Shoot! would like to wish former England striker Darren Bent many happy returns as the forward celebrates his 33rd birthday today!

The Derby County star, who has scored eight goals in 30 appearances in all competitions for The Rams so far this season, is set to start for Steve McClaren’s side when they visit defending Premier League champions Leicester City in their FA Cup fourth round replay (19:45) at the King Power Stadium on Wednesday.

Bent; who earned 13 international caps for the Three Lions between 2006 and 2011, despite not being selected in England’s squads for the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups respectively, has gone onto enjoy goalscoring glory in the top-flight of English football, and we will determined to achieve promotion back to the Premier League with Derby this term.

Having started his senior career at Ipswich Town; the striker went onto also feature for Charlton Athletic, Tottenham Hotspur, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Fulham, Brighton and Hove Albion, before joining The Rams in 2015.

So, to celebrate Bent’s latest milestone, Shoot! have dug up five facts you may not know about Derby’s striker…

Grew up as a Gunner

When growing up, Bent was an Arsenal fan and used to have a season ticket at Highbury.

In June 2007, the forward signed for fierce North London rivals Tottenham, for who he scored 25 goals in 79 games for Spurs.

That tally included Bent scoring Tottenham’s second strike at the Emirates Stadium back in October 2008 during the enthralling 4-4 draw.

Athletics ace

As well as supporting Arsenal during his childhood, Bent was a junior athlete.

He impressively recorded a blistering time of 10.5 seconds over 100 metres, and was also a talented long jumper.

Thousands of trainers

In a recent interview with BBC Sport, Bent revealed he owns thousands of pair of trainers!

The 33-year-old admitted he could easily buy between 50-60 pairs a month, labelling his craze for trainers as his hobby outside of football.

Basketball boy

Besides his adoration for football, Bent’s second favourite sport is basketball.

His favourite team is the Cleveland Cavaliers, who James LeBron stars for.

Premier League predator

With 277 English top-flight appearances under his belt, it should come as no surprise to see Bent hold 23rd place in the Premier League’s all-time leading goalscorers.

The birthday boy has scored 106 goals in the ‘Promised Land’, netting for Ipswich Town, Charlton Athletic, Tottenham, Sunderland, Aston Villa and Fulham in the Premier League.

Bent is ahead of the likes of Didier Drogba (104), Ruud van Nistelrooy (95), Dimitar Berbatov (94) and Dennis Bergkamp (87). Not bad company!