A one-club man, he spent his entire career with Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and played 323 competitive matches for them from 1999 to 2012.

[4] From 2002 to 2010, King made 21 international appearances for England, scoring twice and representing the nation at UEFA Euro 2004 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

In the latter part of his career, King was plagued by chronic knee problems, for which no effective treatment or remedy was found.

[5] Instead of training with the rest of the squad King undertook fitness exercises on his own, allowing him to play one first team game per week.

[6] His former manager Harry Redknapp called King "an absolute freak" for being able to perform at a Premier League level despite not training.

[8][9] King announced his retirement from all forms of football on 19 July 2012 as a result of the chronic knee injuries that plagued much of his career.

Then after breaking his metatarsal again, he did not feature for Spurs from Boxing Day until the UEFA Cup quarter-final clash with Sevilla in mid-April.

But on Boxing Day 2007, King made a surprise return to the starting line-up against Fulham, playing 73 minutes before being replaced by Adel Taarabt.

He appeared sporadically for the rest of the season, but captained Tottenham to a 2–1 victory over Chelsea in the 2008 League Cup final, the first major honour of his career.

[citation needed] It became clear at the start of the 2008–09 season that King's injury problems meant that he could not play in every game.

He captained the club in the League Cup final yet again, this time against Manchester United, keeping a clean sheet after 120 minutes of play, but Tottenham lost on penalties.

King received his England call-up for Euro 2004 deputising for the injured John Terry in the opener against France in Portugal.

After featuring regularly in the qualifiers, King looked a likely participant in the England 2006 World Cup squad before fracturing a bone in his foot on 15 April 2006.

Due to the chronic knee condition which preventing him holding down a regular place in the club side he was also not selected for England games for the rest of 2007 and during the whole of 2008.

On 22 March 2009, King was given a recall by head coach Fabio Capello to the team to play Slovakia and Ukraine.

[5] However, two days later he was removed from the squad after being assessed by England's medical staff, who thought it was in his best interests to continue his personal training regimen at his club, due to the chronic knee condition that he has.

On 11 May 2010, King was named in the 30-man provisional squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup alongside fellow Spurs central defender Michael Dawson.

On 12 June 2010, King played 45 minutes for England in their opening match against the US, before picking up a groin injury which kept him out of the rest of the tournament.

[26] On 26 July 2020, Tottenham Hotspur manager José Mourinho confirmed King's appointment as an assistant coach for the club.

[31] On 10 May 2009 at 2:30 am, King was arrested on Soho Street on suspicion of a racially aggravated common assault outside a London nightclub.

I have apologised to Harry and I fully appreciate that, as a professional footballer, I have a duty to behave in a responsible manner", King said in a statement on the club's website.