Josh Clarke (born 28 July 2004) is a 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 ...

currently playing as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

Ayr United Ayr United Football Club are a football club in Ayr, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. Formed in 1910 by the merger of Ayr Parkhouse and Ayr F.C., their nickname is ...

, on loan from

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. Born in England, he is a former youth international for Sweden and the Republic of Ireland, before opting to play for Northern Ireland in 2021.

Early life

Clarke was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

to a Swedish mother, and would visit his maternal grandparents in Skåne County as a child. He attended Shrewsbury House School until the age of 13, when he moved to the St John's School in

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley District of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxon period, Leathe ...

. As well as playing football, Clarke was enrolled in the elite academy of professional

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

club Harlequins, and represented Surrey County in

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

Club career

Early career

Having grown up living near

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 Fo ...

side

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

Cobham Training Centre The Cobham Training Centre, is the training ground of Chelsea Football Club located in the village of Stoke d'Abernon near the village of Cobham, Surrey. The Chelsea first team have trained at Stoke D'Abernon since 2005, but it was not officia ...

, Clarke joined the academy of ''The Blues'' in 2011. During his time in the academy, he won a Goalkeeper of the Tournament award at the

Kevin de Bruyne Kevin De Bruyne (born 28 June 1991) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Manchester City and the Belgium national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world. Pundits have often des ...

Cup in 2019, as Chelsea went on to win the youth competition. After leaving Chelsea ahead of the 2020–21 season, Clarke trained with Portuguese side

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

, and was reportedly scouted by Turkish side Beşiktaş. He had been approached by Bournemouth since January 2020, and he joined the club in July 2020. In December of the same year, he played the first sixty minutes in a friendly against the under-18 side of

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

, before being replaced by under-16 goalkeeper Ollie Camis. However, just fifteen minutes later, Bournemouth went down to ten men due to injuries, and Clarke was substituted back on to play as a makeshift striker - going on to score an equalising goal in the eventual 1–1 draw. He trained with the first team during his time at the club, and was the backup goalkeeper for an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

fixture against

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

in January 2021.

Glenavon

On 8 April 2022, Northern Irish club Glenavon announced the signing of Clarke. He had been brought in on a short-term, emergency deal, following the departure of Declan Brown and the suspension of James Taylor. He made his debut a day after signing, in a

NIFL Premiership The NIFL Premiership, known as the Danske Bank Premiership for sponsorship purposes, and colloquially as the Irish League or Irish Premiership, is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Northe ...

game against

Ballymena United Ballymena United Football Club is a semi-professional football club from Northern Ireland. Based in Ballymena, County Antrim, the team competes in the NIFL Premiership and plays home matches at the Ballymena Showgrounds which is owned by the ...

on 9 April, and after Glenavon defender Danny Wallace was sent off for a foul inside the penalty area, Clarke saved the resulting penalty from Leroy Millar as Glenavon went on to win 3–1. He went on to make five further appearances, including Glenavon's 2–0 away loss to

Glentoran Glentoran Football Club is a professional football club that plays in the NIFL Premiership. The club was founded in 1882. History Early history In 1914, Glentoran won the Vienna Cup, becoming the first United Kingdom team to win a European t ...

in the UEFA Europa Conference League play-offs, in which he made a number of saves, before his contract with the club expired. Clarke received the supporters' Player of the Month Award in April 2022.

Celtic

Clarke moved to Scotland to join

, signing a two-year deal in August 2022 and being assigned to the club's

B Team B, or b, is the second letter of the Latin-script alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' bee'' (pronounced ), plural ''bees''. It r ...

. He notably saved four penalties in Celtic B's

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

win against Rangers B in the final of the

Glasgow Cup The Glasgow Cup is a football tournament open to teams from Glasgow, Scotland. Operated by the Glasgow Football Association, it was competed for annually by senior Glasgow clubs from 1887 until 1989. It is now (since the 2019–20 amended rul ...

, garnering national coverage for his performance.

Loan to Airdrieonians

On 5 August 2023, Clarke was sent on a one-game emergency loan to

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 ...

side Airdrieonians, following the absences of first-choice goalkeeper Josh Rae and player-goalkeeper coach David Hutton. He made his debut the same day, as Airdrieonians lost 2–1 to

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently play in Scottish League One after being relegated from the 2021–22 Scottish Championship. Dunfermline ...

, before returning to Celtic.

Loan to Ayr United

On 24 February 2024,

announced that they had signed Clarke on a loan deal from Celtic until the end of the season. He made his debut the same day, playing ninety minutes as Ayr United lost 2–1 at home to

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 ...

in the Scottish Championship.

International career

Clarke is eligible to represent England, Sweden, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland at international level. In 2019, he played for Sweden's under-16 team in two friendly matches against Norway and Finland. In late 2020, Clarke was called up for an England youth training camp at St George's Park. In March of the following year, he featured in a hybrid friendly for the England under-17 team, coming on as a first-half substitute for

James Beadle James Giles Beadle (born 16 July 2004) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Championship Sheffield Wednesday, on loan from Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion. He is an English youth international, currentl ...

in a 2–1 win over the under-23 side of

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

. In August 2021, he featured in a 2–0 friendly win over

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...

for the Republic of Ireland under-18 side. In September 2021, he was selected to represent Northern Ireland at under-19 level in two 1–0 friendly wins against the

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

. He received his second call-up for Northern Ireland in their 2022 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification campaign, featuring in all three games as they failed to achieve qualification. He was called up again in March 2023, ahead of Northern Ireland's games in the elite round of

2023 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualification The 2023 UEFA European Under-19 Championship qualifying competition is a men's under-19 football competition that will determine the seven teams joining the automatically qualified hosts Malta in the 2023 UEFA European Under-19 Championship final ...

. In March 2022, Clarke was called up to the senior Northern Irish team for the first time at the age of seventeen, but remained on the bench as Northern Ireland beat

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 ...

3–1 in a friendly. He was called up again in May of the same year, ahead of

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

fixtures the following month against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

and

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

, but again did not feature.

Career statistics

. ;Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Josh 2004 births Living people Footballers from Greater London Men's association footballers from Northern Ireland Swedish men's footballers Republic of Ireland men's association footballers English men's footballers Sweden men's youth international footballers Northern Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers NIFL Premiership players Lowland Football League players Scottish Professional Football League players Chelsea F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Glenavon F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Airdrieonians F.C. players Ayr United F.C. players People from Northern Ireland of Swedish descent Irish people of Swedish descent Swedish people of Northern Ireland descent Swedish people of Irish descent English people of Swedish descent English people of Northern Ireland descent English people of Irish descent