Striker Andy Hunt joined Charlton on a free transfer in the summer
of 1998 although he was valued at almost 1 million pounds by his
former club West Bromwich Albion. Whilst in the West Midlands,
Andy had scored 76 goals in 212 appearances for Albion and was
highly sought after by a number of clubs including QPR. Before
joining West Brom, Andy was with Newcastle for whom he played
43 games scoring 11 goals. He joined the Tynesiders from non-league
Kettering. Before Kettering, Andy played for King's Lynn and Ashlea
as he had been brought up in Norfolk, although he was actually
born in Thurrock. Whilst with Ashlea, Andy made three appearances
for the Norwich City reserves (all as substitute) during the 1989/90
season.
Much media attention was paid to the hat-trick that Andy scored
for Division One leaders in their 3-0 victory over Norwich on
22nd January 2000. The fact that he had an unsuccessful trial
with Norwich and then returned to rub salt in the wounds was much
appreciated by the press but not by the Norwich faithful.
In September 2000, Andy was linked with a £3million move to Leicester
City. He was also lined up for a shock call-up to the Austrian
national side with their national coach Otto Baric having sent
scouts to watch Andy. Andy is eligible for the Austrian side via
one of his grandparents. However Andy never got his chance to
perform on the international stage as he was struck down with
post viral fatigue syndrome during the autumn of 2000. Four attempts
to return to match fitness failed and Andy was forced to announce
his retirement on 15th May 2001.
After moving to Belize, Andy began to recover and found that
he no longer endured pain whilst working out. After fitness tests,
he returned to Charlton at the end of October 2003 to see if he
could recover his playing career. He had a good game in his comeback
on 27th October for Charlton's reserves against Southampton and
was unlucky not to score. Charlton eventually opted not to gamble
on Andy's recovery but another former club, Kettering, were said
to be interested with Andy and Mark Stein on caretaker manager
Nicky Platnauer's shopping list.
Hunt now runs the Belize Jungle Dome and Green Dragon Adventure
Travel, a pair of adventure travel companies in Belize, with his
wife, former MTV presenter Simone Angel. Hunt also maintains a
blog
which details how he became a professional footballer, and his
thoughts on different football issues.