Mark Anthony Pembridge (born 29 November 1970) is a Welsh retired

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 ...

, and a current coach at the academy for

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

. He played 333 matches in England's top division for Luton Town,

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

, Everton and

, scoring 25 goals. He also played for Derby County, and spent the 1998–99 season at Benfica in Portugal. Pembridge won 54 caps for

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

, and scored six goals, in a 13-year international career.

Club career

Early career

Pembridge began his career at Luton Town in the First Division. He joined as a trainee in 1989.

Derby County

Having established as a left-midfielder, 21-year old Pembridge was signed for second-tier Derby County by manager Arthur Cox in the summer of 1992 for a fee of £1.25 million. He racked up 140 appearances and netted 37 goals over his time with Derby and played at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

twice - once in a 3-1 defeat to

Cremonese Cremona (, also ; ; lmo, label= Cremunés, Cremùna; egl, Carmona) is a city and ''comune'' in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po river in the middle of the ''Pianura Padana'' (Po Valley). It is the capital of the ...

in 1993 and then in a 2-1 defeat to Leicester City in the 1994 Football League First Division play-off Final. Pembridge left to move up a division to

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 a fee of £900,000 in the summer of 1995.

Sheffield Wednesday

Pembridge played for Wednesday in the

until 1998, when he left for Portuguese side Benfica on a free transfer after Wednesday finished 16th in the season.

Everton

He struggled to settle in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and returned to England after one season, signing a contract with top-flight side Everton for £800,000. Pembridge had a good first two seasons at Everton, with his tenacious approach and thrusting runs from deep establishing the Welshman as an integral part of Everton's squad, thus securing him an excellent rapport with the

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a football stadium in the Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. Located in a residential area 2 miles (3 km) north of Liverpool ...

faithful. However, testing times were around the corner for Pembridge, with a persistent calf injury meaning he only played 13 games in the 2001–02 season. The injury still bothered him during the 2002–03 season, but Pembridge still played a part in a dramatic season, which ended with Everton failing to qualify for a

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

place.

Fulham

Pembridge looked set to stay at Everton for the 2003–04 campaign, but on the transfer deadline day in August 2003, he was signed by

for £750,000 after four years at Everton. He had an injury-free first season at Fulham, during which he scored his first goal for the club against rivals Chelsea, and this was followed by a successful second season in which he played 37 games overall, scoring once in the League Cup against Birmingham. Pembridge missed most of Fulham's 2005–06 season through injury, and only played 5 games. Manager Chris Coleman deemed him surplus to requirements, and he did not play a single game during the 2006–07 season. He was released by new manager Lawrie Sanchez at the end of the season. After this, Pembridge announced he was retiring. Reflecting on his retirement, Pembridge quoted:

International career

Pembridge was called up to play for

while at Luton in 1991. He had several highlights while playing for Wales, including scoring arguably his best career goal against

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

in 2001 and reaching the qualifying playoffs for Euro 2004, despite narrowly losing to

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. Pembridge quit the national team in 2004 shortly after John Toshack was named as the new Wales manager. He announced his international retirement in 2005, ending speculation that he might return to play for Wales. He played 54 times for Wales, scoring 6 goals.

Coaching career

On 4 September 2007, Fulham confirmed that Pembridge had stayed on at the club as a coach for the academy. He would later become Under-15s and U16s Coordinator for the club. He left Fulham in October 2021. On May 11th he featured as a commentator for BBC Radio Merseyside for Everton's match against Watford

Career statistics

Source:

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pembridge, Mark 1970 births Living people Footballers from Merthyr Tydfil S.L. Benfica footballers Derby County F.C. players Everton F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Welsh footballers Welsh expatriate footballers Wales international footballers Premier League players Primeira Liga players Expatriate footballers in Portugal British expatriates in Portugal Fulham F.C. non-playing staff Association football midfielders Welsh expatriate sportspeople in Portugal