Derek James Statham (born 24 March 1959) is an English former

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 played at defensive left-back. He played for

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

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 ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. Statham won three international caps for

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 ...

in 1983 under the management of

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...

Career

Statham was born in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

and began his career with

where he earned a reputation as a solid, classy defender with excellent passing ability. He made over 330 league and cup appearances for West Brom, playing for several years alongside

Bryan Robson Bryan Robson OBE (born 11 January 1957) is an English football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain before moving to Manchester United in ...

and the 'Three Degrees' of

Cyrille Regis Cyrille Regis, MBE (9 February 1958 – 14 January 2018) was a professional footballer who played as a forward. His professional playing career spanned 19 years, where he made 614 league appearances and scored 158 league goals, most prolifically ...

Laurie Cunningham Laurence Paul Cunningham (8 March 1956 – 15 July 1989) was an English professional footballer. A left winger, he notably played in England, France and Spain, where he became the first ever British player to sign for Real Madrid. Cunningham ...

and Brendon Batson in an impressive side assembled by

Ron Atkinson Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939), commonly known as "Big Ron" or "Mr. Bojangles", is an English former football player and manager. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits. Nick ...

. In total Statham spent 12 years at

the Hawthorns The Hawthorns is an all-seater association football, football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of EFL Championship, Championship club West Bromwich Albion F ...

making 373 appearances for the club, scoring 11 goals in all competitions. Statham left West Brom for Southampton in 1987, playing alongside a young

Alan Shearer Alan Shearer CBE DL (born 13 August 1970) is an English football pundit and retired football player and manager who played as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and one of the greatest players in Premie ...

(in his first professional season) and

Matthew Le Tissier Matthew Paul Le Tissier (; born 14 October 1968) is a former professional footballer. Born in Guernsey, he won eight caps for the England national team. Le Tissier spent his entire professional club career with Southampton before turning to no ...

, and was an immediate success winning the club's player of the season award for 1987–88. He stayed at Southampton for the 1988–89 season before joining

in August 1989. He played 21 times for Stoke in 1989–90 as the team suffered relegation to the Third Division. He played in 28 games in 1990–91 before being released at the end of the season. He later played for

, where he played his final professional game in the 1992–93 season. His last team were semi-professional side Telford United in the English

Football Conference The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...

, where he was a mainstay for the 1993–94 season. In 2004, he was named as one of West Bromwich Albion's 16 greatest ever players, in a poll organised as part of the club's 125th anniversary celebrations.

Career statistics

Club

Source: :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the

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 ...

Full Members Cup The Full Members' Cup was an association football cup competition held in English football from 1985 to 1992. It was also known under its sponsored names of the Simod Cup from 1987 to 1989 and the Zenith Data Systems Cup from 1989 to 1992. The ...

, and

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 ...

International

Source:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Statham, Derek Living people 1959 births Footballers from Wolverhampton English footballers England international footballers England B international footballers England under-21 international footballers West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Association football fullbacks English Football League players Telford United F.C. players