Ethan Rupert Pinnock (born 29 May 1993) is a 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

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for club

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

and the Jamaica national team. Pinnock began his career in

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

with

Dulwich Hamlet Dulwich Hamlet Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in East Dulwich in south-east London, England. They are currently members of and play at Champion Hill. History The club was formed in 1893, by Lorraine 'Pa' Wilson. T ...

and Forest Green Rovers, before rising to prominence in the

English 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 Engl ...

with

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, from whom he transferred to Brentford in 2019. He was capped by England C during his non-League career and later represented Jamaica at full international level.

Club career

Dulwich Hamlet

Beginning his career as a winger or

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, Pinnock played in the Millwall academy between the ages of 9 and 15, before entering the youth system at

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

club

. He progressed to be fringe member of the first team squad during the

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 ...

season, which included a spell on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

at Kent County League Premier Division club Holmesdale, during which he was deployed as a

utility player In sports, a utility player is one who can play several positions competently. Sports in which the term is often used include association football, American football, baseball, rugby union, rugby league, softball, ice hockey, and water polo. The ...

. A growth spurt led to Pinnock being converted into a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

during his time with the club. By the 2014–15 season, he had established himself as a mainstay of the team. He was a part of the club's

2012–13 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 ...

Division One South-winning team and won the club's Player of the Year awards in the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons. Pinnock departed Hamlet in June 2016, after making 195 appearances and scoring 12 goals during his time at Champion Hill.

Forest Green Rovers

On 21 June 2016, Pinnock signed a two-year contract with

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

club Forest Green Rovers for an undisclosed fee. He made 45 appearances and scored three goals during Rovers' 2016–17 National League playoffs-winning season, which saw the club promoted to the EFL for the first time in its history. Pinnock departed the club in June 2017.

Barnsley

On 30 June 2017, Pinnock signed a three-year contract with Championship club

for an undisclosed fee, reported to be £500,000, plus add-ons. Down the pecking order during the first half of the 2017–18 season, injuries to other players allowed him to break into the starting lineup during December 2017 and January 2018. Pinnock scored his first two goals for the club in league matches versus

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 ...

and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

either side of the New Year. He finished an injury-affected 2017–18 season with 15 appearances and suffered relegation with the club to League One. Pinnock missed just two matches in all competitions during the 2018–19 season and helped the Tykes to automatic promotion back to the Championship. He won the club's Player of the Year award and was named in the PFA and EFL League One Team of the Year selections. Pinnock departed

Oakwell Oakwell is a multi-purpose sports development in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England used primarily by Barnsley Football Club for playing their home fixtures, and those of their reserves. While the name 'Oakwell' generally refers to the main s ...

on 2 July 2019, after making 67 appearances and scoring three goals for Barnsley.

Brentford

On 2 July 2019, Pinnock signed a three-year contract with Championship club

, with the option of a further year, for an undisclosed fee, reported to be £3 million. He displaced

Julian Jeanvier Julian Marc Jeanvier (born 31 March 1992) is a professional footballer who plays as a central defender for club Auxerre and the Guinea national team. He rose to prominence in his native France with Reims, before joining English club Brentford ...

and broke into the team alongside Pontus Jansson in November 2019 and his performances after the season restart in June and July 2020 saw him nominated for the PFA Fans' Player of the Month award. Pinnock made 40 appearances and scored two goals during the 2019–20 season, which culminated in defeat in the 2020 Championship play-off Final. After beginning the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season as an ever-present in league matches, Pinnock signed a new five-year contract on 10 November 2020. He made 48 appearances and two goals during a 2020–21 season which ended with promotion to 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 ...

, after victory in the 2021 Championship play-off Final. In recognition of his league performances during the season, Pinnock was named in the 2020–21 PFA Championship Team of the Year. Pinnock began the 2021–22 season as an ever-present starter in Premier League matches and he scored his only goal of the campaign in a 3–3 draw with

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

on 25 September 2021. Pinnock remained a virtual-ever present until suffering a season-ending hamstring injury on his 35th appearance, during a 2–1 victory over

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 ...

on 16 April 2022. A knee injury suffered in July 2022 saw Pinnock miss the entire

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

and the first two months of the regular season.

International career

In October 2016, Pinnock was called up to the England C national team and won his only cap in a 2–1 win over Estonia U23 in November 2016. In March 2021, Pinnock was one of six English-born players to receive their first call-up to the Jamaica national team for a friendly match versus the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He played the opening 64 minutes of the 4–1 defeat. In June 2021, Pinnock was named in Jamaica's provisional

2021 Gold Cup The 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 16th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American, and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF. The tournament was originally scheduled t ...

squad, but was not named in the final selection.

Personal life

Pinnock is of Jamaican descent on his father's side and he is a cousin of former footballer Nyron Nosworthy. He attended

Shirley High School Shirley High School is a co-educational academy school in the London Borough of Croydon, which first opened in 1954. The school has around 1100 pupils aged 11–18. The school was awarded specialist status as a performing arts college. The scho ...

Reigate College Reigate College is a state college in Reigate, Surrey, England, for students aged between 16–19 years of age. The college occupies part of the town centre between the High Street and railway station. Reigate College was graded by Ofsted as " ...

and has a degree in

physical education Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

from the

University of Greenwich The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic. The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along with it ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Dulwich Hamlet *

Division One South:

Forest Green Rovers *

play-offs:

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Brentford *

EFL 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. , t ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Individual *

Supporters Player of the Year: 2014–15 *Dulwich Hamlet Players' Player of the Year: 2014–15, 2015–16 *

Player of the Year: 2018–19 *Barnsley Player of the Month: December 2018 * PFA EFL League One Team of the Year: 2018–19 *EFL League One Team of the Year: 2018–19 * PFA EFL Championship Team of the Year:

References

External links

Ethan Pinnock
at brentfordfc.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinnock, Ethan 1995 births Living people Footballers from Lambeth English footballers England semi-pro international footballers Jamaican footballers Jamaica international footballers Association football defenders Dulwich Hamlet F.C. players Forest Green Rovers F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Isthmian League players National League (English football) players English Football League players Black British sportspeople English people of Jamaican descent Premier League players Holmesdale F.C. players Alumni of the University of Greenwich