Jack Robert Tucker (born 13 November 1999) 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 ...

who plays as a defender for EFL League Two club

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 ...

Club career

Gillingham

Tucker joined the academy of Gillingham as a seven-year old from his hometown club Whitstable Town. Having progressed through the academy system, he made his league debut for the club on 8 October 2017 as a 45th-minute substitute in a 1–0 defeat to

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 ...

, and soon after signed professional terms in January 2018. During his first two seasons as a professional, Tucker had short loan spells with Isthmian League clubs Greenwich Borough and Hastings United, and featured twice in the EFL Trophy for Gillingham. Following impressive performances, he was rewarded with a contract extension at the end of the 2018–19 season. On 12 November 2019, Tucker scored his first professional goal in a 2–0 home EFL Trophy win over Tottenham Hotspur U21s. Having broken into the first team, a month later he was the subject of a transfer bid in December 2019 from an unnamed

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 ...

club, which was rejected by Gillingham chairman

Paul Scally Paul Damien Phillip Scally (born ) is a London-born businessman who served as the chairman of Gillingham Football Club between 1995 and 2022. Career Scally had become wealthy through the sale of his Metronote photocopier business in South Lon ...

and the same day Tucker signed a further contract extension with the club. He was named as the Kent side's young Player of the Season at the conclusion of the 2019–20 season. On 6 March 2021, he scored his first league goal for Gillingham in a 3–1 victory over

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

. Following the club's relegation to

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 ...

at the end of the 2021–22 season, Tucker rejected the offer of a new deal in favour of a move elsewhere, bringing an end to his fifteen-year association with Gillingham. At the club's end of season awards he was named Young Player of the Season, winning the award for the third successive year and the fourth time overall.

Milton Keynes Dons

On 17 June 2022, Tucker signed for

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 ...

club

on a long-term contract, with compensation owed to Gillingham due to his age. He made his debut on 30 July 2022 in a 1–0 defeat away to

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 Ne ...

Career statistics

Honours

Individual * Gillingham Young Player of the Season: 2017–18, 2019–20,

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 ...

, 2021–22

References

1999 births Living people English men's footballers Footballers from Kent Whitstable Town F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Greenwich Borough F.C. players Hastings United F.C. players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players English Football League players Men's association football defenders {{England-footy-defender-1990s-stub