Christian Burgess (born 7 October 1991) 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 defender for Belgian club Union SG.

Career

Youth career

Burgess began his career at

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 ...

's academy and after he was released he went on to play with the youth and reserves teams at non-League

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...

before deciding to study history at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

. Whilst in his second year university, Burgess earned a trial at

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

through a coach of the University's first team.

Middlesbrough

He impressed at Boro and he signed a two-year contract in July 2012. He made his professional debut on 4 May 2013 in a 2–0 defeat away at

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 ...

Hartlepool United

He joined

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Hartle ...

on loan in August 2013. The loan deal was extended until the end of the season in December. Burgess scored his first goal in professional football in a 5–0 win for Hartlepool in a

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 ...

game against

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 September 2013.

Peterborough United

On 19 August 2014, Burgess signed on a month's loan for Peterborough United. He completed a single game on loan, a 2–1 home defeat 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 ...

, before completing a permanent transfer on 21 August 2014. Burgess signed a four-year contract for an undisclosed fee.

Portsmouth

On 25 June 2015, Burgess signed for south coast club

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

as part of the summer overhaul at the club by new manager

Paul Cook Paul Thomas Cook (born 20 July 1956) is an English drummer and member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He was also called "Cookie" by his friends on the punk music scene. Early life and career Cook was raised in Hammersmith and atte ...

. He went on to make his debut on 11 July 2015, in a pre-season friendly against local Conference South club

Havant & Waterlooville Havant & Waterlooville Football Club is a professional football club based in Havant, Hampshire, England. The club participates in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football, after relegation from the National League in the 20 ...

. During the 2015–16 season, in which Portsmouth reached the play-off semi-finals, Burgess made 43 appearances in all competitions, partnered in most games by either Matthew Clarke or Adam Webster.

2016–17 season

Following a successful first campaign for Pompey, during which he established himself as the club's first-choice centre back, Burgess began the 2016–17 season as one of the team's central figures. In total, Burgess made 45 appearances and scored four goals over the course of the season, as Portsmouth won the

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 ...

title. Burgess, along with teammate and fellow defender

Enda Stevens Enda John Stevens (born 9 July 1990) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a left back for club Sheffield United and the Republic of Ireland national team. Stevens started his career at UCD. He has experience of football at a cont ...

, was named in the League Two team of the year; a reward for their part in Portsmouth's league-best defensive record.

2019–20 season

Burgess was awarded the

EFL League One Player of the Month The EFL League One Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the player adjudged the best for each month of the season in EFL League One, the third tier of English football. Originally named the Football League One Play ...

award in January 2020 and won the award for Portsmouth Player of the Season in the same year.

Union SG

Burgess turned down a contract extension at Portsmouth and on 7 July 2020 joined

Belgian First Division B The Challenger Pro League (previously known as ''1B Pro League'') is the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian First Division A. It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 201 ...

club Union SG, signing a three-year deal with the option of an additional year. He scored his first goal for the club in a 3–1 victory against

Club NXT Club NXT is the youth academy of Belgian football club Club Brugge. The most senior team of Club NXT acts as Club Brugge's reserve team, and competes in the Challenger Pro League, the second flight of Belgian football. History On 1 July 2020 ...

. At the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

RUSG were promoted, making it the second league title victory of Burgess' career. Burgess was awarded a place in the Team of the Season at the end of the season. On 21 November 2021, Burgess scored two goals for the club in a 7-1 victory against Oostende.

Personal life

He earned a BA Hons in history part-time at

Teesside University , mottoeng = Deeds Not Words , established = 1930 – Constantine Technical College1969 – as Teesside Polytechnic 1992 – gained university status , type = Public , endowment = £0.23 m (2019/20) , chancellor ...

, having previously studied history at

before his move to Middlesbrough.

Career statistics

Honours

Portsmouth *

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 ...

: 2016–17 *

EFL 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 Le ...

: 2018–19 Union SG *

Challenger Pro League The Challenger Pro League (previously known as ''1B Pro League'') is the second-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian First Division A. It was created by the Royal Belgian Football Association in 201 ...

2020–21 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 ...

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

Runner-up: 2021-22 Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 2016–17 League Two *Football League Trophy, Player of the Round: February 2019 *PFA EFL League One Player of the Month: January 2020 *Portsmouth Player of the Season: 2019–20Burgess Named Player Of The Season
/ref> *

Team of the Season:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burgess, Christian 1991 births Living people Footballers from Barking, London Alumni of Teesside University English footballers Association football defenders Arsenal F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players English Football League players Alumni of the University of Birmingham English expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Belgium English expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Royale Union Saint-Gilloise players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players