Jamie Walker (born 25 June 1993) is a Scottish

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 for

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. ...

as an

attacking 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 ...

or winger. He has previously played for Hearts,

Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leagu ...

and

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, ...

and represented Scotland at every youth international level.

Early life

Walker grew up in the

Wester Hailes Wester Hailes is an area in the south west of Edinburgh, Scotland. Wester Hailes borders on Kingsknowe and Longstone to the east. Bankhead Industrial Estate and Sighthill Park lie to the north. History Although named after a large private ho ...

area of

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

and attended

Forrester High School Forrester High School is a secondary school in the west of Edinburgh, Scotland. St Augustine's High School, an RC secondary, moved onto a shared campus with Forrester High School in January 2010. Previously the schools had been next to each ot ...

. His great uncle was Tommy Walker, the former Hearts player and manager and Scottish international inside forward.

Club career

Heart of Midlothian

A member of Hearts under-19 squad, Walker's performances in the early part of the 2011–12 season earned him a new three-year contract extending his stay with the club until 2014. With Hearts in financial difficulty and wanting to bring through members of their under-19 squad into the first team, Walker was sent on loan to

in November 2011 to gain first team experience. He made his debut for Raith on 26 November 2011, in their 3–2 win against

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

. Walker only trained one day a week with Raith, with the rest being spent with Hearts due to their use of astroturf causing greater risk of injury. On 4 January 2012 his loan deal was extended for another month. After a brief period back at Hearts, he returned to Raith on 31 January 2012 for the rest of the 2011/12 season. He scored his first goal for Raith on 11 February, in a 2–2 draw with Ross County. Walker made his first team debut for Hearts on 18 August 2012, appearing as a substitute in the 2–2 draw with Inverness CT at Tynecastle. Walker capped off his debut season with an individual goal against St Mirren in May 2013. He was awarded Hearts' Overall "Young Player of the Year" for season 2012/13. Season 2013–14 started well for Walker, helping his side to a 1–0 victory over city rivals Hibernian. The following week Walker scored an equaliser against Partick Thistle away from home. He scored again against

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

which helped his team to a 2–1 win. This win took the club to −8pts after starting with −15pts due to the club entering administration. Hearts were eventually relegated, but Walker helped them regain top division status by winning the 2014–15 Scottish Championship. Early in the 2016/17 season, Walker was given a two-match suspension after he was found guilty of diving to win a

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

against Celtic. The captain of Celtic, Scott Brown, called Walker a "cheat" after the match. Walker scored twice in a 4–1 win against Rangers on 1 February 2017. Walker was subject to transfer speculation for most of 2017, with his contract due to expire at the end of the 2017/18.

Wigan Athletic

Walker moved to

for an undisclosed transfer fee in January 2018. In August 2018 he joined

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

on loan. He scored his first goal for Peterborough in an EFL Trophy tie against

MK 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. ...

on 4 September 2018. Walker was however recalled by

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington t ...

on 2 January 2019 having made 18 appearances for

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

Heart of Midlothian

Walker rejoined Hearts on 28 June 2019 on a three-year deal. He broke his leg in August 2019. He returned to first team training on the 28th of October.

Bradford City

On 11 January 2022, Walker moved on loan to

, citing his wish for more playing time, after only making 7 appearances for Hearts in the 2021–22 season in all competitions. On 8 May 2022, Walker agreed a two-year permanent deal with Bradford to begin upon the expiration of his Hearts contract on 30 June 2022.

International career

Walker has represented Scotland at U15, U16, U17, U19 and U21 level. Walker made his debut for the Scotland U21s against

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

in a 3–0 win on 25 March 2013. In the game, he also scored his debut goal to make the score 1–0 with a volley from the edge of the box.

Career statistics

Honours

Heart of Midlothian *

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish Champio ...

: 2014–15, 2020–21 Scottish cup runner up Scottish League cup runner up Wigan Athletic * EFL League One: 2017–18 Individual * Heart of Midlothian Supporters' Player of the Year: 2016–17

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Jamie 1993 births Living people Footballers from Edinburgh Scottish footballers Association football wingers Scotland youth international footballers Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Scottish Football League players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Professional Football League players Scotland under-21 international footballers People educated at Forrester High School Wigan Athletic F.C. players English Football League players Peterborough United F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players