rooney against Scotland with the score at 2-2. Leighton Baines swung in a corner, Lambert rose at the back of the box, and his header flew in. It was his first touch in international football, two minutes and 43 seconds after coming on, and it won the game 3-2.

He went to the 2014 World Cup, and when Liverpool came for him that summer, the boy they had released at 15 went home.

Why the streets won't forget

Because he did it the hard way, in every division. Lambert scored in all four of England's professional leagues, in both domestic cups, in the Football League Trophy and for England. Very few strikers can say that, and almost none of them spent a winter in a beetroot factory.

Because of the penalties. He took 34 for Southampton and scored all 34, which made him the safest thing in the league from 12 yards.

And because Liverpool made it a full circle. He signed for the club he had supported as a boy in June 2014 and scored in the Premier League for them, twice, before a season at West Brom and a last year at Cardiff. It wasn't the fairytale ending, but a boy from Kirkby wore the shirt.

Where is he now

Lambert retired in October 2017, after his contract at Cardiff ended and no new club came along. In May 2023 he went back into the game as a youth development coach in Wigan Athletic's academy.

Which seasons can you draft him in?

Five. The game also lists him at West Brom in 2016/17, for £6.5m, though he spent that season at Cardiff in the Championship.

Want the beetroot-factory striker in your team? Pick him in 2012/13 for £8.5m.