Devon White (born 2 March 1964) 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 ...

. He played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

most notably spending a spell 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

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

as well as representing six different

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 ...

clubs, Lincoln City,

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 ...

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

and

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

. He also had a spell 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

Naxxar Lions Naxxar Lions Football Club is a football club from the town of Naxxar in northern Malta Their historical and arch-rivals are Mosta FC. A match between Naxxar Lions and Mosta FC, is known as the derby of the north, but because there are other ...

and featured in Non-league football for Arnold Kingswell,

Boston United Boston United Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The club participates in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. The club is known ...

Shepshed Charterhouse Shepshed Dynamo Football Club is an English association football, football club based in the small town of Shepshed in the north west of Leicestershire, England. Founded as Shepshed Albion towards the end of the 19th century, the team played for ...

Grantham Grantham () is a market and industrial town in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road. It lies some 23 miles (37 km) south of the Lincoln and ...

and Ilkeston Town.

Playing career

White began his career in the non-league ranks whilst training as an electrician. In 1984 his talents were spotted by Lincoln City and he moved into the professional game. He spent two seasons with Lincoln, from where he was loaned to Maltese club

, before dropping back into the non-league ranks with first

and then

. At the beginning of the 1987–1988 season he appeared in a

Lincolnshire Senior Cup The Lincolnshire Senior County Cup is a football (soccer) competition for senior football clubs in Lincolnshire organised by the Lincolnshire FA. The competition can be traced back to the formation of the Lincolnshire FA at a meeting held at th ...

tie for

before surprisingly rejoining the pro ranks at

. He also had a short stint at non league Oxhey jets, scoring one goal in five matches. The move occurred following the appointment of

Gerry Francis Gerald Charles James Francis (born 6 December 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. Playing career Francis made his first team debut for Queens Park Rangers against Liverpool in March 1969. He was captain and central midfield play ...

as manager at Bristol Rovers. Francis was looking for a strong physical striker and remembered a performance White had given for Lincoln against Rovers and contacted Lincoln to enquire about signing White. He was somewhat surprised to discover White had drifted back into non-league football and it took some detective work to track him down. He grasped his second chance at the professional game and went on to enjoy a long career.

Coaching career

In December 2006, he returned to non-league football circuit as temporary first-team coach at

Gedling Town Gedling Town Football Club was a Semi-professional sports#United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, semi-professional Association football, football club based in Stoke Bardolph, Nottinghamshire, England. Founded in 1985 as R & R Sca ...

, a role he occupied until the completion of the 2006–07 season.

Personal life

At the culmination of his professional career, White returned to his initial trade as an electrician and now runs his own company in Nottingham. In 2011, he was the victim of an impostor who posted comments on Facebook containing racist remarks, as well as references to drug use and serious sexual offences while claiming to be White. White reported the matter to the police and to Facebook.

References

*
Grantham Town player profileAppointment at Gedling, December 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Devon 1964 births Living people Footballers from Nottingham English men's footballers Men's association football forwards English Football League players Arnold Kingswell F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Boston United F.C. players Naxxar Lions F.C. players Grantham Town F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Watford F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Ilkeston Town F.C. (1945) players Premier League players Shepshed Dynamo F.C. players