Harry Louis Clifton (born 12 June 1998) 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

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 ...

and winger for club

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in ...

. Born in England, he represents

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

internationally.

Club career

Grimsby Town

Clifton joined

as an under-10 and progressed through the club's

youth system In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if ...

. Clifton signed his first professional contract in July 2015. He joined NPL Premier Division side Grantham Town in September 2016, initially on a month's loan deal. After impressing in his initial loan, it was then extended another two months. After scoring 3 goals in 21 appearances, his loan was extended in December 2016 until the end of the 2016–17 season. Clifton made 47 appearances for them, scoring six goals. He returned to Grimsby in May 2017, signing another two-year deal. Clifton made his full debut on 29 August 2017 in the

EFL 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 Le ...

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 ...

. He made his professional

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

debut on 30 January 2018, coming on as a 79th-minute substitute, in a 3–0 defeat at

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

. Clifton made his full league debut against

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

on 24 February. He signed a new three-year contract with Grimsby in June 2018. Clifton scored his first professional league goal on 27 November 2018, scoring an equaliser in the 33rd minute with a header, in a 5–2 win against

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they adop ...

. Three days later, he scored Grimsby's second goal on 70-minutes 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 ...

second round, racing through on goal scoring a follow-up after his initial shot was saved, in a 2–0 victory against

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 ...

side

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

. Clifton played the full 120 minutes of the

2022 National League play-off final The 2022 National League play-off Final, known as the Vanarama National League Promotion Final for sponsorship reasons, was an association football match played on 5 June 2022 at the London Stadium between Solihull Moors and Grimsby Town. It dete ...

as Grimsby beat

Solihull Moors Solihull Moors Football Club is a professional football club based in Solihull, England. The club currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, after achieving promotion from the National Leag ...

2–1 at the

London Stadium London Stadium (formerly and also known as Olympic Stadium and the Stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park) is a multi-purpose outdoor stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in the Stratford district of London. It is located in the Lower Lea ...

to return to the

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 ...

. On 24 June 2022, Clifton signed a new two-year deal with The Mariners. Clifton was part of the Grimsby team that reached the

quarter final for the first time since

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

, he played the full 90 minutes of the 2–1 win away at

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 ...

side

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 ...

that secured that achievement. On 5 May 2023, Clifton won the Supporters' Player of the Year award, and four other awards, at the club's annual Player of the Season awards night.

International career

Clifton was called up to the Wales Under-21's squad to join their training camp at the end of March 2019.

Career statistics

Honours

Grimsby Town *

play-offs:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Individual *Grimsby Town Player of the Year:

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 ...

*Grimsby Town Young Player of the Year: 2017–18, 2018–19

References

External links

Harry Clifton profile
at the Grimsby Town F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clifton, Harry 1998 births Living people Footballers from Grimsby English men's footballers Welsh men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Grimsby Town F.C. players Grantham Town F.C. players Northern Premier League players English Football League players