Alan White (born 22 March 1976) is an English former 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 made more than 400 appearances in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

Career

Born in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

, County Durham, White began his career as a trainee at

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

in 1995, but his only first-team appearance came in the

Anglo-Italian Cup The Anglo-Italian Cup ( it, Coppa Anglo-Italiana, also known as the Anglo-Italian Inter-League Clubs Competition and from 1976 to 1986 as the Alitalia Challenge Cup, Talbot Challenge Cup or Gigi Peronace Memorial) is a defunct European football c ...

. He joined

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

in September 1997 for a fee of £40,000, and made over 80 league appearances in three seasons. He had a one-month loan spell with

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

in late 1999, and joined that club on a free transfer in July 2000. White made 166 appearances for Colchester in four seasons, scoring four goals, and was voted the club's player of the year in the 2003–04 season. He rejected their offer of a new contract and instead joined

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

in June 2004 on a two-year deal. However, he was allowed to leave nine months later and joined

Boston United Boston United Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The club participates in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. The club is known ...

in March 2005 on a one-year contract; Boston manager Steve Evans said he was "delighted to get Alan on board. He was outstanding for Colchester United last season and is a great competitor." At the end of his Boston contract in June 2006, White joined

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

on a free transfer, where he was made club captain. Nine months later, 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 loan for the remainder of the 2006–07 season, and was one of six players released by Notts County at the end of the season. White joined his hometown club

on 15 May 2007. He went on to make 85 league and cup appearances. Darlington entered

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

in February 2009, and White was told he would be free to leave at the end of the season. He subsequently rejoined Luton Town on a two-year contract on 8 June 2009. He played 24 games for the club before being placed on the transfer list on 12 January 2010. Three days later he rejoined Darlington on loan for the rest of the season. He made 24 appearances as Darlington were relegated from the

, picking up just 30 points from 46 games. On 27 August 2010, White was released by Luton. He was picked up by

Conference North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...

club

Stalybridge Celtic Stalybridge Celtic Football Club is an English football club based in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester. They are currently members of the and play at Bower Fold. The team traditionally plays in a blue and white strip. In 1921 Stalybridge Celtic ...

and made his debut against

Alfreton Town Alfreton Town Football Club is a football club based in Alfreton, Derbyshire, England. The club are currently members of and play at North Street. History The club was formed in 1959 following the merger of Alfreton Miners Welfare and Alfr ...

on 2 October 2010. White made 8 league and cup appearances for Stalybridge before signing for

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

on a monthly contract on 18 November. He made his debut on 20 November in a 1–1 draw with

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club are a professional football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team compete in , the third tier of the English football league system, and have played their home games at The New Lawn since ...

, and scored his first goal for them on 14 December against

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...

in the

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

. On 8 February 2011, Gateshead announced that they had released White. He signed for

Blyth Spartans Blyth Spartans Association Football Club is a football club based in Blyth, Northumberland. They are currently members of and play at Croft Park. They were founded in September 1899 by Fred Stoker, who was the club's first secretary before fo ...

on 11 February and made his debut four days later against

, scoring an

own goal An own goal, also called a self goal, is where a player performs actions that result in them or their team scoring a goal on themselves, often resulting in a point for the opposing team, such as when a football player kicks a ball into their own ...

in a 2–1 defeat. He made 15 appearances by the end of the season, and then rejoined Boston United, then playing in the Conference North, on a non-contract basis. In mid-December, he left the club, citing the distance he had to travel from his home in Darlington, and signed for another Conference North club,

Harrogate Town Harrogate Town A.F.C. is a professional association football club in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, which competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed the Sulphurites, due to the ...

. He helped them gain promotion to the Conference National in 2013, but left the club in October 2013 to rejoin Darlingtonby then playing in the

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

Division One North under the name of

Darlington 1883 Darlington Football Club is an association football club based in Darlington, County Durham, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League North, at the sixth tier of English football. The club was founded in 1 ...

in search of regular football. He was named in the

2013–14 Northern Premier League The 2013–14 season in English football is the 46th season of the Northern Premier League Premier Division, and the seventh season of the Northern Premier League Division One North and South. The League sponsors for 2013–14 are Evo-Sti ...

Division One North Team of the Season, and contributed to two consecutive promotions in the next two seasons, as well as taking on some coaching duties. In June 2016, White joined

Spennymoor Town Spennymoor Town Football Club is a football club based in Spennymoor, County Durham, in the North East of England. They currently compete in and currently play their home matches at The Brewery Field. The club began playing in the Northern ...

as player-coach. He remained with the club until October 2017, when he returned to Darlington as assistant to newly appointed manager Tommy Wright. When Wright left the club at the end of the 2018–19 season, White stayed on as temporary academy manager until a permanent appointment was made in mid-July.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:White, Alan 1976 births Living people Footballers from Darlington English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Middlesbrough F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Boston United F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Stalybridge Celtic F.C. players Gateshead F.C. players Blyth Spartans A.F.C. players Harrogate Town A.F.C. players Spennymoor Town F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Northern Premier League players