Darren Ashley Bent (born 6 February 1984) is an English footballer (association football) who plays for Sunderland (Sunderland A.F.C.) as a striker (forward (association football)).

Bent started his career with Ipswich Town (Ipswich Town F.C.) in 2001. He made 122 appearances and scored 47 goals in the league for Ipswich, before joining Charlton Athletic (Charlton Athletic F.C.) for a fee of �2.5 million in 2005. He was their top goalscorer for two consecutive seasons and joined Tottenham Hotspur (Tottenham Hotspur F.C.) for a club record fee of �16.5 million in 2007. After two seasons at Tottenham he joined current club Sunderland.

He has represented England at under-15, under-16 (England national under-16 football team), under-17 (England national under-17 football team), under-19 (England national under-19 football team), under-21 (England national under-21 football team) and senior (England national football team) levels. He made 14 appearances and scored nine goals for the under-21 side, after making his debut against Italy (Italy national under-21 football team) in 2003 and has made six appearances for the senior England side, after making his debut against Uruguay (Uruguay national football team) in 2006.