Joseff John Morrell (born 3 January 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a central-midfielder for club

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 the Wales national team.

Club career

Morrell began his career with

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

whilst attending The Castle School in Thornbury, and signed a professional contract with the club in December 2012 after turning down an offer from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

. He made his debut on 8 October 2013 in a 2–1

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

defeat against

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

. In August 2016 it was announced that Morrell would join

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 ...

club

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 ...

, initially on a one-month loan. He made his first appearance for the U's as a substitute coming on at 61' in a 3–1 victory over Lincoln City at

Sincil Bank Sincil Bank Stadium, known for sponsorship reasons as LNER Stadium, is a football stadium in Lincoln, England which has been the home of Lincoln City since 1895. Previously, Lincoln City had played at the nearby John O'Gaunts ground since th ...

on 13 August 2016, Sutton's first win in English football's fifth tier in 16 years. One reporter described Morrell as having "had a great competitive debut overall". He made two further substitute appearances in home victories against

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

and

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional association football, football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was liquidation, wound-up after a High Court of Justice, High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially kno ...

before returning to his parent club in early September 2016. On 24 February 2017, Morrell joined

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, ...

on loan for a month. He made his debut as a 58th minute substitute during a 2–0 home loss to

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 ...

. On 30 August 2017, Morrell signed for

Cheltenham Town Cheltenham Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. From the 2021–22 season, the club compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league syst ...

on loan until January 2018. His first goal for the club came in a 3–0 win against

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...

and scored three times in total for the club. On 27 June 2019, Morrell signed for Lincoln City on a season-long loan until May 2020. He scored his first goal in a dominant 5–1 win against

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 ...

on 14 January 2020, however it was later given as an own-goal for Josh Emmanuel. On 7 March 2020, Morrell played his final game for the Imps against

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home groun ...

, due to the season being cancelled early because of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In June 2020, Morrell was named Lincoln City's Player of the Season. In November 2019 he signed a new contract with Bristol City.

Luton Town

On 15 October 2020 Morrell joined Luton Town for an undisclosed fee.

Portsmouth

On 9 August 2021, Morrell joined

EFL 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 ...

Portsmouth for an undisclosed fee on a 3-year contract with a 12-month extension clause. On 21 January 2023, Morell scored his first goal for Portsmouth against Exeter City after 49 games and 13 league appearances in the 2022–23 season

International career

Morrell qualifies to play for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

through his Welsh mother Sian. In October 2017, Morrell made his Wales U21 debut in a 3–1 victory against

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarchy ...

. In August 2019, Morrell was named in the

squad ahead of their Euro 2020 qualifier against Azerbaijan. He made his senior international debut for

against Belarus on 9 September 2019. In May 2021 he was selected for the Wales squad for the delayed

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

tournament. In November 2022 he was named in the Wales squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. Morrell made his

World cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

debut coming on as a late substitute against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in Wales' opening

2022 FIFA World Cup Group B Group B of the 2022 FIFA World Cup took place from 21 to 29 November 2022. The group consisted of national association football teams from England, Iran, the United States and Wales. Both England and the United States progressed to the round of 16 ...

game, Morrell also came on as a substitute in the group stage game against England.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Individual * Lincoln City Player of the Year: 2019–20

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morrell, Joe 1997 births Living people Footballers from Ipswich English men's footballers English people of Welsh descent Men's association football forwards Bristol City F.C. players Sutton United F.C. players Margate F.C. players Cheltenham Town F.C. players Lincoln City F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players National League (English football) players English Football League players Wales men's youth international footballers Wales men's under-21 international footballers Wales men's international footballers UEFA Euro 2020 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players