Luke Stephen Maxwell (born 6 July 1997) 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

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 ...

. Maxwell began his career with

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed in ...

, and was loaned back to that club after signing for

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

of 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 ...

in January 2016. He spent time on loan at

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 ...

club

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in ...

, for whom he made his debut in 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 ...

, and at

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

and

Solihull Moors Solihull Moors Football Club is a professional football club based in Solihull, England. The club currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system, after achieving promotion from the National Leag ...

of the National League, before joining the latter permanently in January 2019. In 2019–20, he spent time on loan at

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 Gloucester City before returning to Kidderminster Harriers for the 2020–21 season. He left Kidderminster Harriers at the end of the 2020-21 season to pursue a career outside of football.

Club career

Early life and career

Maxwell was born in

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it had ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

, where he attended

Baxter College Baxter College is a mixed secondary school with academy status located in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. Prior to September 2002 the school was known as Harry Cheshire High School. The school provides education for pupils aged 11 to ...

. He scored in the final as his under-15 school team won the 2012 Worcestershire Schools County Cup final, a performance that earned them the District Council's award for school team of the year. He began his football career in the academy system at his local club,

, as part of which he completed a

BTEC Extended Diploma The BTEC (Business and Technology Education Council) Level 3 diploma is a Further Education qualification and vocational qualification taken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The qualification is organised and awarded by Pearson within the ...

in Sport at

Stourbridge College Birmingham Metropolitan College is a further and higher education college with 10 campuses distributed within Birmingham, England. The college was created in 2009 as an amalgamation of Matthew Boulton College and Sutton Coldfield College. The ...

. He was a member of the Kidderminster under-18 team that reached the third round of the

2014–15 FA Youth Cup The 2014–15 FA Youth Cup was the 63rd edition of the FA Youth Cup. Chelsea defended the title, beating Manchester City in the final. Calendar Preliminary round ;Notes: * † = After Extra Time First qualifying round ;Notes: * † = ...

, in which they lost 2–1 to

club

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

's youngsters, and signed his first contract with the club in December 2014. Maxwell made his first-team debut later that month, aged , in the starting eleven for a 1–0 defeat at home to

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...

in the

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

. He went on to make a further seven league appearances that season, and also scored in the final of the

Worcestershire Senior Cup The Worcestershire Senior Cup (officially ''The Worcestershire Football Association Senior Invitation Cup'') is a football competition organised by the Worcestershire County Football Association. It began in the 1893-94 season, with Redditch Town ...

to help Kidderminster beat

Worcester City Worcester City Football Club is an English football club based in Worcester, Worcestershire. The club play in the Midland Football League, the ninth tier of English football. Established in 1902, the club play at Claines Lane. Worcester City's ...

2–1. He became a regular in Kidderminster's first team in 2015–16, and made 22 league appearances in the first half of the season. In January 2016, he signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Championship club

for a fee of £75,000, to be paid in two instalments. As part of the deal, he returned to Kidderminster on a youth loan for the remainder of the season, and made a further 15 appearances, scoring twicefor his first senior goal, "he curled a finely-struck effort" to open the scoring in a 3–2 win against

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, o ...

as his team were unable to avoid

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

. Maxwell's performances for Kidderminster over the season earned him the Players' Player of the Season award. Maxwell returned to Birmingham City in time to be part of the Birmingham reserve team that lost the 2016

Birmingham Senior Cup The Birmingham Senior Cup is a football competition for Birmingham County FA club teams, organised by the Birmingham County Football Association. It began in 1876 and is the oldest county cup competition still active. The Birmingham Senior Cup is ...

final to

champions

Football League debut

Maxwell appeared for Birmingham's first team in 2016 pre-season, and by the new year was the under-23 team's joint-highest appearance maker, but had not played a competitive first-team match. On 27 January 2017, he joined

club

on loan to the end of the season. At the time, he was receiving treatment for a groin injury at his parent club, so did not make his

debut until 18 February, as an 83rd-minute substitute 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 ...

. On 4 May 2017, Maxwell returned to Birmingham prior to the final game of the season from his loan spell at Grimsby.

More loans

Maxwell joined National League club

on a three-month loan on 15 September 2017. He finished the spell with eleven appearances, eight in the league and three in the

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 ...

. He joined another National League club,

, in July 2018 on loan until 5 January 2019. He was a first-team regular for the full length of his loan spell, making 23 National League appearances and a further 5 in cup competitions.

Solihull Moors

When the loan expired, Maxwell signed for Solihull Moors on an 18-month contract with an option of a further year. He made 10 more National League appearances in what remained of the season, and was named Young Player of the Year as Moors finished as National League runners-up. Maxwell missed the first half of the 2019–20 season with a knee injury. He joined National League North club Gloucester City on 31 December 2019 on loan for a month, made his debut the following day in the starting eleven for a 2–1 win at home to Leamington, and made four more appearances before being recalled by his parent club three days before the loan spell was due to end. He made two substitute appearances before the National League season was suspended and then terminated early because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, and was released when his contract expired.

Return to Kidderminster

In July 2020, Maxwell rejoined Kiddermnster Harriers on a one-year contract.

Honours

Solihull Moors *

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 ...

runners-up: 2018–19 Individual *

Young Player of the Season: 2018-19

Club statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, Luke 1997 births Living people Sportspeople from Kidderminster English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Kidderminster Harriers F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Gateshead F.C. players Solihull Moors F.C. players Gloucester City A.F.C. players National League (English football) players English Football League players Footballers from Worcestershire