Elliott Bennett (born 18 December 1988) 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 for club

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 is the elder brother of footballer Kyle Bennett.

Club career

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Bennett grew up in

Telford Telford () is a town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England, about east of Shrewsbury, south west of Stafford, north west of Wolverhampton and from Birmingham in the same direction. With an est ...

, Shropshire, and joined

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

at age nine having been spotted playing in a local five-a-side tournament. He captained the club's under-12 team that travelled to Japan in 2001 and won the U12 World Cup, where he also picked up the Player of the Tournament award. He attended

Thomas Telford School Thomas Telford School (commonly referred to as TTS) is a City Technology College in Telford, Shropshire and is sponsored by The Mercers Company and Tarmac Holdings Limited. Prior to 2016 the mixed ability school ranked as the top performing com ...

, where he captained the football team to win the County Cup five years in a row. Bennett was also a talented 200m sprinter and represented Shropshire at the English School Athletics Championships. He left school to gain a scholarship at Wolves alongside Lee Collins, and signed professional forms with them in March 2007. The midfielder never made a league appearance for Wolves though, despite being picked for the first team squad several times, but did appear twice for them in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

Brighton & Hove Albion

After spending time at loan at both

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

(where he scored once against

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 ...

) and

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

, Bennett signed a three-year contract with

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

on 20 August 2009. In November 2010 he signed a new three and half-year contract to keep him at Brighton & Hove Albion until the summer of 2014. Bennett enjoyed a successful season in

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, playing a significant role in Brighton's promotion to 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 ...

. Scoring eight goals, Bennett gained a place in the PFA League One Team of the Year.

Norwich City

2011–12 season

On 14 June 2011, he signed for

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

on an undisclosed three-year deal. He was handed squad number 17 for the upcoming

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 ...

season. Bennett scored the third goal in a 3–0 pre-season win against

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 ...

from 30 yards out. However, this was not enough to earn Bennett a starting place against

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

on the opening day of the Premier League season where he came on as a sub, replacing

Andrew Surman Andrew Ronald Edward Surman (born 20 August 1986) is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He made over 100 appearances for both Southampton and AFC Bournemouth. Surman also played for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Walsall, ...

. On 9 April 2012, Bennett scored his first Premier League goal against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a Association football, football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater i ...

with a strike from just outside the penalty area, which proved to be the winner in a 2–1 victory for the Canaries.

2012–13 season

Bennett started the 2012–13 season on the bench at

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football ground in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 22,384; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game against M ...

in the Canaries' 0–5 defeat. He picked up an injury coming on for

Robert Snodgrass Robert Snodgrass (born 7 September 1987) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a winger for Heart of Midlothian. Snodgrass started his senior career with Livingston. He also had a loan spell at Stirling Albion before moving to E ...

. Bennett then made his return in a League Cup clash against

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

which featured his younger brother Kyle Bennett. On 6 April he got two assists in a 2–2 draw against

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

. On 20 April, he scored in a 2–1 win against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

2013–14 season

Having played in Norwich's opening

fixture against Everton, Bennett injured his knee ligaments, requiring surgery, ruling him out until 2014. He made his return from injury on the final day of the season, replacing

Nathan Redmond Nathan Daniel Jerome Redmond (born 6 March 1994) is an English professional association football, footballer who plays as a Winger (sports), winger or Forward (association football), forward for Süper Lig club Beşiktaş J.K., Beşiktaş. Redm ...

in the 76th minute of a 2–0 defeat to

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 ...

Blackburn Rovers

On 5 January 2016, Bennett signed for

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

on a -year deal. Bennett scored his first Rovers goal on 27 February in a 3–2 victory over

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

. On 5 October 2017, Rovers announced that Bennett had signed a new two-year contract. On 16 November 2018, Rovers announced that Bennett had signed a new two-and-a-half-year contract. After the departure of

Charlie Mulgrew Charles Patrick Mulgrew (born 6 March 1986) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Scottish Premiership side Dundee United. Mulgrew began his career at Celtic, during which time he spent time on loan at Dundee U ...

to Wigan on a season-long loan, Blackburn Rovers manager

Tony Mowbray Anthony Mark Mowbray (born 22 November 1963) is an English former professional footballer who is currently the manager of Sunderland. Mowbray played for Middlesbrough, Celtic and Ipswich Town as a defender. He began his coaching career with Ip ...

announced Elliot Bennett would take over as club captain for the 2019–20 season.

Shrewsbury Town

On 17 June 2021, Bennett made the step down to

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 ...

, signing for

on a one-year deal. Bennett signed a contract extension of undisclosed length at the end of the 2021–22 season.

International career

Bennett qualifies to play for Jamaica through his paternal grandparents. He was called up to the Jamaica national team on 27 February 2015 for friendly games against

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

and

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

Career statistics

Honours

Brighton & Hove Albion *

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 ...

Norwich City *

Football League Championship play-offs The English Football League Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League 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 ...

Blackburn Rovers *

EFL 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 ...

runner-up: 2017–18 Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 2010–11 League One

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Elliott 1988 births Living people People from Telford Sportspeople from Shropshire English footballers Association football midfielders Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Bury F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players Black British sportspeople People educated at Thomas Telford School English people of Jamaican descent