Daniel Anthony Johnson (born 8 October 1992) is a Jamaican 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

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 ...

for

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 ...

and the Jamaica national team. Johnson began his career with

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

and after loan spells at

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 ...

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

and Oldham Athletic he joined

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

in January 2015 on a permanent transfer. He spent eight-and-a-half years at Deepdale making 336 appearances, scoring 57 goals before joining

in July 2023.

Career

Early career

Born in Jamaica, Johnson played for Crystal Palace as a schoolboy before moving on to

's academy. Johnson's potential was recognised following the 2010–11 season. Extra responsibility was placed on Johnson when academy coach

Tony McAndrew Anthony "Tony" McAndrew (born 11 April 1956 in Glasgow) is a Scottish former footballer who played as a defender in the Football League for Middlesbrough, Chelsea, Darlington and Hartlepool United, and in the North American Soccer League for th ...

handed him the captain's armband. As well as leading Villa to the Barclays Premier Academy League Group B title, he was an inspiration during the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

campaign. A left-foot strike from the edge of the box in round four against Peterborough United crowned a true captain's performance and ignited a cup run that would see the young lions reach the semi-finals. His performances for the academy and reserve teams had already caught the eye of manager at the time

Gerard Houllier Gerard is a masculine forename of Proto-Germanic origin, variations of which exist in many Germanic and Romance languages. Like many other early Germanic names, it is dithematic, consisting of two meaningful constituents put together. In this ca ...

. The Frenchman called up Johnson to Aston Villa's first team for the first time, where he was an unused substitute in Villa's 2–1 League Cup win over

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 ...

. In January 2011, the midfielder signed his first professional contract at

Villa Park Villa Park is a football stadium in Aston, Birmingham, England, with a seating capacity of 42,682. It has been the home of Premier League side Aston Villa since 1897. The ground is less than a mile from both Witton and Aston railway stations ...

. Johnson had another season of great progress in 2011–12, featuring in all but one of the title-winning reserve team's fixtures as well as making the first team bench for six

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 ...

games. In the reserve ranks, Johnson once again demonstrated his ability to supply goals from the central ground. He found the net five times, including a wonder strike in a 3–1 defeat against a Manchester United side featuring the likes of Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Tom Cleverley. That scoring knack was also replicated on the European stage during Villa's run to the quarter-finals of the

NextGen Series The NextGen Series was a European football club cup competition for under-19 footballers. It was designed to provide players with the opportunity to match themselves against other elite European footballers of their agegroup in a competitive envi ...

. Johnson was the only player to feature in all seven of the club's NextGen games and he managed three goals in the process. Those strikes came in home and away wins against Fenerbahçe and in a 3–2 defeat by Rosenborg. In March 2012, he extended his contract to summer 2013 but he has still yet to make his official debut for Villa. On 13 June 2013, Johnson signed a new two-year deal keeping him at the club until 2015.

Loan moves

Johnson made a series of short loan moves to League One sides over three seasons. On 23 October 2012, Johnson joined

Football 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 month-long youth loan deal, and made his

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 ...

debut as a substitute that evening in Yeovil's 3–1 victory over Shrewsbury Town. Johnson joined

on a three-month loan in August 2014 and made his debut in a 2–1 away win over

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 ...

on 30 August. Johnson played 13 times for Chesterfield, becoming a first team regular. On 10 November 2014, Johnson joined another League One side,

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, wh ...

, on a two-month deal until 5 January 2015.

Preston North End

On 23 January 2015, Johnson joined

for an undisclosed fee, believed to be £50,000, on a two-and-a-half year contract. Johnson started life off well at Preston scoring 8 goals in 18 appearances. Johnson and his teammates won promotion to the Championship on 24 May 2015, following a 4–0 win over Swindon Town in the play-off final at Wembley. On 27 June 2023, Preston announced that Daniel Johnson would be leaving the club at the end of his contract after eight years at the club.

Stoke City

On 19 July 2023, Johnson signed for

on a two-year deal, reuniting with manager Alex Neil.

International career

In June 2019, Johnson received an invite to play for the

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

national side for the CONCACAF Gold Cup in July 2019. On 31 August 2019, he was called up for Jamaica's CONCACAF Nations League matches against

Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda (, ) is a sovereign country in the West Indies. It lies at the juncture of the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in the Leeward Islands part of the Lesser Antilles, at 17°N latitude. The country consists of two maj ...

and

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

. However, on 5 September, Johnson withdrew from the squad, with his agent citing a lack of a direct flight from

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Montego Bay Montego Bay is the capital of the Parishes of Jamaica, parish of Saint James Parish, Jamaica, St. James in Jamaica. The city is the fourth-largest urban area in the country by population, after Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, Spanish Town, and Por ...

. He debuted with the Jamaica national team in a 3–0 friendly loss to

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

on 14 November 2020.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''As of match played 2 July 2023. Scores and results list Jamaica's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Johnson goal.''

Honours

Preston North End * Football League One play-offs:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Individual * North West Football Awards Championship Player of the Year: 2020 * Preston North End Player of the Year: 2019–20

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Daniel 1992 births Living people Footballers from Kingston, Jamaica Jamaican men's footballers Jamaica men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Aston Villa F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players English Football League players Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in England 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup players