Connor Taylor (born 25 October 2001) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for club

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

. Taylor spent his youth at

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

's academy and

Stafford Rangers Stafford Rangers Football Club is a semi-professional English football team from Stafford which plays in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. The team wear black and white stripes with black shorts. Stafford Rangers' rivals include T ...

before signing a one-year scholarship with

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 ...

in September 2019. He went on to spend brief spells on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

non-League Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

clubs

Ashton United Ashton United Football Club is a football club in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. They are currently members of and play at Hurst Cross. History The club was founded in 1878 as Hurst Football Club and the earliest known match ...

and

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

. He spent the 2021–22 season on loan at

and won the club's Young Player of the Year award after helping Rovers to win

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

out of

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 ...

. Bristol Rovers signed him for an undisclosed fee in August 2023.

Early life

Connor Taylor was born on 25 October 2001 and grew up in the Eaton Park area of

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

Career

Stoke City

Taylor started his career at

's academy before going on to join

. He made some substitute appearances for Stafford in the 2018–19 season and represented England Schoolboys. In September 2019 Taylor signed a one-year scholarship with

and joined their U23 squad. In October 2020, Taylor spent time at

on work experience, playing in an

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

game against

Clitheroe Clitheroe () is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley, Lancashire, England; it is located north-west of Manchester. It is near the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists visiting the area. In 2018, the Cl ...

and a

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

Premier Division match with

Whitby Town Whitby Town Football Club is an English football club based in Whitby, North Yorkshire. The club participates in the Northern Premier League, the seventh tier of English football. Founded in 1880, Whitby are one of the oldest clubs from the Nor ...

. Taylor joined

National League North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...

side

on a one-month

deal on 18 December 2020. Anthony Johnson, joint-

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

of the "Blues", said that "he has looked like a 30-year-old centre back who has been playing for 12 years not someone that has just been dropped in for their debut". The loan was extended until the end of January 2021. Taylor signed a new 18-month

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

with Stoke in February 2021. Taylor made his senior debut for the "Potters" on 21 April 2021, coming on as a 17th-minute substitute for

James Chester James Grant Chester (born 23 January 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back and is a free agent. Chester began his career with Manchester United but made only one appearance for the club. He had spells on loan at Peter ...

in a 3–2 defeat to

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 ...

at the

Bet365 Stadium The Bet365 Stadium (stylised as ''bet365 Stadium'') is an All-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City F.C., Stoke City. The stad ...

. On 17 June 2021, Taylor joined

on loan for the 2021–22 season. Taylor contracted

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and the "Pirates" got off to a poor start to the campaign, but manager

Joey Barton Joseph Anthony Barton (born 2 September 1982) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He made 269 appearances in the Premier League, including 130 for Manchester City. He is currently the man ...

described Taylor as a "colossus" after Rovers picked up their first

win of the season in a 1–0 win over

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team co ...

at the Memorial Stadium on 4 September. On 25 September 2021, Taylor scored a first career goal as he equalised with ten minutes to go as Rovers got a last-minute comeback victory at

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

, the club's first away win in nine months. Taylor's impressive early-season form continued and on 12 November, he was awarded the

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 ...

Award. This came after two clean sheets in six matches and an impressive

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

performance as Rovers defeated high-flying

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 ...

, Taylor winning thirteen aerial duels. In February 2022, it was revealed by Barton that Taylor would undergo heart surgery at the end of the season after feeling unwell in a warm-up against Oldham. In April 2022, Taylor was nominated for the League Two Young Player of the Season Award, facing competition from

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 ...

Shadrach Ogie Shadrach Nosa Ogie (born 26 August 2001) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a defender for Gillingham. Club career Leyton Orient Born in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, Ogie played youth football for local club Pike Rovers. Upo ...

and Newport County's Finn Azaz, missing out on the award to the latter. On 7 May 2022, Taylor scored the second goal in a final day 7–0 thrashing of

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

that saw Rovers overtake

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

into the final automatic

place on goals scored. The following day at the end of season awards, Taylor was named as the Bristol Rovers Young Player of the Season. On 14 July 2022, Taylor signed a new three-year contract with Stoke. He made eighteen appearances in the

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 ...

campaign, including eleven starts in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

. Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton had attempted to sign him in the January

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer win ...

after Taylor had been dropped since Alex Neil replaced Michael O'Neill as Stoke manager; however, the bids were rejected. Taylor had started six times under O'Neill, but was absent from the first-team between September and January.

Bristol Rovers

On 3 August 2023, Taylor returned to Bristol Rovers – now a

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 – on a three-year deal for an undisclosed fee, widely reported to be in the region of £300,000. He spent the second half of the 2023–24 season plagued by a knee injury sustained in January, undergoing surgery in April 2024 to hopefully fix the problem for the start of the following season.

Style of play

Taylor is a big, quick

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

who is comfortable on the ball.

Career statistics

Honours

Bristol Rovers *

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 ...

third-place promotion: 2021–22 Individual *

October 2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Young Player of the Year: 2021–22

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Connor 2001 births Living people Footballers from Stoke-on-Trent English men's footballers England men's schools international footballers Men's association football central defenders Port Vale F.C. players Stafford Rangers F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Ashton United F.C. players Chester F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Northern Premier League players National League (English football) players English Football League players