Christopher Gerald McClellan Bart-Williams (born 16 June 1974) is an English football coach and 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 le ...

. As a player, he was a defender and

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 ...

and notably played in the

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 ...

for

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 ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

. He also played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a professio ...

and

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

, in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

with

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

and in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

with

Marsaxlokk Marsaxlokk () is a small, traditional fishing village in the South Eastern Region of Malta. It has a harbour, and is a tourist attraction known for its views, fishermen and history. As at March 2014, the village had a population of 3,534. The ...

. He was capped by

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 ...

at youth level and went on to play for England under-21s and was called up to train with the senior squad although he never won a full England cap. Following retirement, Bart-Williams has moved into coaching in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and has notably worked as assistant coach of

Women's Premier Soccer League The Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) is an amateur women's soccer league in the United States and Canada. It is the top amateur league for women's soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, below only National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). T ...

side

SoccerPlus Connecticut SoccerPlus Connecticut is an American women's soccer team, founded in 2006. The team is a member of the Women's Premier Soccer League, the third tier of women's soccer in the United States and Canada. The team plays in the North Division of the Ea ...

Early life

Born in

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

, Bart-Williams grew up in

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nort ...

and attended The School of St. David's and St Katharine's in

Hornsey Hornsey is a district of north London, England in the London Borough of Haringey The London Borough of Haringey (pronounced , same as Harringay) is a London borough in North London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner Lo ...

. He represented his school, borough (Haringey), county (Middlesex).

Playing career

When he was just 16 years old, Bart-Williams launched his professional career with

. He made 36 appearances with the club and scored twice.

showed interest in him and subsequently bought him for the record sum of £275,000 in 1991, the year they won promotion to the

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

and were also winners of the

Football League 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 ...

. Once with Sheffield Wednesday, Bart-Williams got a place in the first team immediately despite his young age. He began his career playing as an attacking

. On 12 April 1993, he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

against

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

in a 5–2 win. Bart-Williams played for Wednesday as a substitute in the

1993 FA Cup Final The 1993 FA Cup Final was contested by Arsenal F.C., Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday F.C., Sheffield Wednesday at Wembley Stadium (1923), Wembley. The original match, played on 15 May 1993, finished 1–1. Arsenal won the replay on 20 May, 2–1 ...

replacing

Chris Waddle Christopher Roland Waddle (born 14 December 1960) is an English former professional football player and manager. He currently works as a commentator. Nicknamed "Magic Chris", football journalist Luke Ginnell wrote that Waddle was "widely ackn ...

in the first game and

Roland Nilsson Nils Lennart Roland Nilsson (born 27 November 1963) is a Swedish professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the head coach of Allsvenskan club IFK Göteborg. As a player, Nilsson played 116 games for Sweden, making ...

towards the end of the replay. He also helped the Owls reach the

semi-finals in the 1993–94 season and also appeared in their short-lived

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

campaign (the club's first European run since the 1960s) the previous season. After four years, he moved to

for the sum of £2.5 million. Bart-Williams had a successful spell with Forest, and even though he played as a defensive midfielder he managed to score 35 goals, even being the club's top scorer in the 2000–2001 season, and was often clinical from free kicks and penalties. During a game in 2000, Forest tried to experiment with their formation by playing 3–5–2 and played Bart-Williams as a sweeper. This experiment turned out to be a successful one as Nottingham Forest won 5–0 against

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, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

, with Bart-Williams scoring twice. In 2001, Forest found themselves in financial difficulties and had to sell their better players. Bart-Williams turned down moves to

and

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

In December 2001, Bart-Williams left Forest, signing for

, initially on a short-term contract. In May 2002 he signed a new two-year deal at the club. Bart-Williams had 20 appearances and two goals. After spending two seasons with Charlton, Bart-Williams moved to

, initially on loan in September 2003, and then permanently for the rest of the 2003–04 season. He was released the end of the season and decided to move away from English football. Next for Bart-Williams was a move to

in Cyprus in September 2004. He had been linked with a return to Nottingham Forest, although the rumour was denied by Forest. After unsuccessful attempts to lure

Paul Gascoigne Paul John Gascoigne (, born 27 May 1967), nicknamed Gazza, is an English former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He is described by the National Football Museum as "widely recognised as the most naturally talente ...

to the club, on 6 August 2005 Maltese team

signed Bart-Williams. But he managed only eight appearances and was sent home only two months into his three-year contract.

Coaching career

After retiring from professional play, Bart-Williams moved to the United States to coach alongside former U.S. Women's National Team head coach

Tony DiCicco Anthony D. DiCicco Jr. (August 5, 1948 – June 19, 2017) was an American soccer player and coach and TV commentator. He is best known as the coach of the United States women's national soccer team from 1994 to 1999, during which time the team won ...

. He served as an assistant for the

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defunct Women's ...

, a team in the WPSL. He also was head coach of their reserve squads under the

club. Bart-Williams joined the

Quinnipiac University Quinnipiac University () is a private university in Hamden, Connecticut. The university grants undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees through its College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business, School of Engineering, School of C ...

men's soccer program as an assistant coach, helping to lead them to a 2013 MAAC Conference championship and the first round of the NCAA tournament. He also served as an assistant coach for the

men's soccer team for six years. Bart-Williams now runs an international soccer training and college recruiting service
CBW Soccer Elite
placing talented student-athletes in American college soccer programs. Bart-Williams is also a consultant to
Charlotte Soccer Academy'sU.S. Soccer Development Academy
program and is the head o
Gulliver Schools'
boys' soccer program in Miami, Florida.

Career statistics

:Source:

Honours

;Sheffield Wednesday *

runner-up: 1992–93 *

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 ...

runner-up: 1992–93 ;Nottingham Forest *

: 1997–98 ;England U19 *

FIFA World Youth Championship The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when ...

Third place:

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

;Individual *

Player of the Year: 2000–01 * PFA First Division Fans' Player of the Year: 2001

References

External links

Chris Bart-Williams at Marsaxlokkfc.com
*
CBW Soccer Elite
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bart-Williams, Chris 1974 births Living people Footballers from Hornsey English footballers England youth international footballers England under-21 international footballers England B international footballers Association football defenders Association football midfielders Association football utility players Leyton Orient F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players APOEL FC players Marsaxlokk F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players Cypriot First Division players Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Expatriate footballers in Malta Expatriate soccer players in the United States English expatriate footballers Sierra Leone Creole people Sierra Leonean emigrants to the United Kingdom FA Cup Final players Association football coaches