James Lee Featherstone (born 12 November 1979) is a

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 later became a football agent.

Football player

Featherstone ("Feathers"), started his career as a schoolboy with his hometown club of Leeds United FC, having come through the ranks with his local club, Otley Express, and Leeds City Schoolboys. At 14, with the Jack Walker millions being poured into the youth system at Blackburn Rovers, Featherstone was recruited from their Yorkshire rivals by

Kenny Dalglish Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish (born 4 March 1951) is a Scottish former association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. During his career, he made 338 appearances for Celtic F.C., Celtic and 515 for Liverpoo ...

. Featherstone did not make any first team appearances for Blackburn Rovers, but was a prominent member of their youth teams. He played there with

Damien Duff Damien Anthony Duff (born 2 March 1979) is an Irish professional football manager and former player who played predominantly as a winger. He has been the manager of League of Ireland club Shelbourne F.C. since November 2021. He began his prof ...

and David Dunn. After many changes at Blackburn, despite winning the golden boot in the

Milk Cup SuperCupNI, formerly called the Northern Ireland Youth Soccer Tournament and the Dale Farm Milk Cup, is an international youth football tournament held annually in Northern Ireland. The cup matches are mainly played in the North Coast area of ...

competition in Ireland, and many good performances at youth and reserve level, he was transferred to

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

for an undisclosed amount. He made one appearance in the Football League for Scunthorpe.http://www.neilbrown.newcastlefans.com/scunthorpe/scunthorpe.html In later years Featherstone played centre forward in non-league football with teams such as

Harrogate Town Harrogate Town A.F.C. is a professional association football club in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, which competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed the Sulphurites, due to the ...

and

Ossett Town Ossett Town Association Football Club was an English football club based in Ossett in West Yorkshire. History Ossett Town AFC were formed in 1936 when, during a public meeting, the Mayor of the Borough of Ossett charged John Carter, a former ...

Business career

Following his football career Featherstone entered investment banking, most recently with Investec Bank Plc. Featherstone currently represents many top-flight players and is involved in high-profile football deals. He is a regular on Sky Sports giving commentary and insight into the world of Sports Management. He also holds numerous non-executive directorships on the boards of publicly listed companies in the UK. Featherstone is an active agent within the European football market and is especially known for his presence in Italy. He is the only English intermediary registered as a licensed agent with the FIGC and CONI (Italian sporting governing bodies) cementing him as a firm favourite for Players for moves between the UK and Italy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Featherstone, James 1979 births Living people British sports agents English men's footballers Men's association football forwards English Football League players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Harrogate Town A.F.C. players Ossett Town A.F.C. players People from Yeadon, West Yorkshire Sportspeople from the City of Leeds Footballers from West Yorkshire