Adam King (born 11 October 1995) is a Scottish 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 ...

who plays for

Alloa Athletic Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. Formed as Alloa in 1880, the football club shortly changed its name to Alloa Association, and then to Alloa Ath ...

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 ...

. King has previously played for Heart of Midlothian, Swansea City and

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...

, and represented Scotland at Under-U18, -19 and -21 levels.

Career

Heart of Midlothian

A member of the club's under-20 squad, King was predominantly a midfielder, however could also play right back and

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

. Having yet to feature for the first team in September 2013, with the

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer wi ...

coming to a close,

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

outfit Swansea City made an offer believed to be a five-figure sum of money for King. However, Hearts administrators BDO rejected the offer. Having been included in the match day squad for every game so far that season, yet not featured, he made his first team debut for Heart of Midlothian (Hearts) as a substitute in a friendly against German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

side

Wolfsburg Wolfsburg (; Eastphalian: ''Wulfsborg'') is the fifth largest city in the German state of Lower Saxony, located on the river Aller. It lies about east of Hanover and west of Berlin. Wolfsburg is famous as the location of Volkswagen AG's he ...

on 13 November 2013. He made his full professional debut in a

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Celtic on 1 December 2013, coming on as a substitute in the 79th minute replacing

Jamie Hamill Jamie Hamill (born 29 July 1986 in Irvine) is a Scottish football player and coach who is the player/manager of Stranraer. Hamill is predominantly a right-back, although he has also played as a midfielder. Hamill has previously played for Ki ...

. He went on to make his first

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

appearance on 21 December, playing from the start against Celtic at

Celtic Park Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is al ...

. In January, Swansea renewed their interest in King and a further bid was accepted by the club. In all he made three appearances for Hearts. He has featured at both under-18 and under-19 levels for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. King was nominated by STV Sport as one of 14 young players in Scottish football to watch in 2014.

Swansea City

On 28 January 2014, King joined

side Swansea City on a three-and-a-half-year contract, for an undisclosed fee. He initially joined up with the club's under-21 squad. On 3 January 2015, King made his Swansea City debut in a 6–2

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 ...

win over

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

. In May 2015, King won the 2014–15 Professional U21 Development League 2 title as part of the Swansea Under-21 team. In July 2015, King joined

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 ...

team

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

on loan until 6 January 2016. King returned to Swansea on 5 January 2016. On 5 August of the same year he signed a season-long loan deal with League One side

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

, but this was cut short in January 2017, with the player returning to Swansea City. On 29 January 2018 King signed on loan for League Two side

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and ...

for the rest of the season. On 2 July 2018, he joined

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

on another loan deal set to last until January 2019, but he returned to Swansea City the following month after his loan was terminated because of injury.

Dundee United

King left Swansea to join

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish Champio ...

club

on a three-year contract in July 2019. His brother Billy had left United the previous season. In February 2020, he joined Queen's Park of

Scottish League Two The Scottish League Two, known as cinch League Two for sponsorship reasons, is the fourth tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish League Two was e ...

on loan for the rest of the 2019–20 season. On 29 January 2021, King joined

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leagu ...

on loan until the end of the season.

Alloa Athletic

King was released by Dundee United at the end of the 2020/21 season, he went on trial at Falkirk but was offered an immediate deal by

and instead accepted the guaranteed deal and signed for The Wasps in June 2021.

Career statistics

Personal life

Born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

King grew up in the

Portobello Portobello, Porto Bello, Porto Belo, Portabello, or Portabella may refer to: Places Brazil * Porto Belo Ireland * Portobello, Dublin * Cathal Brugha Barracks, Dublin formerly ''Portobello Barracks'' New Zealand * Portobello, New Zealand, on Ot ...

area of the city a Hearts fan and attended

Portobello High School , established = , opened = , type = , district = City of Edinburgh , principal = Ruth McKay , enrolment = 1297 , colours = ...

. His older brother Billy is also a footballer, who plays for St Patrick's Athletic in the League of Ireland Premier Division. He has two other younger brothers, Ross and Robbie.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Adam Living people 1995 births Footballers from Edinburgh Scottish footballers Scotland youth international footballers Association football midfielders Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players People educated at Portobello High School Scotland under-21 international footballers Dundee United F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players English Football League players Queen's Park F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Alloa Athletic F.C. players