Mark Andrew Draper (born 11 November 1970) is an English football coach and former 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 ...

. As a player, he was 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 ...

from 1988 to 2003, notably in 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 ...

for

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. He also played in Spain for

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La Lig ...

and 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 ...

with

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

. He represented England at under-21 level. In 2009, he briefly came out of retirement for non-league side

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.kit man An equipment manager is the person in charge of equipment used by a business or organization. Their duties include purchasing, maintenance, repair, inventory, transportation, storage, cleaning, and liquidation. They are responsible for providing t ...

for former side Notts County but has since moved into coaching and runs a football training centre for children in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

Playing career

Draper began his career as a product of the youth system at

, making his professional debut in December 1988. A talented midfielder, he became recognised by County supporters as one of the most gifted young players ever developed at the club. After attracting the attention of a number of bigger clubs, Draper was finally sold during the 1994 close season to

for £1.25 million – a record fee for the club at the time. Draper spent the entire 1994–95 season at

Filbert Street Filbert Street was a football stadium in Leicester, England, which served as the home of Leicester City F.C. from 1891 until 2002. Although officially titled the City Business Stadium in the early 1990s, it remained known almost exclusively b ...

, playing 39 times in the

(to which they had just been promoted) and scoring five goals, although it was not enough to prevent relegation for a side who were never out of the bottom two after November. Despite this he was called up to the England squad by

Terry Venables Terence Frederick Venables (born 6 January 1943), often referred to as El Tel, is an English former football player and manager, and an author. During the 1960s and '70s, he played for various clubs including Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Queen ...

. His form attracted the attention of

, who paid £3.25 million to keep him in the

. Over the next four seasons Draper became a regular in the Aston Villa starting line-up, helping them to a

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 ...

win in 1996. He received another call up to the England squad, this time by

Glenn Hoddle Glenn Hoddle (born 27 October 1957) is an English former football player and manager. He currently works as a television pundit and commentator for ITV Sport and BT Sport. He played as a midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, Monaco, Chelsea and Swi ...

for a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

qualifier against

Moldova Moldova ( , ; ), officially the Republic of Moldova ( ro, Republica Moldova), is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. The List of states ...

. However, he stayed on the bench and was ultimately never capped for the senior team. Draper fell out of favour in the 1999–2000 season, appearing in only one game to bring his Villa total up to 120 league appearances (7 goals), and was loaned to

in Spain. He was sold during that close season to

for £1.5 million. By then approaching veteran stage, Draper added another 24 top flight appearances (with one goal against Middlesbrough) for the Saints before leaving the game.

Later career in non-league football

Draper made a brief playing comeback in 2009, signing for non-league side

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Paul Rawden Paul Anthony Rawden (born 15 July 1973) is a former English cricketer. Rawden was a right-handed batsman (cricket), batsman who bowled right-arm Seam bowling, medium pace. He was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, Stamford, Lincolnshire. Rawden m ...

who took Draper to

East Midlands Counties Football League The East Midlands Counties Football League was an English football league that operated from 2008 to 2021, covering the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands. The league had one division, which stood a ...

side Radford as coach and the pair saved the club from relegation, Draper then followed Rawden to Arnold Town for the 2012–13 season for a brief spell before they both left the club.

Personal life

He is currently involved in property development. In 2009, he rejoined his old club

as their kit man. He currently works with ex-Aston Villa footballer

Dave Norton David Wayne Norton (born 3 March 1965) is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. His career started at Aston Villa, where he began as an apprentice on leaving school in the summer of 1981, turning professional two year ...

at their soccer school "Draper Norton Football", based in Nottingham.

Career statistics

Notes

Honours

Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 1993–94 First Division

References

External links

*
ESPN Soccernet profile

Aston Villa fan site profile

Southampton fan site profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Draper, Mark 1970 births Living people People from Long Eaton Footballers from Derbyshire English footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Spain England men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football midfielders Notts County F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Rayo Vallecano players Southampton F.C. players Dunkirk F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players La Liga players