Christopher Armstrong (born 5 August 1982) is a former 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 ...

, who most recently played for

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

in the Football League Championship. In 2011, he retired due to Multiple sclerosis. He is the younger brother of former Sunderland and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

midfielder Gordon Armstrong. A former

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

U20s full-back, and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

B International, Armstrong was a tough tackler despite only standing at 5 ft 9in (1.75 Metres).

Club career

Bury and Oldham

Armstrong was born in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, England. He started his career at Bury as a trainee in August 1999, playing 33 games and scoring 1 goal before joining

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 be ...

for £200,000 in October 2001, in only his second season as a first-team player. After playing a further 75 games and scoring his second goal, he was signed by

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 ...

for £100,000 in July 2003 during a financial crisis at Oldham.

Sheffield United

Having signed for the Blades in the summer Armstrong made his debut in the first game of the 2003–04 season, a 0–0 draw with Gillingham at Bramall Lane. He scored his first goal for the club in a 2–0 victory over Crewe on 4 November 2003 only to suffer serious injury a few weeks later. He eventually returned to regular first team football after battling back bravely from career-threatening knee injury problems that limited him to just 13 games in his first season with the Blades and ruled him out for the whole of 2004–05. After a brief spell at Blackpool to improve his match fitness earlier in the season, Armstrong became a valuable member of the team that gained promotion back to the Premiership in 2005–06. He was rewarded with the fan's Player of the Month award for March, the Capital One Young Player of the Year and, in July 2006, a new three-year contract. Armstrong was a regular starter over the next two seasons but was often asked to fill in across the field, playing both in the centre and out wide in midfield and defence. He succumbed to several injuries which kept him sidelined through this period and missed much of the second half of the 2007–2008 season due to a groin injury. Following his return to fitness he found himself unable to break back into the starting eleven under new manager

Kevin Blackwell Kevin Patrick Blackwell (born 21 December 1958) is an English former professional football goalkeeper who since retiring as a player has worked as a coach and a manager. He is currently the manager of Thai League 1 club Nakhon Ratchasima. Ear ...

Reading

With his first team options limited at Bramall Lane he was allowed to leave and signed for

in August 2008 for an initial fee of £500,000 with the potential for it to rise to £800,000 depending on conditions. Armstrong made his debut for the Royals in the 4–2 home win over Crystal Palace on 30 August 2008. Since then, he has become a first team regular and scored his first league goal for Reading against

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

on 9 January 2009. He was voted Player of the Season for the 2008–09 season with 80% of the votes.

International career

Although born in Newcastle, Armstrong qualifies for

through his grandmother. And despite appearing for England's under-20 side in the 2002

Toulon Tournament The Toulon Tournament (officially the Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) is a football (training match) tournament, which traditionally features invited national teams composed of youth players from U-17 to U-23 level. ...

, FIFA allowed him to represent Scotland. Armstrong received an

international cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

for Scotland B, after being included in the starting eleven in a 1–1 draw, against the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

B team, at the

Excelsior Stadium The Excelsior Stadium, is a Association football, football stadium in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the home ground of Airdrieonians F.C., Airdrieonians of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). Since the 2021–22 season ...

on 20 November 2007.

Retirement

Armstrong announced his retirement from the professional game on 8 March 2011 and revealed that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in December 2009.

Career statistics

Honours

Sheffield United *Promotion to the Premier League 2005–06 *Fans Player of the Month March 2006 *The Capital One Young Player of the Year 2006 Reading *Fans player of the season 2008–09

References

External links

*
England profile
at TheFA {{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Chris 1982 births Living people Footballers from Newcastle upon Tyne English men's footballers Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's B international footballers Men's association football midfielders Bury F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Reading F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players