Luke Matthew Daniels (born 5 January 1988) is an English 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 le ...

who plays for club

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. Daniels is product of the

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 ...

and

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

academies An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

and played much of the early years of his career away on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

from the latter club. He transferred to

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 ...

club Scunthorpe United in 2015 and served as first-choice goalkeeper until 2017, when he transferred to Championship club

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

and held a backup role until transferring to Middlesbrough in 2021. Daniels won three caps for England at U18 and U19 level.

Club career

West Bromwich Albion

2004–2008

, Daniels began his career in the

academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

, before moving to the academy at

in 2004. Upon completing his scholarship, he signed his first professional contract with the club in July 2006. The departure of second-choice goalkeeper

Russell Hoult Russell Hoult (born 22 November 1972) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He notably spent time playing in the Premier League and played for Leicester City, Derby County and West Bromwi ...

in January 2007 led to Daniels being temporarily promoted onto the substitutes' bench for the majority of the remaining matches of the 2006–07 season. Though he failed to make an appearance, he signed a new two-year contract at the end of the season.

2007–2010

Following a

away at

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

club

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 ...

during the second half of the 2007–08 season, Daniels spent the entire 2008–09 and 2009–10 seasons away 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 ...

and

clubs

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

and

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

respectively. He made more than 40 appearances for both clubs and reached the 2008 League Two play-off Final with Shrewsbury Town, which was lost 3–2 to

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they were renamed Stockport Co ...

. Daniels signed a two-year contract extension with West Bromwich Albion in July 2009.

2010–2013

Daniels spent much of the 2010–11 season away on loan at League One clubs

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

(two spells),

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

and

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 ...

. Daniels was called into a West Bromwich Albion matchday squad for the first time in nearly four years for two

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

matches early in the 2011–12 season, but remained an unused substitute in both. His final loan away from

The Hawthorns The Hawthorns is an all-seater association football, football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of EFL Championship, Championship club West Bromwich Albion F ...

began in October 2011, when he spent the remainder of 2011 with League Two club

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

. During the second half of the 2011–12 season, he became regular backup to

Márton Fülöp Márton Fülöp (; 3 May 1983 – 12 November 2015) was a Hungarian professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. After playing in Hungary for MTK Budapest, BKV Előre SC and BFC Siófok, he signed for English club Tottenham Hotspur, who ...

. Daniels backed up

Boaz Myhill Glyn Oliver "Boaz" Myhill (born 9 November 1982; ) is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He represented the Wales national team from 2008 to 2013. Born in the United States to an American father and Welsh mother, Myh ...

during the first half of the 2012–13 season, but failed to feature during the second half of the campaign. He signed a new two-year contract in March 2013.

2013–14

Daniels received his first call up of the 2013–14 season onto the bench for a

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 ...

match versus Everton and he made his long-awaited Baggies debut as a 77th-minute substitute for the injured

Ben Foster Ben Foster may refer to: *Ben Foster (actor) (born 1980), American actor *Ben Foster (footballer) (born 1983), English goalkeeper *Ben Foster (composer) (born 1977), British composer, orchestrator and conductor * Ben Foster (director) (born 1984), ...

and helped the team to a 0–0 draw. He made his first start for the club in the following game, keeping another clean sheet in a 3–0 League Cup second round victory over Newport County. He also started in the following round against

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 ...

and helped to keep the score at 1–1 before the Gunners sealed victory on

penalties Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

. The injury to Ben Foster allowed Daniels to continue as second-choice goalkeeper behind Boaz Myhill until 14 December 2013, when he received his final first team call up of the 2013–14 season.

2014–15

Daniels was called up for two Premier League matches in October and November 2014, but remained an unused substitute on both occasions. In the final year of his contract, he left the club on 22 January 2015, having made just three first team appearances during years as a professional at The Hawthorns. Over the course of his loans away from the club, Daniels made 114 appearances.

Scunthorpe United

On 22 January 2015, Daniels signed a -year contract with League One club Scunthorpe United for an undisclosed fee. The Iron were without first and second-choice goalkeepers Sam Slocombe and

James Severn James Alexander Robert McEwen Severn (born 10 October 1991) is an English footballer who plays as a goalkeeper. Football career Derby County Born in Nottingham, Severn began his football career at his childhood team Derby County. He signed a pr ...

due to broken arms. Daniels made 23 appearances in what remained of the 2014–15 season. He made 44 and 42 appearances during the 2015–16 and the 2016–17 seasons respectively and kept more

clean sheet In team sports, a shutout ( US) or clean sheet ( UK) is a game in which one team prevents the other from scoring any points. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball. Shutouts are usuall ...

s than any other goalkeeper in League One during that period, with 27 in 78 matches. Daniels departed the club in May 2017, after his contract expired. He made 109 appearances during his -year spell at

Glanford Park Glanford Park is a football stadium in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England, and is the current home of team Scunthorpe United. Opened in 1988 at a construction cost of £2.5 million, it was the first new purpose-built Football League stadi ...

Brentford

On 24 May 2017, Daniels joined

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 ...

club

on a free transfer and signed a three-year contract, with an option for a further year, effective 1 July 2017. Daniels appeared in each of the club's four cup matches during the 2017–18 season and made his league debut versus

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

on the final day, in which he helped preserve a 1–1 draw by saving a second-half

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

. Aside from cup appearances and two league starts, Daniels was again backup to Daniel Bentley for the majority of the 2018–19 season. A season-ending shoulder injury suffered by Bentley in March 2019 allowed Daniels a run in the team in league matches and he finished the season with 19 appearances in all competitions. Daniels served as backup to new goalkeeper signing

David Raya David Raya Martín (; born 15 September 1995) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Arsenal, on loan from Brentford, and the Spain national team. Raya began his senior career in England with Blackburn Rove ...

during the 2019–20 season. It was announced on 4 January 2020 that Daniels has signed a one-year contract extension, with the option of a further year. Later that day, he captained an under-strength XI to a 1–0

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 ...

third round victory over

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

. Daniels finished the 2019–20 season with three cup appearances and did not feature during Brentford's unsuccessful

playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

campaign. With David Raya unavailable, Daniels started six of Brentford's first seven matches of the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season. Despite reverting to his backup role behind Raya in October 2020, Daniels continued to play in cup matches and his performance in a 1–0 EFL Cup quarter-final victory over

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 ...

on 22 December was recognised with a place in the EFL Cup Team of the Round. Daniels' performances in his three appearances during Brentford's run to the semi-finals of the EFL Cup saw him named in the Team of the Tournament. He finished the 2020–21 season with 9 appearances and a promotion medal, by virtue of being an unused substitute during the 2021 Championship play-off Final. Daniels finished his four-season Brentford career with 36 appearances and departed the Community Stadium in June 2021.

Middlesbrough

On 9 August 2021, Daniels signed a two-year contract with Championship club

on a free transfer. He made 12 appearances during a 2021–22 season in which the club narrowly missed out on a playoff finish.

International career

Daniels made his international debut with a start in a 2–1 victory for England U18 over

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

in April 2006. He won two caps for the England U19 team in September and October 2006 in matches versus the Netherlands U19 and Austria U19.

Personal life

Daniels' boyhood club was

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

Career statistics

Honours

Brentford *

EFL 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. , t ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Individual *

EFL 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 ...

Team of the Tournament:

References

External links

Luke Daniels
at mfc.co.uk
Luke Daniels
at premierleague.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Daniels, Luke 1988 births Living people Footballers from Bolton English footballers Association football goalkeepers Manchester United F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players Premier League players Middlesbrough F.C. players