Jeff King (born 19 December 1995) 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 le ...

who plays as a defender for

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 ...

. King started his career in

non-league Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

playing for

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population o ...

Prescot Cables Prescot Cables Football Club is a supporter-owned football club based in Prescot, Merseyside. It was established in 1884 and has also been known as Prescot and Prescot Town. They compete in the and play their home games at Valerie Park. They ...

Nantwich Town Nantwich Town Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. The club was founded in 1884 and is nicknamed ''The Dabbers'', a reference to the town's tanning industry. They currently compete in and play ...

, Kendal Town,

Trafford Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers Retrieved on 13 December 2007. and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Ur ...

Ashton United Ashton United Football Club is a football club in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. They are currently members of and play at Hurst Cross. History The club was founded in 1878 as Hurst Football Club and the earliest known match ...

Witton Albion Witton may refer to one of several places in England: *Witton, historic name of an area of Northwich, Cheshire **Witton Albion F.C. *Witton Gilbert, County Durham *Witton-le-Wear, County Durham *Witton, an area of Blackburn, Lancashire * Witton, B ...

and

Droylsden Droylsden is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, east of Manchester city centre and west of Ashton-under-Lyne, with a population at the 2011 Census of 22,689. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, in the ...

, before joining the academy of

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

. He made his debut for Bolton in an

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

match against

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. King signed for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

club St Mirren in June 2018, but was released in the following January.

Early life

King played for various Junior League sides in the

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

area; including The Mags, Warner Portcullis, The Celts and Connect.

Playing career

Non-League

King played mostly for the youth team at

appearing regularly on the first team bench, but making his only first team appearance 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 ...

in the

Cheshire Senior Cup The Cheshire County Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the Cheshire Senior Cup, is a football knockout tournament founded in the 1879–80 season and involves teams from Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, England. It ...

. He had a brief loan spell at

from March 2014 until the end of the season, before returning to train with the Altrincham first team. King moved to

in September 2014, whilst the club was in the midst of an injury crisis. He made his debut against

Halesowen Town Halesowen Town Football Club is a football club based in Halesowen, West Midlands, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Grove Recreation Ground. History The club was believed to have been established around 1873, but rece ...

. In October 2014 he moved to Kendal Town. In January 2015, King moved to

from Kendal Town, citing transportation difficulties. In September 2015, King moved to

. In March 2016 he moved to

. He played in the Mid-Cheshire Senior Cup final against

1874 Northwich 1874 Northwich Football Club is a football club based in Northwich, Cheshire, England. Established in 2012 by supporters of Northwich Victoria, they are currently members of the . Home matches are played at Barnton's Townfield ground. The ...

which Witton lost 3–0. On 19 April 2016, King was charged by the FA with misconduct under Rule E3, allegedly using abusive, race-related language in a match played on 5 December 2015 whilst still at previous club

. He was subsequently suspended for five matches, fined £100 and ordered to complete an FA equality course. In August 2016, King signed for

Bolton Wanderers

By November 2016, King was playing for Bolton's under-23 side. Bolton initially tried to register King's promotion to the first team in the 2016–17 season but due to a transfer embargo, the EFL prohibited the move. King extended his first professional contract with the club in July 2017. He joined the first team on a preseason trip to Scotland. Going into the season it seemed unlikely that King would receive any game time at Bolton, as the club were again restricted to a squad of only 23 professionals. On 14 September 2017 the embargo was lifted and King was registered with the first team. He made his Bolton debut on 19 September 2017 in a loss against

in the third round of the

, playing 80 minutes. He was released by Bolton at the end of the 2017–18 season.

St Mirren

On 22 June 2018, King signed a two-year contract with

club St Mirren. He was released by St Mirren in January 2019.

Halifax Town

In August 2019, King signed for

club

Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 season. ...

. On 16 August 2020, King signed a new one-year deal for Halifax. King left the club at the end of the 2020–21 season following a season where he won his side's player of the season award as well as being named in the league's official Team of the Season.

Chesterfield

On 24 June 2021, King agreed a deal to join fellow National League side

. King earned a place in the

2022–23 National League The 2022–23 National League season, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, will be the eighth season under English football's new title of the National League, the twentieth season consisting of three divisions, and the fo ...

Team of the Year.

Style of play

King was previously considered an attacking midfielder that can also cover the

centre forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

position, but since moving to Halifax he has been converted into a right wing back. He is known as a dead-ball specialist, with a large proportion of his goals occurring from set pieces.

Personal life

He is the nephew of former

player and manager John King.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Individual *

Team of the Year:

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 ...

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 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Jeff 1995 births Living people English men's footballers Footballers from Liverpool Men's association football midfielders Altrincham F.C. players Prescot Cables F.C. players Nantwich Town F.C. players Kendal Town F.C. players Trafford F.C. players Ashton United F.C. players Witton Albion F.C. players Droylsden F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players F.C. United of Manchester players St Mirren F.C. players FC Halifax Town players Chesterfield F.C. players English Football League players Northern Football League players National League (English football) players