James Hubert Lawrence (born 8 March 1970) is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former professional player who played as a

right winger 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 ...

. He notably had spells in 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 ...

with

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

and

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

, as well as playing in 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 ...

with

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 ...

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 ...

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

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, ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

. He also played non-league football for Cowes Sports,

Fisher Athletic Fisher Athletic F.C. were a semi-professional football club from South East London, which last played in the Conference South, which is one of the two leagues that form the sixth tier of the English football league system. The Bermondsey-based ...

Worthing Worthing () is a seaside town in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 111,400 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Brighton and Hov ...

, Harrow Borough,

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...

Banstead Athletic Banstead Athletic Football Club is a association football, football club based in Tadworth, near Epsom in Surrey, England. The club are currently members of the and play at Merland Rise. They are affiliated to the Surrey County Football Associa ...

, Cobham and

Lingfield Lingfield can refer to: * Lingfield, County Durham, England, a village * Lingfield, Surrey, England, a village ** Lingfield Park Racecourse ** Lingfield Cricket Club, prominent in the 18th century ** Lingfield railway station, serving the villag ...

. Born in England, he represented

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

at international level and was capped 24 times, scoring one goal. As a coach Lawrence managed Ashford Town between 2009 and 2011 where he served as player/manager. In 2018 he was appointed assistant manager at

Kingstonian Kingstonian Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London which currently plays in the Isthmian League Premier Division. The club was founded in 1885 by YMC ...

. He also worked on the coaching setups of

Whitehawk Whitehawk is a suburb in the east of Brighton, England, south of Bevendean and north of Brighton Marina. The area is a large, modern housing estate built in a downland dry valley historically known as Whitehawk Bottom. The estate was originally ...

and the Ghana national team.

Early life

Lawrence was born in

Balham Balham () is an area in south London, England, mostly within the London Borough of Wandsworth with small parts within the neighbouring London Borough of Lambeth. The area has been settled since Saxon times and appears in the Domesday Book as B ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, before moving first to Totteridge House in

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

for a year before settling more permanently on the

Latchmere Estate Latchmere Estate is a housing estate in Battersea, Greater London, which was constructed in 1903. It is the first example of a housing estate built with labour directly employed by a local council authority. Between 1832 and the 1880s, Batterse ...

and attending John Burns Primary School. His parents were from Jamaica. As a youth he served two prison sentences.

Club career

He began his career in non-league with Cowes Sports in 1992, before turning professional with

. He made his professional debut for Sunderland on 20 October 1993. In 1993 Jamie Lawrence was handed his first professional football contract with Sunderland by manager

Terry Butcher Terry Ian Butcher (born 28 December 1958) is an English football manager and former player. He works as an academy coach for Ipswich Town. During his playing career as a defender, Butcher captained the England national team, winning 77 caps ...

. Within days of signing for the

Roker Park Roker Park was a football ground in Roker, Sunderland, England, which was the home of Sunderland A.F.C. from 1898 to 1997, before the club moved to the Stadium of Light. Its final capacity was around 22,500, with only a small part being seated; ...

club, he made his debut as a substitute in a televised match against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. Although Middlesbrough beat Sunderland 4–1, Lawrence had made enough of an impression to be selected to start in the following match against

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

. Terry Butcher was sacked a month later and replaced by

Mick Buxton Michael James Buxton (born 29 May 1943) is a former footballer and football manager in England. He has managed Huddersfield Town, Scunthorpe United and Sunderland. Playing career During his playing career, Buxton played in the Football League ...

where Lawrence was not part of the new managers' plans and he was sold to

for £20,000 on 17 March 1994. He also played professionally for

and

. While playing with Leicester he appeared as a substitute in the 1997 Football League Cup Final replay. He later played non-league football with

, Harrow Borough,

, Ashford Town,

and Cobham. While playing for Harrow Borough he cut his knee during a match, and later contracted

MRSA Methicillin-resistant ''Staphylococcus aureus'' (MRSA) is a group of Gram-positive bacteria that are genetically distinct from other strains of ''Staphylococcus aureus''. MRSA is responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections in humans. ...

International career

Lawrence earned 24 caps for

between 2000 and 2004, scoring 1 goal. He appeared in 11 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches.

Coaching career

Lawrence was player-manager of Ashford Town between November 2009 and June 2011. In December 2014 he signed a six-week contract with the Ghana national team, to be their fitness coach for the

2015 Africa Cup of Nations The 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the Orange Africa Cup of Nations, Equatorial Guinea 2015 for sponsorship reasons, was the 30th staging of the Africa Cup of Nations, the international men's football championship of Africa. It was orga ...

, having previously worked in a similar role with

Sutton United Sutton United Football Club is a professional football club in Sutton, South London, England, who play in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They play home games at Gander Green Lane in Sutton about 11 miles sout ...

. Lawrence was appointed first-team coach at

National League South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

in September 2017. He then had a spell as assistant manager at Kingstonian, leaving in February 2019.

Personal life

His autobiography ''From Prison to Premiership'' was released in 2006. It was re-released as an e-book in 2013. Lawrence started the Jamie Lawrence Football Academy in Tooting 2008. In April 2019 Lawrence spoke out against racism in football, revealing that during his playing career he had been racially abused by one of his own teammates. In May 2020 Lawrence began a charity online workout to raise funds during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Honours

;Leicester City *

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 ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawrence, Jamie 1970 births Living people Footballers from Balham Jamaican footballers Jamaica international footballers Jamaican football managers English footballers English people of Jamaican descent Association football wingers Cowes Sports F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Fisher Athletic F.C. players Worthing F.C. players Harrow Borough F.C. players Margate F.C. players Ashford Town (Middlesex) F.C. players Ashford Town (Middlesex) F.C. managers Banstead Athletic F.C. players Cobham F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players English autobiographers Lingfield F.C. players