Nathan Clarke (born 30 November 1983) is an English former

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 ...

professional footballer who played as a centre-back. In a career that last from 2001 until 2021 Clarke represented

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

, Bury,

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a profession ...

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

and

FC Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 season. ...

Playing career

Huddersfield Town

Clarke is a product of the

Academy. He began his first team career at the age of just 17 when his debut came in a 1–1 draw away to Stoke City on 8 September 2001. He scored his first goal for his home club on his home debut in the game in which ended in a 4–2 loss against Blackpool. He made a total of 37 starts in all competitions during the 2001–02 season his first as a professional with the first team with 36 of them coming in the league scoring once. Clarke was runner-up in the Huddersfield Town 'Player of the Year' 2005–06 and was made

vice-captain Vice-captain, alternate captain (ice hockey) or vice-skip (curling) may refer to a role in a number of sports immediately below the role of captain. The vice-captain may have a number of different roles, including substituting as captain when the r ...

of the team aged just 21, going on to win the title the following year along with winning the 'players player award'. Clarke played under eight different managers at the Galpharm and was in the starting 11 for each one. Clarke has been selected in

FourFourTwo ''FourFourTwo'' is a football magazine published by Future. Issued monthly, it published its 300th edition in May 2019. It takes its name from the football formation of the same name, 4-4-2. In 2008, it was announced that ''FourFourTwo'' had ...

's Top 50 Football League Players at 43 in March 2006, down from 40 in the list in March 2005. On 27 January 2011, after failing to break into Lee Clark's team, Clarke joined

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

on loan until the end of the season. He made 18 appearances for the U's. On 19 August 2011, he joined

on a five-month loan deal. He made his debut the following day, where he also scored the first goal. Clarke returned to his parent club

after making 16 appearances for Oldham. He then on 9 March, joined Bury on loan for the remainder of the season. He played a huge part in the club's league survival in the league, with them finishing mid table. He left Huddersfield Town in June 2012 after playing over 300 games for his home town club (and almost 20 years at the club he has supported since he was a boy), 11 of those as pro.

Leyton Orient

Clarke signed for

on 18 July 2012 on a two-year contract. Boss

Russell Slade Russell Mark Slade (born 10 October 1960) is an English professional football manager, who was most recently managerial consultant of League Two club Stevenage. Having had an extended career at reserve team level, Slade entered professional ...

made him the club captain of the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

side within a week of being signed. On 14 February 2014, he signed a contract extension at Leyton Orient. He scored his first goal for the club on 11 March 2014 in the 2–0 win at

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

, a header at the near post from a corner. Two games later, Clarke scored an equalising goal in the 1–1 draw at

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

, a deflected half-volley long-range shot in the 77th minute. Clarke was part of the team that played in the 2014 Football League One play-off final against

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 ...

, the game finishing 2–2 Orient lost 3–4 in a penalty shoot out. On 24 July 2015, Clarke left the club in order to be closer to his family.

Bradford City

Clarke joined

on 28 July 2015 on a one-year contract.

Coventry City

Clarke joined

on 1 January 2017 as one of three new signings made by new Sky Blues manager Russell Slade, who had previously been his boss at Leyton Orient. He made his debut for the club the following day in the 2–2 draw at home to Bolton Wanderers. Clarke was cup-tied in the

2016–17 EFL Trophy The 2016–17 EFL Trophy, known as the Checkatrade Trophy for sponsorship reasons, was the 33rd season in the history of the competition and the first since being rebranded from Football League Trophy. It was played as a knock-out tournament for E ...

due to playing for Bradford earlier in the season, his team went on to winning the

2017 EFL Trophy Final The 2017 EFL Trophy Final was an association football match that was played on 2 April 2017 at Wembley Stadium, London. It was played between League One teams Coventry City and Oxford United. The match decided the winners of the 2016–17 EFL T ...

. After making 18 appearances for Coventry in the 2016–17 season he was released by the club on 2 May 2017.

Grimsby Town

On 23 June 2017, Clarke signed a one-year contract with

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 ...

side

on a free transfer. He scored his first goal for Grimsby on his debut in a 3–1 win over Chesterfield on 5 August 2017. He was released by Grimsby at the end of the 2017–18 season.

FC Halifax Town

On 3 August 2018, Clarke signed for his home town side

following a trial spell during pre-season. He was made caretaker manager alongside Steve Nichol following the resignation of Jamie Fullarton on 15 July 2019. Clarke announced his retirement from professional football at the end of the 2020–21 season.

Personal life

Clarke has a younger brother, defender/midfielder Tom Clarke who plays for

club

Fleetwood Town Fleetwood Town Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Fleetwood, Lancashire. Established in 1997, the current Fleetwood Town F.C. is the fourth incarnation of the club; it was originally formed in ...

., Ammies off the Clarke with first signing, https://salfordcityfc.co.uk/tom-clarke-signs-july20/

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Player

Huddersfield Town * Third Division play-offs: 2003–04 Coventry City * EFL Trophy: 2016–17

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Nathan 1983 births Living people Footballers from Halifax, West Yorkshire English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Bury F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players English Football League players Grimsby Town F.C. players FC Halifax Town players