Benjamin David Sheaf (born 5 February 1998) is an English footballer 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
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 ...
. He has represented England at youth level.
Club career
Arsenal
Sheaf started his youth career with the reserves of
West Ham United at the age of 13,
before joining the
Arsenal youth setup on 2 July 2014. He earned the praise of senior team manager
Arsène Wenger
Arsène Charles Ernest Wenger (; born 22 October 1949) is a French former association football, football Manager (association football), manager and football player, player who is currently serving as FIFA's Chief of Global Football Developme ...
who said that Sheaf was "always ahead of the game". He scored his first goal for the Arsenal U19 in a 3–2 victory over Greek club
Olympiacos
Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...
on 29 September 2015, where he found the net in the 41st minute from the penalty spot.
In October 2015, Sheaf was invited to train with the first team, and days later he was an unused substitute in the club's 3–0 defeat against
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...
. He stated that, although the result was not satisfactory, the experience of being involved in the first-team was good for him as he got to "see how things are done".
He made his first-team debut for
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
on 19 October 2017, coming on as an 89th-minute substitute for
Francis Coquelin
Francis Joseph Coquelin (; born 13 May 1991) is a French professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Spanish club Villarreal. He has also featured for Valencia, Arsenal, Lorient, SC Freiburg and Charlton Athletic in his care ...
in a 1–0 victory over
Red Star Belgrade
Fudbalski klub Crvena zvezda ( sr-Cyrl, Фудбалски клуб Црвена звезда, lit=Red Star Football Club, ), commonly known as Red Star Belgrade in English-language media, is a Serbian professional football club based in Bel ...
in the
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...
.
Loan to Stevenage
Sheaf 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
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 loan on 26 January 2018, joining the
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...
club on a deal until the end of the
2017–18 season. He made his debut in a 2–0 loss against
Notts County in League Two on 24 February. He made 10 appearances for the side by the end of the loan spell.
Loan to Doncaster Rovers
Sheaf joined
League One side
Doncaster Rovers on loan on 12 July 2019, joining the League One side for six months. He made his debut and was named in the starting line-up in a 1–1 draw against
Gillingham on 3 August. His loan deal was extended until the end of the 2019–20 season on 7 January 2020. On 15 February 2020, he scored his first goal for the club in a 2–1 defeat against
Gillingham in the reverse fixture. At the end, Sheaf played 38 games in all competitions for the side.
Coventry City
On 4 September 2020, Sheaf joined newly-promoted
Championship side
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 a season-long loan deal with the option to make the deal permanent after. He made his first appearance for the club in a 2–1 defeat against
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 ...
on 12 September.
Sheaf signed for Coventry City on a 3 year deal in July 2021.
International career
Sheaf debuted for
England under-16 team in the
Victory Shield. As of July 2014, he has played twice for the under-16 national team.
He was part of the England U18's which played a couple of friendlies against the Netherlands in September 2015. They won 2–0 in the first game which Sheaf scored a penalty
and drew the second game 0–0.
Personal life
Sheaf comes from a sporting family. His mother was a top-level
volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
and
beach volleyball
Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...
player, and his older brother Jake is also a professional beach volleyball player. Sheaf's father was a footballer at county level, whilst his younger brother
Max
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
is a former Arsenal player and current player for
Ross County.
Career statistics
References
External links
*
Arsenal F.C. profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheaf, Ben
1998 births
Living people
Footballers from Dartford
English men's footballers
England men's youth international footballers
Men's association football midfielders
Arsenal F.C. players
Stevenage F.C. players
Doncaster Rovers F.C. players
Coventry City F.C. players
English Football League players