Louis Mark Laing (born 6 March 1993) is an English former

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 played as a defender. He started his career at

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

and also played for

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 ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

, Notts County,

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional F ...

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Hartle ...

, Blyth Spartans and

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

Club career

Sunderland

Laing was born in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

, and grew up supporting

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

. Laing started at youth level with Montague B.C. before he joined Newcastle's arch-rivals Sunderland in summer 2009. In his first year at the Sunderland academy, he made 18 appearances, scoring once, despite injuries during the 2009–10 season. Laing made his Sunderland debut on 14 May 2011, coming on as a late substitute for John Mensah in a 3–1 defeat at home to

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

. Although manager

Steve Bruce Stephen Roger Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as a centre-back. He most recently managed West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Br ...

was normally keen to let young players out on loan to play first-team football, the '' Sunderland Echo'' speculated that Laing might "have a part to play" for his parent club. On 16 January 2012, Laing signed for League One club

on a one-month loan. On 21 January, he made his debut in a 3–0 win against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

Adams Park Adams Park is an association football stadium in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Built in 1990, it is the home ground of the local Wycombe Wanderers in League One. It was also leased from 2002 to 2014 to the rugby union club London Was ...

. The loan was extended until the end of the season. On his return from loan, Laing signed a new contract with Sunderland. His next two seasons were overshadowed by injuries, and he was released at the end of the 2013–14 season.

Nottingham Forest

Despite interest from Blackburn Rovers,

and

Manchester United 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 City of Salford, Salford to ...

, Laing signed a one-year deal with

. Having only featured in Forest's reserves and under-21 sides, Laing joined Notts County on a one-month emergency loan on 12 September 2014. He made his County debut the next day in a 0–0 draw with Peterborough United. After helping the club keep four clean sheets in seven matches, Laing's loan spell with Notts County was extended to the maximum 93 days. After making ten appearances for the club, Laing's loan spell with Notts County came to an end, as he made his last appearance against Swindon Town on 13 December. On 30 January 2015, Laing moved on loan to

until the end of the 2014–15 season. He made his debut the following day against

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an old ...

, but was sent off after 25 minutes. Laing scored his first Motherwell goal in a 2–1 win over Inverness CT on 28 February. He played in both legs of the Scottish Premiership play-off final as Motherwell maintained their top-flight status with a 6–1 win on aggregate against

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

. At the end of the season, Laing returned to his parent club, although he said he hoped he would be able to come back to Motherwell. Laing was released by Nottingham Forest at the end of the season, having never made an appearance for the club.

Motherwell

On 30 June 2015, Laing returned to

, signing a two-year contract with the club. In March 2016, Laing revealed that earlier in the season, while out of the first team at Motherwell, he had considered giving up football. On 15 August 2016, Laing moved on loan to Notts County until 16 January 2017. He was released by Motherwell on 31 January.

Inverness

Laing signed for

on 16 February 2017 on a contract due to run until the end of the 2016–17 season.

Hartlepool United

Laing signed for

on 10 July 2017. His contract was terminated by mutual consent in October 2018; he made 40 league appearances for the club.

Blyth Spartans

Shortly after his release from Hartlepool, Laing signed for

National League North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Sy ...

club Blyth Spartans on 18 October.

Darlington

Laing signed for another National League North club,

, in 2019.

International career

Laing played for

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 ...

at all levels from under-16 to under-19.

Personal life

Laing now works for an insurance broker in Newcastle.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laing, Louis 1993 births Living people English men's footballers England men's youth international footballers Men's association football defenders Sunderland A.F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Blyth Spartans A.F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Scottish Professional Football League players National League (English football) players Footballers from Newcastle upon Tyne