Ex-Fulham striker John hoping to resurrect career with Chicago Fire

Former Fulham striker Collins John is hoping he can resurrect his career with the Chicago Fire.

The 24-year old Dutchman has had a troubled career since his brilliant season in the English Premier League where he scored 11 times for Fulham and is now looking to put those tough seasons behind him by finding a new home in Chicago after being cut by Belgian club KSV Roeselare.

"I just needed a new spot," John told Chicago Fire Confidential. "I have played in the big competition that is the Premiership. I've played in Holland, I've played in Belgium... but after this fall I just wanted to get far away from European football and I guess that's what brought me to MLS.

"Hopefully I can do well here and play well in my auditions to the team and maybe I can play and maybe in a couple of years I can go back to Europe, but you never know. I may love it here and stay for the rest of my life. It's still early days. So far I'm enjoying my time here, I'm having a good training camp and hopefully I can score a lot of goals for Chicago this season.

"I'm still a young player; I'm just 24 years old. I just want to play football and put everything behind me," John added.

"I've had a great career already. I've played for a lot of big clubs, I've got three caps and last year and a half hasn't worked out for me but I guess that's football. It's ups and downs. I've been down but I want to go up this year with Chicago.

“Hopefully I'm going to score a lot of goals this year and forget about everything that happened in '08 and '09. That's one of the key things in sports, if things don't go well for you then you have to try and forget things and work hard and get back to the level you want to be and that's what I'm doing right now."