Lee Trevor Williamson (born 7 June 1982) is a retired 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 ...

. Born in

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

he started his career at

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional 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 play in a blue and ...

before spending time at

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

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 ...

, Preston North End,

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 ...

and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

before joining Blackburn. He has chosen to play internationally for

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

Club career

Early career

Williamson started his career at

, making 165 appearances in his stay at

Field Mill Field Mill, currently known as One Call Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a football ground in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England, and the home of Mansfield Town Football Club. It is the oldest ground in the Football League, hosting footb ...

. He then moved to

early in the 2004–05 season where he quickly established himself as an automatic choice in the first team where he scored two goals. Williamson then joined

in the summer of 2005, and once again established himself in first team.

Watford

He completed a move to Watford along with teammate Will Hoskins for a combined fee of £1.2 million on 5 January 2007. On 31 January 2007 he played his first

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 ...

match for Watford against Manchester United. Williamson scored three times in his first season at

Vicarage Road Vicarage Road is a stadium in Watford, England, and is the home stadium of championship club Watford. An all-seater stadium, its current capacity is 22,200. History It has been the home of Watford since 1922, when the club moved from Cas ...

but was then loaned to Preston North End at the end of March until the end of the 2008–09 season. He scored his only Preston goal on 18 April 2009 against Cardiff City which rounded off a 6–0 win at

Deepdale Deepdale is a football stadium in the Deepdale area of Preston, England, the home of Preston North End. Deepdale is "widely recognised as being the oldest 'continuously used' football stadium in the world, though this is contested". History ...

Sheffield United

Williamson signed with

for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around £500,000, during the 2009 close season. Having suffered a back injury in pre-season Williamson found himself sidelined until the end of October and had to wait until December to score his début goal for the club against

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 ...

. He continued to be dogged by injuries during his first season with the ''Blades'' and eventually returned for a second operation on his back in the close season. This time, however, Williamson almost died after suffering complications during the operation. He was placed on a life support machine for two days after contracting an infection. Commenting at the time, then ''Blades'' Manager

Kevin Blackwell Kevin Patrick Blackwell (born 21 December 1958) is an English former professional football goalkeeper who since retiring as a player has worked as a coach and a manager. He is currently the manager of Thai League 1 club Nakhon Ratchasima. Ear ...

said: "''He was placed on life support. He's a very lucky lad to be alive.''" On 26 July 2012, on Sheffield United's pre-season tour of Malta, manager, Danny Wilson confirmed Williamson would not sign a new deal with the club and had subsequently been told to stay away from training with the squad. Despite this Wilson refused to rule out Williamson signing a new deal.

Portsmouth

On 16 August 2012, Williamson signed a one-month deal with

. In January 2013 he was released by Portsmouth along with 5 other players due to financial reasons.

Blackburn Rovers

Williamson signed for

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 ...

side

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

in an 18-month deal on 8 February 2013. He made his debut away at Arsenal in the fifth round of the FA Cup, playing the whole match in gloves alongside Jason Lowe as his new team produced a surprise 1–0 win, courtesy of a late

Colin Kazim-Richards Colin Kazim-Richards (born 26 August 1986), also known as Colin Kâzım, Kâzım or Kâzım Kâzım, is a professional footballer as a forward for Süper Lig club Fatih Karagümrük S.K. Born and raised in England, he qualified for Turkish n ...

goal. On 14 September 2013, Williamson was red-carded in the

East Lancashire derby The East Lancashire derby, also known as the Cotton Mills derby and El Lanclasico, is an association football rivalry between Blackburn Rovers and Burnley. The nickname originates from the fact that both Blackburn and Burnley are former mill ...

against

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

after fouling striker Danny Ings in a last man situation during injury time with the scores level at 1–1. This was well received by the fans of

as an admirable and selfless piece of good play for the sake of the team, preventing the first local derby defeat for 35 years (11 attempts). Williamson was roundly applauded for stopping Danny Ings being clean through.

Burton Albion

On 25 July 2016 Williamson signed for

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home grou ...

on a one-year deal. He was released at the end of the 2016–17 season.

International career

On 23 May 2008, Williamson was included in a 28-man squad to play for

. He was again called up in 2015 by

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 ...

, to feature as part of Jamaica's first

2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia qualifying automatically as hosts. All 210 ...

squad. He made his international debut on 8 September 2015, playing the full 90 minutes for Jamaica as they beat

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

4–3 on aggregate to advance to the Fourth CONCACAF Round of qualifying.

Career statistics

Honours

Williamson team won the PFA Team of the Year: 2001–02 Third Division.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williamson, Lee 1982 births Living people Footballers from Derby English footballers English people of Jamaican descent Black British sportspeople Jamaican footballers Jamaica international footballers Association football midfielders Mansfield Town F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Watford F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Copa América Centenario players Burton Albion F.C. players Kimberley Miners Welfare F.C. players