Reggae Boy

During his time as a footballer, King had his fair share of headlines on the pitch, but they were routinely dwarfed by legal issues that occurred off it. The former Watford and Birmingham striker has three separate jail sentences and a litany of other offenses, which include theft, criminal damage, fraudulent use of vehicle license document, driving without insurance and drink driving.  But even by those standards, the sexual and physical assault of a young woman who rejected his advances at a nightclub in the Soho area of London was a low point.

The 2009 sexual assault case saw King's playing contract cancelled by then club Wigan, after he was convicted of groping the woman in a bar and then breaking her nose. Since then, the former player has moved to Zambia with his wife and three children and admits he is genuinely remorseful about his past.

“I’m sorry for what happened, especially to the young lady and to my family members for letting them down. But I’m at a point now where I can look back and think, ‘Jesus Christ. Some of the decisions I made’,” King said in an interview with The Athletic
.“I can’t get back what I did. That’s the thing. I can’t go back,” King said.
“Everything I’ve done is public knowledge. I can’t run away from it, so I can’t sit here and say, ‘No, I did this. I did that’. It has taken me years to try and figure myself out and work on myself.

“I cannot change what comes up on Google. I cannot change my path.

King has been eager to point out that these days he is a changed man.
"There’s no justification behind any wrongdoings. But my mental mindset right now could not be further from those incidents and those things. Even up to now, I’m finding speaking about issues that I had is therapeutic for me and I think is something I encourage everyone to do in all walks of life, because it helps.

“If you keep things in emotionally, it just builds up and you explode because everybody’s got a limit that they can take. And we give it the ego, ‘I’m alright, Jack, no, we’re OK’ and I think that’s a lot of what I did. I had a lot of things going on, off the pitch. I can openly say I’m one of those people that needed to talk."
King made 24 appearances and scored 12 goals for Jamaica’s national team. 

The individual behind the offending account has been barred from attending club fixtures and events as Wednesday said they stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Moore and would offer him their full support.

The club are working with police over the message that was sent in the aftermath of their League One play-off semi-final first-leg defeat.

A statement said: “Sheffield Wednesday are appalled by a repulsive racist message directed at Darren Moore posted on a social media platform following our game against Peterborough United on Friday evening.

“We distance ourselves absolutely from this kind of abhorrent behaviour and have taken the appropriate steps by issuing an immediate ban on the individual in question from all SWFC fixtures and events.

“Sheffield Wednesday stand shoulder to shoulder with Darren, the football family and wider society in condemning all forms of discrimination.

“The club will offer our full support to Darren and we are working together with the authorities in ensuring this individual faces the full force of the law as a result of such a cowardly and despicable act.”

Moore was appointed Wednesday boss in March 2021 when they were in the Championship but could not prevent their relegation at the end of that season.

His team face Posh in the second leg at Hillsborough on Thursday looking to overturn a 4-0 deficit as they bid to end their two-year stay in the third tier.