1. Football is in the family
Born in the cathedral city of Winchester in Hampshire, north of Southampton, in July 1992, Danny Ings was raised in the seaside village of Netley, a few miles to the south-east of Southampton. There, his father Shayne played on the wing for local junior club Netley Central Sports, where Danny started his own career. The village is still home to his parents. Danny has a tattoo of a father and son holding hands on his chest.
2. He started out with Southampton
Danny Ings attended secondary school in nearby Hamble, while training with Southampton FC’s Academy. However, he was released by the Saints as a schoolboy and joined AFC Bournemouth, signing his two-year apprenticeship at the age of 15 in May 2008, just after the Cherries had been relegated to EFL League Two.
3. Eddie Howe gave him a senior debut
Danny Ings made his senior debut for AFC Bournemouth aged 17 years and three months in a 2-1 Football League Trophy defeat at Northampton Town in October 2009. His manager at the time was current Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe, and the player he replaced as a second-half substitute was Howe’s assistant Jason Tindall, son of long-serving former West Ham scout Jimmy!
4. He was a teenage scoring star
After scoring his first senior goal in a loan spell with Dorset-based Conference South club Dorchester Town against Ebbsfleet United in September 2010, aged 18 years and two months, he returned to AFC Bournemouth and scored his first professional goal in a 3-2 home League One win over Swindon Town in February 2011.
5. He led Burnley to the Premier League
Celtic, Liverpool, Newcastle United and Fulham were all linked with a move for Danny Ings before he rejoined Eddie Howe at Burnley for a reported £1million fee in August 2011, a month past his 19th birthday. Ings spent four seasons at Turf Moor, scoring 43 goals in 130 appearances in all competitions. The striker’s 21 goals led Sean Dyche’s Clarets to second place in the EFL Championship and promotion to the Premier League in 2013/14.
6. He was once a Red
After scoring eleven goals in his debut Premier League season in 2014/15, Danny Ings transferred to Liverpool and made his Reds debut in West Ham United’s 3-0 Premier League win at Anfield in August 2015. He spent three seasons with Liverpool before joining Southampton, initially on a season-long loan, in summer 2018.
7. Second-time lucky at Southampton
Danny Ings spent three seasons with Southampton, scoring 46 goals in a round 100 appearances in all competitions, including 41 in 91 in the Premier League. His best individual season to date was in 2019/20, when he scored 22 of the Saints’ 51 Premier League goals to lead the club to an eleventh-place finish. He made it double-figures in a single top-flight campaign for a third time in 2020/21, netting 12 times.
8. He's a prolific marksman
Danny Ings ranks joint-67th on the Premier League’s all-time individual goalscorers’ list with 68 goals – level with Duncan Ferguson and one behind Pierre-Emerick Aubabeyang, Luis Suárez and former West Ham United midfielder and current assistant coach Kevin Nolan. Of Englishmen, he ranks 37th, one goal ahead of Marcus Rashford and Callum Wilson. Three more goals would take him to 71 and level with Chris Armstrong and former Hammer Brian Deane in joint-30th.
9. He likes facing Everton (among others!)
Six of those 68 Premier League goals have come against Everton – his highest tally against any single opponent – and he could make his West Ham debut against the Toffees at a sold-out London Stadium on Saturday. He has also scored five Premier League goals against Aston Villa, Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Tottenham Hotspur.
10. He's scored for England
Gareth Southgate gave Danny Ings his England U21 international debut in a UEFA European U21 Championship win in San Marino in October 2013 – a tie in which Harry Kane scored a hat-trick and West Ham United’s Ravel Morrison also starred. Two years later, in October 2015, Ings replaced Kane as a second-half substitute for his senior England debut in a UEFA European Championship qualifying win in Lithuania. He scored his first England goal playing alongside Declan Rice in October 2020, with an overhead kick in a 3-0 friendly win against Wales at Wembley.
