From Benni McCarthy to Roque Santa Cruz: Did you know where these 10 ex-Blackburn Rovers players are now? | OneFootball

Once again, it looks as though Blackburn Rovers are facing the prospect of a rather busy transfer window this summer.

The Ewood Park club fell some way short of their target of a Championship play-off place last season, ultimately finishing a somewhat disappointing 15th place in the second-tier standings.

Now, the club will also be facing something of a squad across the course of the market, with 11 senior players having already left the club this summer, following the expiry of either their contract or loan at Ewood Park.

Some of those players will be leaving the club after making more of an impression than others during their time at the club, and will therefore see the rest of their careers followed with a great deal of interest.

So in keeping with that theme, we’ve taken a look at ten former players – who enjoyed varying degrees of success while at Ewood Park – and what they have done since their departures from Blackburn Rovers.

We start this list with an undoubted Blackburn legend in the form of Morten Gamst Pedersen, who left Ewood Park in 2013 after nine years, 47 goals, and 349 appearances in all competitions for the club.

Since then, Pedersen spent a brief time in Turkey with Karabukspor, before returning to his native Norway, where he has featured for Rosenborg and then Tromso, the club he had left to join to Rovers in 2004.

Pedersen now plays in the Norwegian third-tier with Alta, and after netting seven goals in 13 league games last season, the 39-year-old recently marked the start of the new campaign with a goal direct from a corner earlier this month.

Joining from Portuguese giants Porto in 2006, McCarthy enjoyed an impressive three-and-a-half years with Rovers, scoring 52 goals in 140 appearances for the club.

The striker’s move to West Ham failed to bring about any similar success, and after just 14 games and no goals in a year-and-a-half for the Hammers, McCarthy saw out his playing career back in his native South Africe with Orlando Pirates.

Since hanging up his playing boots, McCarthy has gone into coaching, and after time in Scotland and Belgium with Hibernian and Sint-Truiden respectively, the striker has taken up management roles in South Africa with Cape Town City and AmaZulu FC, his efforts with the latter seeing him linked with the national team managerial role in his home country earlier this year.

After coming through the academy at Blackburn, Olsson made almost 150 senior appearances for the club, before leaving for Norwich in the summer 2013.

The left-back then spent the next three-and-a-half years at Carrow Road before a move to Swansea, with his time in Wales ending after an injury hit 2018/19 campaign, at which point he returned to his native Sweden.

That move saw Olsson join Helsingborgs for the 2020 season, but after being unable to prevent them from suffering relegation from the Swedish top-flight last year, the 33-year-old has remained in his country’s top division with a move to BK Hacken for the current campaign.

Having come through the academy ranks at Blackburn, Jason Lowe went on to make just short of 200 appearances in all competitions for Rovers, becoming club captain later in his spell at Ewood Park.

The versatile midfielder then joined Birmingham after his release from Rovers following the club’s relegation in 2017, but after just a year at St Andrew’s where he struggled for game time, Lowe has spent the last three years in the North West.

That initially saw Lowe spent a two-year spell with Bolton, before moving to Salford on a three-year deal last summer, with the 29-year-old scoring the winning penalty in the Ammies’ EFL Trophy final win over Portsmouth earlier this year.

There is an argument that Ben Marshall was one of Blackburn’s more impressive players in the years shortly after their relegation from the Premier League to the Championship.

During a three-and-a-half-year spell at Ewood Park in which he made 140 appearances, the winger was a reliable source of attacking threat for Rovers. That saw him move to Wolves in January 2017, with spells with Norwich and Millwall in the Championship followed.

Things have gone rather differently for Marshall in the last couple of years however, when in October 2019, the winger raised a fair few eyebrows by signing for 12th-tier side Stoneclough FC, later extending his contract with the Lancashire club through to the 2020/21 campaign.

Having come through Blackburn’s academy, big things were expected of Adam Henley, who was even capped by Wales at senior international level as he rose through the ranks at Ewood to become a regular first-team feature.

However, the right back then endured an injury-hit 2016/17 campaign as Rovers suffered relegation from the Championship, and after being released at the end of that season, things have taken a rather different turn for Henley.

A spell in the MLS saw him struggle for game time with Real Salt Lake, and he returned to England with Bradford in 2019, but was released after just a single season with the Bantams. Henley then returned to Lancashire later last year, linking up with National League North side Chorley, who he recently signed a contract extension with for next season.

Roque Santa Cruz’ prolific debut campaign at Blackburn during the 2007/08 season is unlikely to be forgotten by supporters of the club any time soon.

That was enough to earn him a move to Manchester City midway through the 2008/09 campaign, although the Paraguayan was unable to replicate that early Rovers form, and along with a less prolific loan return to Ewood Park, the striker has also spent time in Spain and Mexico with Malaga and Cruz Azul respectively.

Since 2016, Santa Cruz has been back in his home country with his first professional club Olimpia, where the 39-year-old now wears the captain’s armband, and has scored 71 goals in 174 appearances since his return, winning five domestic titles in that time.

Having been plucked from non-league obscurity to join Blackburn in the Premier League in 2003, Matt Derbyshire’s story was something of a fairytale one.

The striker scored 20 goals in 86 games for Rovers before a brief move to Greece in 2009 with Olympiacos, returning to England the following year for spells with the likes of Birmingham, Rotherham and Nottingham Forest.

After a prolific four years with Omonia Nicosia in Cyprus between 2016 and 2020, Derbyshire joined newly formed Australian A-League team MacArthur Bulls for this season, and scored 14 goals in 27 games to help the club to end of season play-offs, where they were beaten at the semi final stage by eventual champions Melbourne City.

Another former Blackburn Rovers striker who now finds himself playing in the Australian top-flight, is Rudy Gestede.

As with several other attackers, Gestede was unable to maintain the impressive form he had shown for Rovers (35 goals in 73 games) after a big money move away from Ewood Park – in this case to Aston Villa in 2016 – while a move to Middlesbrough after just six months at Villa failed to bring about a turn in form either.

Having left the Riverside following the expiry of his contract last summer, Gestede joined Melbourne Victory late last year, and scored five goals in 18 games for the club as they finished bottom of the A-League table, having ended the season under the management of a far less popular figure from recent Rovers history, in the form of Steve Kean.

Bothroyd joined Rovers 0n loan from Italian side Perugia back in the summer of 2004, but struggled to make much of an impact at Ewood Park, scoring just once in 11 league games.

The striker never the less returned to England permanently in 2005, and spent the next nine years in the English league system, even earning a senior international cap for the Three Lions in 2010 while enjoying a prolific spell with Cardiff.

In 2014 though, Bothroyd moved to Thailand to spend a year with Maungthong United, and since 2015, has been plying his trade in Japan, first with Jubilo Iwata, before moving to Hokkaido Consodale Sapporo in 2017, where he has scored 37 goals in 104 appearances in total.