Leon James Britton (born 16 September 1982) is an English
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 ...
and
coach
Coach may refer to:
Guidance/instruction
* Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities
* Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process
** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers
Transportation
* Co ...
who plays for
Ammanford
Ammanford ( cy, Rhydaman) is a town and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, with a population of 5,411 at the 2011 census. It is a former coal mining town. The built-up area had a population of 7,945 with the wider urban area even bigger.
Acco ...
in the
Cymru South
The Cymru South is a regional football league in Wales, covering the southern half of the country. It has clubs with semi-professional status and together with the Cymru North, it forms the second tier of the Welsh football league system.
The fi ...
. A
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 ...
, he spent most of his career with
Swansea City, having joined Swansea on a permanent transfer in 2003. Britton went on to make 520 appearances for the club. He joined
Sheffield United
Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...
in the summer of 2010, but transferred back to Swansea in January 2011. Britton instantly became a central figure in Swansea's successful promotion campaign. He remains one of a handful of players to have represented any club in all four professional divisions of the
English footballing pyramid, along with
Brett Ormerod
Brett Ryan Ormerod (born 18 October 1976) is an English retired professional footballer. A forward, he made 340 appearances in the Football League, including 215 for Blackpool, for whom he is the only player to have scored in all of the top four ...
, and former Swansea teammates
Alan Tate
Alan Tate (born 2 September 1982) is an English professional football coach and retired footballer who is an assistant head coach at Nottingham Forest.
A former defender, Tate spent the majority of his playing career at Swansea City. After ...
and
Garry Monk
Garry Alan Monk (born 6 March 1979) is an English football manager and former professional player who played as a centre back, and was most recently the manager of Championship club Sheffield Wednesday. His managerial career includes spells at ...
. He later played twice for
Llanelli Town and signed for
Ammanford
Ammanford ( cy, Rhydaman) is a town and community in Carmarthenshire, Wales, with a population of 5,411 at the 2011 census. It is a former coal mining town. The built-up area had a population of 7,945 with the wider urban area even bigger.
Acco ...
in February 2021.
Playing career
Youth career
A member of the
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
Development School at
Lilleshall
Lilleshall is a village and civil parish in the county of Shropshire, England.
It lies between the towns of Telford and Newport, on the A518, in the Telford and Wrekin borough and the Wrekin constituency. There is one school in the centre of ...
where he was a year behind
Joe Cole
Joseph John Cole (born 8 November 1981) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or winger in the Premier League, Ligue 1, League One and United Soccer League. He is regarded as one ...
, Britton began his career as an
Arsenal
An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...
trainee at the age of nine. When he signed for
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 ...
for £400,000 in 1998, he attracted the highest transfer fee ever paid for a 16-year-old at that time.
Unable to break into the first team at West Ham, Britton joined
Swansea City on loan in December 2002, helping the club to avoid relegation from the
Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
. He was named
PFA Fans' Player of the Year
The Professional Footballers' Association Fans' Player of the Year (often called the PFA Fans' Player of the Year, or simply the Fans' Player of the Year) award is given to footballers in the top four flights of English football, the Premier Leag ...
for the
Third Division in the 2002–03 season.
Swansea manager
Brian Flynn Brian Flynn may refer to:
* Brian Flynn (footballer) (born 1955), Welsh football manager
* Brian Flynn (baseball) (born 1990), American baseball player
* Brian Flynn (cricketer) (1929-1986), Australian cricketer
* Brian Flynn (ice hockey)
Brian ...
was impressed enough to sign him permanently after he was released by West Ham.
Swansea City
With Swansea, Britton went on to win the club's Player of the Year award in both the 2002–03 and 2005–06 seasons.
Including his appearances whilst on loan with the club, to the end of the 2005–06 season, Britton had played 137 times for Swansea City in all competitions (with a further 18 appearances as a substitute) and had scored nine goals.
On 9 February 2008, Britton played his 200th match for Swansea City. In January 2010, Swansea rejected an £750,000 offer for Britton from
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, ...
but at the end of that season Britton refused the offer of a new contract and became a free agent.
Sheffield United
Despite interest from the Premier League, Britton signed for
Sheffield United
Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...
in June 2010.
He was handed a regular role in the centre of ''the Blades'' midfield but failed to really show the form he had displayed at Swansea. A difficult period for the club, Britton played under four managers within the space of five months and eventually asked to return to his former employer, stating that his previous transfer had been a "mistake" and that he "should never have left Swansea".
''The Blades'' admitted that he had never settled in
South Yorkshire
South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham.
In N ...
and agreed to let him return to Wales after only 26 appearances for the club.
Return to Swansea
Britton re-signed for
Swansea City for what ''the Blades'' described as an "undisclosed fee" during the January transfer window despite the Swans insisting no fee was involved.
The fee was clause based and included up to £400,000 depending on appearances and Swansea's promotion to the
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 Foo ...
.
Britton's second Swansea City debut came in a draw with
Barnsley
Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...
on 20 January 2011.
He scored his first goal of the season (his first goal in three and a half years) against his former employers Sheffield United in the final match of the regular season.
The
2010–11 season ended with Swansea City being promoted to the Premier League for the first time in their history following a 4–2 victory over
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...
in the Championship Play-off Final at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...
. Britton started the match at Wembley and completed 77 minutes before being substituted by
Mark Gower
Mark Gower (born 5 October 1978) is a former English footballer, who played for several clubs including Barnet, Southend United and Swansea City.
Career
Born in Edmonton, London and moving to Romford, Gower began his career at Gidea Park Ra ...
.
Following Swansea's promotion, Britton made his Premier League debut in a 4–0 loss against
Manchester City
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...
on 15 August 2011 where he played in the central midfield. Britton stated he would like to finish his career with the club and admitted he cannot imagine playing elsewhere.
On 30 March 2012, Britton signed a contract extension at Swansea City, contracting him until the end of the 2015 campaign.
On 5 February 2013, Britton signed a one-year contract extension on improved terms with Swansea City, keeping at the club until June 2016.
Later that month, Britton played as Swansea beat
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.
Th ...
5–0 in the
2013 League Cup Final at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...
.
On 11 May 2018, it was announced that Britton would retire from professional football after the end of the
2017–18 season. He opted to become a club ambassador following Swansea City's relegation to the
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
.
Llanelli Town
In January 2019, Britton returned to football, joining
Welsh Premier League
The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. Prior to 20 ...
side
Llanelli Town. He made his debut for the club in a 2–1 win over
Llandudno
Llandudno (, ) is a seaside resort, town and community in Conwy County Borough, Wales, located on the Creuddyn peninsula, which protrudes into the Irish Sea. In the 2011 UK census, the community – which includes Gogarth, Penrhyn Bay, Craigsi ...
. On 2 February 2019, in a 0–0 draw away at
Cefn Druids in his second league game for the club, Britton suffered a broken foot.
Coaching and backroom roles
In November 2017, Swansea manager
Paul Clement
Paul Drew Clement (born June 24, 1966) is an American lawyer who served as U.S. Solicitor General from 2004 to 2008 and is known for his advocacy before the U.S. Supreme Court. He established his own law firm, Clement & Murphy, in 2022 after le ...
appointed Britton as an assistant coach, after the departure of
Claude Makélélé
Claude Makélélé Sinda (born 18 February 1973) is a French football manager and former professional player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is currently a youth coach and technical mentor at Chelsea, having formerly been the head co ...
from the coaching staff. Britton remained available for selection as a player, but relinquished his captaincy following his coaching appointment.
Britton was named caretaker manager at Swansea on 21 December 2017, after the dismissal of Clement the previous day.
In his first game in charge, on 23 December, Swansea drew 1–1 at home to
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
, a result which left them at the bottom of the league. Britton remained in charge for Swansea's Boxing Day match against
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 ...
at
Anfield
Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...
, where the Swans were comprehensively beaten 5–0. This was his last match as caretaker manager as the Swans appointed former
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...
coach
Carlos Carvalhal
Carlos Augusto Soares da Costa Faria Carvalhal (; born 4 December 1965) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a centre-back, currently manager of La Liga club RC Celta de Vigo.
As a player, he totalled 197 Primeira Liga appearances in ...
as their new manager. Britton then chose to relinquish his coaching duties to concentrate on playing.
Britton was appointed football advisor to the board of directors at Swansea City on 21 May 2019. Along with chairman
Trevor Birch and club president
Alan Curtis, Britton helped choose
Steve Cooper as Swansea's new manager following the departure of
Graham Potter
Graham Stephen Potter (born 20 May 1975) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the current head coach of club Chelsea.
In a 13-year playing career, Potter, who played as a left-back, made 307 appearances in the ...
in 2019. Britton was appointed Swansea's first Sporting Director on 4 September 2019, but relinquished his duties in June 2020.
Personal life
Britton was born in
Merton, Greater London and played a young
Ryan Giggs
Ryan Joseph Giggs (né Wilson; 29 November 1973) is a Welsh association football, football coach and former player. Regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Giggs played his List of one-club men in association football, entir ...
in a road safety advertisement in the 1990s. Britton also appeared in a
Walkers Crisps
Walkers is a British snack food manufacturer mainly operating in the UK and Ireland. The company is best known for manufacturing potato crisps and other (non-potato-based) snack foods. In 2013, it held 56% of the British crisp market. Walker ...
advert with former England international
Gary Lineker
Gary Winston Lineker (; born 30 November 1960) is an English former professional footballer and current sports broadcaster. He is regarded as having been one of the greatest English strikers. His media career began with the BBC, where he has p ...
.
Career statistics
Managerial statistics
Honours
Club
Swansea City
*
Football League 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 ...
:
2012–13[
*]Football League Championship play-offs
The English Football League Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , ...
: 2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...
[
*]Football 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 ...
: 2007–08
*Football League Two
The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...
third-place promotion: 2004–05
*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 ...
: 2005–06
*FAW Premier Cup
The FAW Premier Cup (until 1998 the FAW Invitation Cup) was a Welsh football cup competition, organised annually by the Football Association of Wales from 1997 to 2008. Since the FAW excluded clubs playing in English leagues (including six Welsh c ...
: 2004–05, 2005–06
Individual
*PFA Fans' Player of the Year
The Professional Footballers' Association Fans' Player of the Year (often called the PFA Fans' Player of the Year, or simply the Fans' Player of the Year) award is given to footballers in the top four flights of English football, the Premier Leag ...
(Third Division): 2002–03
* Swansea City Player of the Year: 2002–03, 2006–07
References
External links
Leon Britton profile
at the Swansea City A.F.C. website
Leon Britton profile
at the Football Association website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Britton, Leon
1982 births
Living people
Footballers from the London Borough of Merton
English footballers
England youth international footballers
Association football midfielders
Arsenal F.C. players
West Ham United F.C. players
Swansea City A.F.C. players
Sheffield United F.C. players
English Football League players
Premier League players
English football managers
Swansea City A.F.C. managers
Premier League managers
Llanelli Town A.F.C. players
Cymru Premier players
Swansea City A.F.C. non-playing staff
Ammanford A.F.C. players