Elijah Malik Dixon-Bonner (born 1 January 2001) 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

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 club

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 ...

Club career

Dixon-Bonner was born in

Harlow Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

and began his career with

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 ...

joining the club at Under-9 level before moving to Liverpool in 2015 at the age of 14. He moved through the club's under-16 and under-18 levels, and captained the England under-16 team. In the 2018–19 season, Dixon-Bonner was part of the victorious

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 ...

squad and he scored during the penalty shootout win over Manchester City in the final. He signed his first professional contract with the club in February 2018 and played for the club's under-23 team before signing an extension to his deal in November 2019. He made his first-team debut on 4 February 2020, as a 90th minute substitute in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

fourth round replay against

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 ...

. In the summer of 2021, Dixon-Bonner spent time on trial with

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 ...

, but was not offered a contract. Despite this, he was named in Liverpool's squad for the

2021-22 UEFA Champions League Increment or incremental may refer to: *Incrementalism, a theory (also used in politics as a synonym for gradualism) *Increment and decrement operators, the operators ++ and -- in computer programming *Incremental computing *Incremental backup, wh ...

, and featured for the first team in a 2-0 win over

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 the

Carabao Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

in October 2021. In June 2022 it was announced by Liverpool that he would leave the club at the end of the month when his contract expired.

Queens Park Rangers

On 13 October 2022, Dixon-Bonner joined

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 ...

side

following a successful trial. He made his debut for the club coming on as a 82nd minute substitute for

Jamal Lowe Jamal Akua Lowe (born 21 July 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for EFL Championship club Queens Park Rangers on loan from Premier League club AFC Bournemouth and the Jamaican national team. Lowe was born in England and ...

in a 0-1 home defeat to Birmingham City on 18 March 2023. In November 2023, Dixon-Bonner made his full league debut, playing the duration of a 1–1 draw with fellow strugglers

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

. The match was new manager

Martí Cifuentes Martí Cifuentes Corvillo (born 7 July 1982) is a Spanish football coach who is the head coach of Hammarby IF in the Swedish Allsvenskan. Career Early career Cifuentes had short spells coaching in the youth departments of Ajax and Millwall. H ...

' first since his appointment, praising the midfielder's performance and hinting at his importance over the remainder of the season. On 10 June 2024, Dixon-Bonner signed a new contract to extend his spell at the club.

International career

He has captained England under-16 and was a member of the England under-17 squad that hosted the

2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship The 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship (also known as 2018 UEFA Under-17 Euro) was the 17th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (36th edition if the Under-16 era is also included), the annual international youth football champ ...

Career statistics

Notes

Honours

Liverpool *

: 2018–19

References

External links

Profile
at the Queens Park Rangers F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon-Bonner, Elijah 2001 births Living people Footballers from Harlow English men's footballers Arsenal F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players Men's association football midfielders England men's youth international footballers Black British sportsmen Queens Park Rangers F.C. players English Football League players