Who is Kerry Dixon?
Kerry Michael Dixon is a retired professional footballer from England who played as a striker.
Dixon began his career with Reading, who signed the forward for £20,000 in 1980. He netted 51 league goals in 116 outings for the then Third Division club.
After his Royals days, Dixon signed with Chelsea in the summer of 1983 by manager John Neal. Chelsea owner Ken Bates initially hesitated when faced with the £150,000 transfer sum plus £25,000 bonuses if Kerry ever played for his country’s national side, but relented and the transfer went ahead.
Dixon’s impact at the Blues was immediate; he netted two goals on his debut versus Derby County and added 32 more through the campaign as the club romped to promotion as Second Division winners to reach the First Division after five seasons away.
The attacker’s impact on the First Division the following year was equally impressive. He eventually finished up as joint top scorer with 24 division goals while the Blues finished sixth in the final table.
In the same season, Kerry hit a further eight goals in the League Cup as his side reached the semi-finals. In his first two years at Chelsea, he netted a total of 70 goals in just 101 appearances.
In the 1985–86 term, the serious injury took away much of his pace and Dixon was never quite the same player again.
He hit 25 league goals as Chelsea returned to the First Division as winners at the first attempt in 1988–89. A year later he netted a further 26. Kerry spent two more campaigns with the club and continued to score regularly.
With 193 strikes in total to his name, Kerry is the London giants’ third-highest goal scorer of all time, behind only Frank Lampard and Bobby Tambling.
He is also tenth in Chelsea’s all-time appearances list. Kerry’s only honours with the Blues, however, were the two Second Division championship medals.
The striker left Chelsea in 1992 and signed for Southampton in a deal worth £575,000. During his time at the club, he only managed nine league matches and two goals.
He left Southampton in the winter of 1993 to sign for Luton Town on loan, with the move, a free transfer, being turned into a permanent one in October. He scored 20 goals in 88 outings for Luton.
In March 1995, he joined Millwall in a £5,000 transfer deal. After 31 games and nine goals, Kerry was sold to Watford for £25,000 in the winter of 1996.
The final league club Dixon played for was Doncaster Rovers during the 1996–97 term.
