Ben Coker (born 17 June 1989) 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 defender or 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

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

club

Solihull Moors Solihull Moors Football Club is a professional football club based in Solihull, England. The club currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, after achieving promotion from the National Leag ...

Career

In 2007, Coker spent time with sixth-tier Swedish club

Ånge IF Ånge IF is a Swedish football club located in Ånge. Background Ånge IF currently plays in Division 5 which is the seventh tier of Swedish football. They play their home matches at the Ånge Idrottsplats in Ånge. The club is affiliated to ...

, scoring two goals. Coker joined

Bury Town Bury Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club, based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England. The club are currently members of the and play at Ram Meadow. History Early history The club was established by William Lake at a meetin ...

in October 2008 from fellow Southern League side Barton Rovers. He was previously with

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

side

Histon Histon is a village and civil parish in the South Cambridgeshire district, in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is immediately north of Cambridge – and is separated from the city – by the A14 road (England), A14 road which r ...

. He impressed on his debut for Bury, earning the sponsors man of the match award. Coker helped the

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

club win promotion to the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

Colchester United

In summer 2010, Coker joined

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 ...

after he impressed in a trial period at the end of 2009–10 season, having done well for non-league Bury Town during the 2009–10 campaign. On 30 September 2010, Coker joined

Chelmsford City Chelmsford City Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Chelmsford, Essex, England. Currently members of they play at the Melbourne Stadium. History Chelmsford Chelmsford Football Club was established in 1878 by members o ...

on loan for a month. The loan was extended by a further month and was given permission to play in an

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 against

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

. On 14 January 2011, Coker made his debut for Colchester against

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

in a 2–1 victory, providing assists for both goals. He was awarded the Colchester United Young Player of the Year award at the end of the 2010–11 season, his first with the club. On 15 May 2012, Coker signed a 12-month contract extension to see him through to summer 2013 with Colchester. On 12 October 2012, Coker was loaned to former club Histon on a month-long deal. On 4 February 2013, Coker had his contract with Colchester cancelled by mutual consent having made only two first-team appearances in the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season. He returned to

permanently on 8 February 2013 following a loan spell earlier in the same season.

Southend United

Prior to the 2013–14 season, he played in three friendlies for

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 ...

, impressing sufficiently in the games he played to be offered a contract by manager Phil Brown. On 16 April 2014, Coker signed a new two-year deal at

, keeping him contracted until June 2016, and on 7 August 2015 this was extended for another 3 years with an option for a further year. On 27 October 2018 he suffered a serious knee injury whilst playing for Southend against Sunderland, and did not play any more games that season. His struggle to recover from the injury was the subject of a BBC documentary series entitled 'Coming Back',. He never played any more games for Southend, and was released by them at the end of the 2018–19 season.

Lincoln City

On 23 August 2019 it was announced that he had signed for Lincoln City. He only played one cup game before being loaned to Cambridge United in January 2020. Coker signed a season-long loan at League Two club

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

on 7 August 2020.

Stevenage

On 16 October 2020, he made his season-long loan permanent at

. Coker was released at the endd of the 2021–22 season.

Solihull Moors

On 4 August 2022, Coker signed for

club

on a one-year deal.

Personal life

Coker developed

type 1 diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that originates when cells that make insulin (beta cells) are destroyed by the immune system. Insulin is a hormone required for the cells to use blood sugar for ...

at the age of 15.

Career statistics

Honours

Southend United *

Football League Two play-offs The EFL League Two play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from fourth to seventh in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are part of the annual Engli ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 2014–15 League Two

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coker, Ben 1989 births Living people English footballers Association football midfielders Bury Town F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Barton Rovers F.C. players Chelmsford City F.C. players Histon F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Stevenage F.C. players Solihull Moors F.C. players Southern Football League players English Football League players People with type 1 diabetes English expatriate footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Sweden