Mitchell Gregory Reginald Austin (born 3 April 1991) is a professional

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player who plays as a winger. Born in England to an Australian father, Austin began his senior career at

Stalybridge Celtic Stalybridge Celtic Football Club is an English football club based in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester. They are currently members of the and play at Bower Fold. The team traditionally plays in a blue and white strip. In 1921 Stalybridge Celtic ...

in 2010. Three years later, he joined

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on N ...

and, after loans to Lincoln City,

Brackley Town Brackley Town Football Club is a Association football, football club in Brackley, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at St. James Park. The club won the FA Trophy in 2018. History Established in 1890, the club sp ...

and

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 2014, Austin moved to Australian side

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Ma ...

in 2015. He remained in Australia for four further years, playing at

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory e ...

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from The Australia ...

and

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

. In 2019 Austin moved to Scotland, playing one year for

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

Early life

Mitch Austin was born in

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 ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

on 3 April 1991. He has a twin sister named Brittany. His father is the Australian

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

, and

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer Greg Austin. He left England at the age of eight when his father retired from playing professional rugby and moved the family back to Australia.

Club career

Youth football

Mitch Austin was a

Manly United Manly United Football Club is an Australian football club based in the northern beaches area of Sydney. The club competes in the National Premier Leagues NSW and their home ground is Cromer Park, in the suburb of Dee Why, approximately 15 minute ...

junior in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Australia. He was spotted by the scouts of

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 ...

in 2009 whilst on a tour of the UK with

and was offered a scholarship with the youth academy.

Stalybridge Celtic

In 2010, he joined

Conference 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 ...

team

Cambridge United

After making 71 league appearances, in 2013, he joined

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 ...

team

. In 2014, he was loaned to Lincoln City to get more first team opportunities. But Cambridge soon recalled Austin, and declined Lincoln’s request for an extension to the loan. Though weeks later he signed for

again on loan. On 31 January 2014, his loan was extended till March. On 13 September 2014, he made his professional debut for Cambridge United against

Dagenham and Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as ...

In May 2015, Cambridge United announced, that Austin was one out of 12 players, who would leave the club in the summer 2015 expressing his wish to return to Australia .

Central Coast Mariners

On 1 June 2015,

announced that they had signed Austin to a two-year contract. After making 23 appearances in the first year of his contract, Austin asked to terminate his second year and was released by Central Coast Mariners.

Melbourne Victory

On 17 June 2016,

confirmed the signing of Austin as a straight swap for winger

Connor Pain Connor Thomas Pain (born 11 November 1993) is an Australian professional football (soccer) player who plays as a forward for Western United. He signed his first professional contract in March 2013 for Melbourne Victory. Pain has made one appe ...

. He made an outstanding start to his Victory career, earning Man of the Match honours in the club's pre-season friendly win over Juventus at the MCG. Austin suffered an

anterior cruciate ligament injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during inju ...

in training in November 2017, ruling him out for several months. On 1 February 2018, Austin was selected to represent Melbourne Victory in the E-League's inaugural season, alongside Mouad Zwed, becoming one of a handful of professional football players to compete in e-sports as well.

Partick Thistle

Austin signed with

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland Scotland (, ...

club

in July 2019 on a one year deal. Austin chose kit number 77 for the 2019–20 season. On 11 January 2020, Austin made his first team debut after suffering an injury in July 2019. Austin only made two appearances for Patrick Thistle before the season was cut short due to 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 ...

. Austin left Thistle in March 2020 during the pandemic to return home to his family in Australia.

Career statistics

Honours

Cambridge United *

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

: 2013–14

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Mitch 1991 births A-League Men players Association football wingers Australian soccer players Brackley Town F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Central Coast Mariners FC players English Football League players Lincoln City F.C. players Living people Melbourne Victory FC players Newcastle Jets FC players Sydney FC players National League (English football) players Scottish Professional Football League players Stalybridge Celtic F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players