Callum Joseph Lang (born 8 September 1998) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

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 ...

side

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

Club career

Wigan Athletic

Lang joined

in 2013, after progressing through the

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 ...

youth ranks. After four years in the Wigan youth set-up, Lang was involved in a senior matchday squad for the first time on 7 May 2017, when he was an unused substitute in a 1–1 home draw with

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

in Wigan's final game of the

2016–17 EFL Championship The 2016–17 EFL Championship (referred to as the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship reasons) was the first season of the EFL Championship under its current name, and the twenty-fifth season under its current league structure. Newcastle United w ...

season, with Latics already relegated. He made his professional debut and played his first game for Wigan Athletic on 8 August 2017 in an

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

first round tie against

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

, which ended as a 2–1 home victory for Latics. Lang came on in the 65th minute for Chris Merrie.

2017/18 season: Morecambe (loan)

After playing three times for Wigan that month, including making his first Wigan start in a 1-1 draw away to Blackpool in the Football League Trophy, on 31 August 2017 Lang signed for

EFL 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

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

on a season-long loan. He scored his first goal on 9 December in a 2–0 home win over

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 ...

. His good form continued after that first goal, as he was named

EFL Young Player of the Month The EFL Young Player of the Month is an award for young players in all three divisions of the English Football League. To be eligible players must be under-21 or turn 21 during the current season. It was first awarded in December 2009. Victor Mose ...

in December 2017, scoring 5 goals in 5 games across the month, including two in a 4–3 win away to

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

. Lang ended the season with 10 league goals in 30 league games for Morecambe, as they ended the season in 22nd place in

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 ...

, only avoiding relegation to the

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 ...

on goal difference on the final day of the season.

2018/19 season: Oldham Athletic (loan)

On 14 August 2018, Lang signed a new two-year deal with Wigan and joined League Two side

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 January 2019, subsequently extended until the end of the season. He scored the winning goal in the

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 ...

Third Round tie against

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

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football ground in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 22,384; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game against M ...

on 6 January 2019. He totalled 50 appearances for Oldham over the season and scored 16 goals, as they finished 14th in League Two in their first season back in the fourth tier since the 1970–71 season.

New contract and Wigan league debut

Off the back of 26 goals over the previous two seasons, Lang signed a new three-year contract with Wigan on 1 August 2019 and played for them for the first time in almost two years on 13 August, starting in an EFL Cup first round 1-0 home defeat to

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

. Eleven days later, he made his league debut for Wigan in a Championship away game at

QPR Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus R ...

. Lang came on as a substitute for

Jamal Lowe Jamal Akua Lowe (born 21 July 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for EFL Championship club Queens Park Rangers on loan from Premier League club AFC Bournemouth and the Jamaican national team. Lowe was born in England and ...

in the 59th minute in a 3-1 loss

2019/20 season: Shrewsbury Town (loan)

On 2 September, Lang joined

EFL 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

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

on a season-long loan. He scored his first goal in his second appearance, the winner in a 4–3 home victory over

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 ...

. In October 2019 he fractured his metatarsal in the 1-0 win at Tranmere Rovers and was ruled out for three months, before returning in January. He had scored 3 goals in 20 games for Shrewsbury by the time the

COVID-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

curtailed the season in March. Shrewsbury finished 15th in

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 ...

based on Points Per Game (PPG) once the season was officially cut short.

First half of 2020/21 season: Motherwell (loan)

On 29 July 2020, 22-year-old Lang was again sent out on loan following Wigan entering administration and suffering relegation from the

in the 2019/20 season, signing 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 ...

team

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

on a one-year loan. He made his debut on 3 August, as a substitute away to Ross County, but was sent off late on as Motherwell lost 1–0. Lang went on to make 17 league appearances for Motherwell, scoring 3 league goals. He also played in European competition for the first time, playing 3 times 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 ...

and scoring twice (in a 5-1 home win over

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

, and in a 2-2 away draw with

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern I ...

). Wigan recalled him early on 6 January 2021.

First-team regular at Wigan Athletic

Lang scored his first goal for Wigan in his first game back from loan, as he started in a 3-3 draw away to Rochdale on 16 January 2021. He went on to play 23 times in the second half of Wigan's successful battle to avoid relegation from

in the 2020/21 season, scoring 9 goals as Latics avoided relegation to

with two games remaining. As Wigan's fortunes improved following the acquisition of the club by the Phoenix 2021 Limited consortium in March 2021, Lang signed a new long-term contract until the summer of 2025 in September 2021.

Career statistics

Personal life

Lang was born in Liverpool and is a life-long supporter of Everton.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Callum 1998 births Living people Footballers from Liverpool English footballers Association football forwards Wigan Athletic F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Morecambe F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Professional Football League players