Leon Patrick Bailey (born 9 August 1997) is a Jamaican 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 ...

who plays 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 ...

for

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 ...

club Aston Villa and the Jamaica national team. Bailey arrived in Europe at the age of 13 and played for a number of clubs at youth level before being signed by Belgian side

Genk Genk () is a city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg near Hasselt. The municipality only comprises the town of Genk itself. It is one of the most important industrial towns in Flanders, located on the Albert Canal, ...

in 2015, where he was named Belgian Young Footballer of the Year. His success in Belgium earned him a move to

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

side

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

in 2017. After four years at the club, he was signed by Aston Villa in 2021 for a fee of around £30 million.

Club career

Early career

Bailey started his career playing for the Phoenix All-Star Academy operated by his adoptive father, Craig Butler. In 2011, Butler arrived in Europe to find a club for Bailey and Butler's biological son, Kyle. Bailey caught the eye of

K.R.C. Genk Koninklijke Racing Club Genk (), commonly known as KRC Genk, Racing Genk or simply Genk, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Genk in Belgian Limburg. Racing Genk plays in the Belgian Pro League and have won four cham ...

in Belgium, but because of the very strict regulations on minors by FIFA, they could not offer him a contract. Bailey almost joined

Standard Liège Royal Standard de Liège, commonly referred to as Standard Liège (; nl, Standard Luik ; german: Standard Lüttich ) or simply Standard in Belgium, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Liège. They are one of the most ...

, but the transfer was not approved because Butler had no work permit. Aged 13, Bailey signed for Austrian non-league side Anif Jugend, before moving to

FC Liefering FC Liefering GmbH is an Austrian association football club, originally from Liefering, a section of Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, ...

. In the beginning of 2013, Bailey signed a professional contract with Slovakian side

AS Trenčín AS Trenčín () is a Slovak sports club in the town of Trenčín, most known for its football department. The first team currently plays in the Fortuna Liga after winning the 2010–11 Slovak First League. The club plays its home games at th ...

. In October 2013, Bailey reached a verbal agreement

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

, but a transfer did not materialize due to FIFA rules.

Genk

Bailey joined

in 2015 from Trenčín. He made his

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 tea ...

debut on 21 August 2015 in a 3–1 away defeat against

Sint-Truiden Sint-Truiden (; french: link=no, Saint-Trond ; li, Sintruin ) is a city and municipality located in the province of Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium, and has over 41,500 inhabitants, which makes it one of the largest cities in Limburg. The mun ...

replacing Siebe Schrijvers after 62 minutes. He scored his first professional goal for KRC Genk on 21 November versus OH Leuven. At the end of the 2015–16 season he won the Belgian Young Footballer of the Year award. His goal in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

against

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

on 15 September 2016 was chosen as the top goal of the competition for the 2016–17 season by UEFA.

Bayer Leverkusen

Bailey joined

in January 2017 for a fee of €20 million, after interest from Manchester United and

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 ...

. He made his debut for

Leverkusen Leverkusen () is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on the eastern bank of the Rhine. To the south, Leverkusen borders the city of Cologne, and to the north the state capital, Düsseldorf. With about 161,000 inhabitants, Leverkusen is o ...

on 3 February 2017, in a 1–0 defeat against Hamburg. His Champions League debut came on 24 February 2017, in a 2–2 draw against Atlético Madrid. He made ten appearances for Leverkusen in his first half season at the club. He scored his first goal for the club on 11 August 2017, in the first game of the 2017–18 season in a 3–0 victory in the German Cup against

Karlsruher SC Karlsruher SC is a German association football club, based in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg that currently plays in the 2. Bundesliga, the second tier of German football. Domestically, the club was crowned German champion in 1909, and won the DF ...

. His first league goal for the club came on 29 September against

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

. He finished the season scoring 12 goals in 34 games in all competitions, helping guide Bayer Leverkusen to a fifth-place finish in the

. On 30 November 2019, he scored twice in a 2–1 win over champions Bayern Munich, one goal with each foot.

Aston Villa

On 4 August 2021, Bailey signed for

club Aston Villa. On 14 August 2021, he made his Premier League debut as a substitute in a 3–2 loss to

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 ...

. On 18 September 2021, he scored his first goal for Villa in a 3–0 home victory over Everton, in which he also took a corner that led to a

Lucas Digne Lucas Digne (; born 20 July 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as a left-back for club Aston Villa and the France national team. Digne began his career at Lille before joining Paris Saint-Germain in 2013. After spending a sea ...

own goal. Bailey's first season with Aston Villa was punctuated with injuries - suffering a hamstring injury in August that ruled him out for a month, a quad injury in the aforementioned game against Everton that ruled him out for another month, another thigh injury in December that ruled him out until February, which was followed by an ankle injury in April which prematurely ended his season - ultimately limiting Bailey to only 7 starts. On 6 November 2022, Bailey scored the first goal under

Unai Emery Unai Emery Etxegoien (born 3 November 1971) is a Spanish football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Aston Villa. After a career spent playing mostly in Spain's Segunda División, Emery transitioned into coa ...

in a 3–1 home victory over Manchester United.

Personal life

Growing up in Jamaica, Bailey wanted to become a footballer or a sprinter - inspired by the success of

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt, , (; born 21 August 1986) is a retired Jamaican sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay. An eight-ti ...

. Bailey was one of 23 children adopted by football coach Craig Butler, whose Phoenix Academy team Bailey played for as a child. Butler worked cleaning toilets to save enough money to travel to Europe - where he hoped to find Bailey, and his biological son, Kyle a professional club. Since the age of 13, Bailey has lived in Europe.

International career

Jamaica U23

Bailey played in a friendly match for Jamaica under-23s on 8 March 2015 versus the Cayman Islands under-23 side, where he scored directly from a free kick.

Jamaica

In March 2017 it was reported that Bailey would refuse Jamaica call ups until the standards of Jamaican football improved. In September 2017, Bailey told German football magazine Kicker: "They always want me to play for Jamaica, but I've had personal problems with the

association Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

since I was eleven or twelve years old". In January 2018,

Winfried Schäfer Winfried "Winnie" Schäfer (born 10 January 1950) is a German football manager and former player who last managed of Qatari club Al-Khor. Playing career Winfried Schäfer played 403 Bundesliga matches and scored 46 goals in the (West) German to ...

, the former Jamaica national team coach told a German newspaper Bild "I really wanted to make him a national player. I have invited him several times – among others to the Gold Cup in America and to international matches. I also called at Genk. But his step-father blocked everything." Bailey was thought to have accepted a call-up in October 2018, but reneged after demanding that his brother Kyle Butler, who at the time played for the reserves of

FC Juniors OÖ FC Juniors OÖ is an Austrian association football club, from Pasching, Upper Austria. It was newly founded after the move of ASKÖ Pasching, who last appeared as FC Superfund, to Carinthia and the associated renaming in SK Austria Kärnten in 2 ...

in the Austrian 2. Liga, be called up too. In May 2019, Bailey was named to the Jamaican provisional squad for the

2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 15th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American, and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF. The tournament was primarily hosted in the ...

, with Bailey officially announcing that he would accept the call-up and represent the Reggae Boyz. He would earn his first Jamaica international cap on 17 June 2019 against Honduras. Bailey scored his first goal for Jamaica on 6 September 2019 against Antigua and Barbuda, netting the fifth goal in a 6–0 victory in

CONCACAF Nations League The CONCACAF Nations League ( es, Liga de Naciones CONCACAF, french: Ligue des Nations de la CONCACAF) is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of CONCACAF, the ...

play. Bailey was thought to have been eligible to represent England as he has two grandparents who have British citizenship. However, he is not eligible to play for England as none of his grandparents were born in England.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Jamaica's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Bailey goal.''

Honours

Individual * Belgian Young Professional Footballer of the Year: 2015–16 * VDV Newcomer of the Season: 2017–18 *VDV Team of the Season: 2017–18 *

Team of the Season: 2017–18 *Bundesliga Goal of the Month: December 2020

References

External links

Profile
at the Aston Villa F.C. website * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bailey, Leon 1997 births Living people Footballers from Kingston, Jamaica Jamaican men's footballers Men's association football wingers K.R.C. Genk players Bayer 04 Leverkusen players Aston Villa F.C. players Belgian Pro League players Bundesliga players Premier League players Jamaica men's youth international footballers Jamaica men's international footballers 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Jamaican expatriate men's footballers Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in Germany Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in England