Ben Wilson (born 9 August 1992) is an English

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 goalkeeper for

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

club

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 ...

Career

Early career

Wilson began his career with

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

in 2006, earning a professional contract in 2010. He was sent on loan to

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 ...

in 2013, playing three times. Wilson was sent out on loan to

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 ...

and

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

, failing to make an appearance for either and was released by Sunderland in the summer of 2013. After leaving Sunderland, Wilson joined

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

on a non-contract basis on 9 August 2013. He joined

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete history ...

on 27 August 2013, and made his professional debut on 3 September 2013 in a 1–0 defeat against

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 ...

in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

. Wilson left Stanley after a single

appearance for the side in November 2013; his contract was terminated by mutual consent.

Cardiff City

He joined

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

in the same month. On 7 July 2014, Wilson played 10 minutes as a midfielder, against

Carmarthen Town Carmarthen Town Association Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Tref Caerfyrddin) is a Welsh semi-professional football club based in Carmarthen. The team play their home games at Richmond Park. The club colours, reflected in their crest and kit ...

in a friendly. Wilson has featured on the bench several times during the 2014–2015 season as well as making a number of under-21 appearances. The following season, Wilson signed a new contract, keeping him in South Wales until 2017. He made his Cardiff debut against

AFC Wimbledon AFC Wimbledon is an English professional Association football, football club, based in London Borough of Merton, Merton, London, that plays in the EFL League Two, after being relegated from the EFL League One following the 2021–22 EFL Leagu ...

on 11 August 2015, in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. Two months later, Wilson joined AFC Wimbledon on an emergency one-month loan deal. Wilson was signed as a short-term replacement for the injured first choice keeper

James Shea James William Shea (born 16 June 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Luton Town. Career Arsenal Born in Islington, Greater London, Shea joined Arsenal's youth team in August 2007. In 2009, he won b ...

. He made his Wimbledon debut on the same day he was signed in a 3–4

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 ...

away win against

. However, having let in a goal from a speculative long free-kick taken by

Jerome Okimo Jerome Okide O. N. Okimo (born 8 June 1988) is a semi-professional footballer who is currently a player/coach for Barnet. Club career Non-league football Okimo began his career at Chalfont St. Peter where he made 308 appearances. During his ...

from inside his own half during a 2–1 defeat to

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 ...

, Wilson became embroiled in a

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

row with Wimbledon supporters after they criticised his performance on the website

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. Wilson responded to some messages of criticism by posting "you're still paying to watch me every week and helping towards my wage, I'm laughing and you're losing out". As a result, his loan spell was terminated early by Wimbledon on 14 December 2015. His league debut for Cardiff City came on 27 August 2016, where he played in a 1–0 loss to

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

, after signing a two-year contract extension. Having not made an appearance for Cardiff since September 2016, Wilson then 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 ...

side

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

on loan for the remainder of the 2016–17 season. At the start of the following season, Wilson joined

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic ...

on loan until 1 January 2018. On 31 January 2018, he was then loaned to non-league Telford United, making 17 league appearances.

Bradford City

Wilson signed for

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 July 2018. In May 2019, following Bradford City's relegation to League Two, it was announced that he would leave the club upon the expiry of his contract on 30 June 2019. He was one of eleven players to be released.

Coventry City

In May 2019, he agreed a three-year deal with Coventry City, which began in July 2019. He spent the 2019–20 season acting as back-up to first-choice goalkeeper Marko Marosi, and was limited to playing in cup competitions. He began the 2020–21 season in the same role, but made his league debut for the club as a late substitute in a 1-0 win at Cardiff, due to an injury to Marosi. Subsequently, in Marosi's absence, he went on to start Coventry's next five matches. Wilson ended the 2020-21 season as The Sky Blues’ first choice keeper. However following the arrival of Simon Moore ahead of the 2021-22 season, Wilson reverted to the role of substitute keeper as the club mounted a play-off push over the course of the campaign. Wilson did however play the final three matches of the season and in the first of which he saved a last minute penalty to ensure a point and a 0-0 draw in an away match with

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

After the first three matches of the 2022-23 season, Wilson regained his starting berth and has played in every league match since. On 20 January 2023, Wilson signed a new two and a half year contract keeping him at the club until 2025. On 19 April 2023, he scored a 95th minute equaliser from a corner to secure a 1-1 away draw against fellow play-off rivals

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 ...

Career statistics

Honours

Individual * EFL Championship Team of the Season:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Ben 1992 births Living people English footballers Men's association football goalkeepers English Football League players National League (English football) players Sunderland A.F.C. players Harrogate Town A.F.C. players Gateshead F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Accrington Stanley F.C. players Cardiff City F.C. players AFC Wimbledon players Rochdale A.F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players AFC Telford United players Bradford City A.F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players People from Stanley, County Durham