Benjamin Keith Davies (born 11 August 1995) 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

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 s ...

left-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 s ...

for

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 Scottish ...

club Rangers. Davies spent most of his early career with

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

, and had loan spells with

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

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 adop ...

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 ...

, Newport County and

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed in ...

. He moved to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in 2021, but never played for the club and was loaned to

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

before he was sold to Scottish club Rangers in 2022.

Club career

Preston North End

Born in

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...

, Cumbria, Davies signed with the youth system at

after being spotted playing for Furness Rovers aged 11. He made his debut for the first team in a home 2–2 draw against

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

on 26 January 2013 at the age of 17 years, completing 83 minutes before being replaced by David Buchanan. During the match, he provided an

assist Assist or ASSIST may refer to: Sports Several sports have a statistic known as an "assist", generally relating to action by a player leading to a score by another player on their team: *Assist (basketball), a pass by a player that facilitates a ba ...

for

Nicky Wroe Nicholas "Nicky" Wroe (born 28 September 1985) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder, most recently for Boston United. Club career Barnsley Born in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, Wroe came through the youth system of Bar ...

's 60th-minute equaliser and picked up a yellow card for a foul on

Cyrus Christie Cyrus Sylvester Frederick Christie (born 30 September 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a defender for Championship club Hull City and the Republic of Ireland national team. Early and personal life Christie was born in Coventry, ...

. He drew praise from Preston

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

Graham Westley Graham Neil Westley (born 4 March 1968) is an English former professional footballer and manager who was most recently manager of League Two club Stevenage. Westley's playing career, spent mostly as a striker in non-League football, was curta ...

, who likened Davies' transition into the first team to that of George Boyd at

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 ...

. Davies kept his place for the next match at home against Shreswbury Town. His second match did not go as well as his debut, conceding a 90th-minute penalty (for which he picked up a booking), fouling Marvin Morgan in the penalty box. He was

substituted A substitution reaction (also known as single displacement reaction or single substitution reaction) is a chemical reaction during which one functional group in a chemical compound is replaced by another functional group. Substitution reactions ar ...

shortly after for

Paul Huntington Paul David Huntington (born 17 September 1987) is an English professional footballer with over 500 appearances who plays as a centre-back for Carlisle United. Club career Newcastle United Huntington joined Newcastle United Academy on 1 July ...

, with Preston to ultimately lose the match. He signed a one-year professional contract at Preston, with an option to extend for a second year, in May 2013, after being named the club's Scholar of the Year for the 2012–13 season. Davies 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 ...

club

on 19 July 2013 on a one-month

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

. He made his debut in a 1–0 home 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 ...

on 3 August 2013, in the first match of 2013–14. On 15 August 2013, his loan was extended until January 2014, having appeared in York's opening two matches. He played 47 times for York City as they qualified for the 2014 League Two play-offs, but lost 1–0 to

in the semi-final. He signed a two-year contract extension with Preston in May 2014. Davies joined

of League Two on 19 September 2014 on a one-month loan and made his debut a day later in a 2–1 home defeat to

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

. He played in four matches for Tranmere, returning to Preston once the loan ended on 22 October 2014. He joined

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

on 11 September 2015 on a one-month loan, and made his debut a day later in a 2–1 away defeat to

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 ...

. Davies was recalled by Preston on 20 October 2015, to provide cover for injured defensive players, having made nine appearances for Southport. On 7 January 2016, Davies joined Newport County of League Two on a one-month youth loan, subsequently extended until the end of 2015–16. He made 19 league appearances for Newport County. On 2 January 2017, Davies 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 ...

club Fleetwood Town on loan for the remainder of 2016–17. He made his debut for the club on the same day, starting a 1–0 away win over Shrewsbury Town. He made 22 league appearances for Fleetwood Town and scored once as they qualified for the

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

, though Fleetwood were knocked out by

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

in the semi-final. Davies signed a new three-year contract in July 2017. He signed a new three-and-a-half-year deal in March 2018. Davies won Preston's ''Young Player of the Year'' award for the 2017–18 season. He won Preston's ''Player of the year'' award for the 2018–19 season, as well as the ''Sir Tom Finney Player of the Year'' award.

Liverpool

Davies signed for

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 Foo ...

club

on 1 February 2021 on a long-term contract for an undisclosed fee, reported to be an initial fee of £500,000, plus £1.1 million in performance-related add-ons.

Sepp van den Berg Sepp van den Berg (born 20 December 2001) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as centre-back for Bundesliga club Schalke 04, on loan from Liverpool. Club career PEC Zwolle After successfully progressing through the PEC Zwolle youth ra ...

also moved in the opposite direction on loan for the rest of the season as part of the deal. Davies did not make an appearance for Liverpool during the remainder of the 2020–21 season. He joined newly relegated Championship club

on 16 August on loan for the 2021–22 season. He scored his first goal for Sheffield United on 23 February 2022 when he came on as a substitute and scored a late winner in a 1-0 win against

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

Rangers

Davies signed for

club Rangers on 19 July 2022 on a four-year contract for an undisclosed fee, reported to be an initial £3 million, potentially rising to £4 million in add-ons. He made his debut for the club as a substitute against

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

side

Union Saint-Gilloise Royale Union Saint-Gilloise , abbreviated to Union SG or USG, unofficially simply called Union, is a Belgian football club originally located in the municipality of Saint-Gilles, in Brussels, although since the 1920s it has been based at the Jo ...

during a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

qualifier loss on 2 August.

Style of play

Davies is a left-sided

who can also play at

Career statistics

References

External links

Profile
at the Rangers F.C. website {{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Ben 1995 births Living people Footballers from Barrow-in-Furness Footballers from Cumbria English footballers Association football defenders Preston North End F.C. players York City F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Southport F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Rangers F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Scottish Professional Football League players