Aaron Keith Wildig (born 15 April 1992) is an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Newport County.

Club career

Cardiff City

Wildig was born in

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

, and began his career at

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

, making his way through the club's youth system, including captaining the under-18 side. In April 2009, Wildig signed a professional contract at the club, before going on to make his professional debut at the start of the 2009–10 season, replacing

Miguel Comminges Miguel Gregory Comminges (born 16 March 1982) is a Guadeloupean former professional Association football, footballer. He also represented the Guadeloupe national football team. A versatile player, Comminges played on either side of defence, as ...

during a 3–1 win over

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as Dag ...

in the first round of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

on 11 August. He made two more appearances in the competition for Cardiff, in the second round win over

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

and the third round defeat to

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

. His league debut came nearly three months later when he replaced

Riccardo Scimeca Riccardo Scimeca (born 13 June 1975) is an English football coach and professional footballer. He who played as a defender notably in the Premier League for Aston Villa, Leicester City and West Bromwich Albion. He also played in the Football ...

at half time during a 2–0 win over

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

on 8 December. He made his first start on 12 January 2010 in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

tie with rivals

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

, and then made his first league start on 16 January against

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

. During his next league appearance, Wildig scored the first professional goal of his career during a 5–1 defeat to

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

. He moved on loan to

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

club

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish association football, football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championshi ...

on 25 January 2011 until the end of the season. He made his debut 4 days later in a 1–1 draw with Kilmarock and made 3 more appearances before returning at the end of the season. On 8 November 2011, he joined

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

side

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

on a loan. He made his debut for the club on 12 November, in a

match against Newport County. He scored his first goal on 19 November, in a 7–2 win over

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

, however he suffered an ankle injury in the following game, which kept him out for the rest of the month. He extended his loan by an extra month on 8 December. On 17 January 2012, Wildig extended the loan again till the end of the season. Following a late season surge in form, he impressed Shrewsbury boss

Graham Turner Graham John Turner (born 5 October 1947) is an English former footballer who became a manager. His son Mark was also a professional footballer. He is third behind only Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger in terms of most games managed. After a ...

and following the club's promotion to

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

, Turner offered Wildig a contract at Shrewsbury. On 21 May 2012, Wildig was released by Cardiff along with six of his fellow players. He had spent a total of four years at the club, but he was not part of the future plans of new manager

Malky Mackay Malcolm George Mackay (born 19 February 1972) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player, who is currently the manager of Ross County. Mackay, who played as a defender, began his playing career in Scottish football with Quee ...

Shrewsbury Town

On 29 May 2012, Wildig agreed a deal to join

on a free transfer. He made his debut as a contracted Shrewsbury player on 11 August 2012, in a

match against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

, where he was a substitute for fellow former

player

Joe Jacobson Joseph Mark Jacobson (born 17 November 1986) is a Welsh professional footballer who plays as a left back for Wycombe Wanderers.

. He went on to make 21 league appearances that season, scoring once against

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

. Wildig signed a one-year contract extension on 21 May 2013, and by playing an unspecified number of matches the following season triggered a clause to extend his contract for a further year. However, he went on loan to

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed in ...

in January 2015 having not featured for Shrewsbury that season so far under new manager

Micky Mellon Michael Joseph Mellon (born 18 March 1972) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who is the manager of Tranmere Rovers. As a player, he was a midfielder for clubs including Bristol City, West Bromwich Albion, Blackpool, Tr ...

. Following the expiry of his loan, he returned to Shrewsbury Town, finally making his first appearance of the season, coming on as a substitute for

Keith Southern Keith William Southern (born 24 April 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a central midfielder. He made 376 appearances in the Premier League and the Football League, most notably representing Blackpool between 2002 a ...

in the 2–1 home defeat against Northampton Town. He then joined

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

on loan in March 2015. It was announced on 8 May 2015 that Wildig would be released at the end of the season when his Shrewsbury contract expired.

Morecambe

Wildig joined former loan club Morecambe on a two-year contract on 6 June 2015. He signed a new one-year contract in June 2019.

Newport County

After turning down a new contract with Morecambe, Newport County announced the signing of Wildig on 6 June 2022. He made his debut for Newport on 30 July 2022 in the starting line up for the 1-1 League Two draw against Sutton United. Wildig scored his first goal for Newport on 24 August 2022 in the 3-2

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

second round win against Portsmouth.

International career

Despite being born in England, Wildig instead chose to play for Wales and represented the Under-16 side. It was later discovered, however, that Wildig did not qualify for Wales as his only Welsh relative is a great-great-great grandfather and the international ruling on familial linkage only allows qualification through a parent or grandparent.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Shrewsbury Town *

EFL League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

runner-up: 2011–12 Morecambe *EFL League Two play-off winner:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wildig, Aaron 1992 births Living people Sportspeople from Hereford English footballers Welsh footballers Wales youth international footballers Association football midfielders Cardiff City F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Kidderminster Harriers F.C. players Morecambe F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players