Nathan Louis Pond (born 5 January 1985) is a 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 as a defender or

defensive 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 ...

for team

Bamber Bridge Bamber Bridge is an urban village in Lancashire, England, south-east of Preston, in the borough of South Ribble. The name derives from the Old English "bēam" and "brycg", which probably means "tree-trunk bridge". The population was 13,945 at ...

. He has previously played for

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 ...

over a fifteen-year period, whilst also having spells with

Lancaster City Lancaster City Football Club is an English semi-professional non-League football club based in the northern city of Lancaster, Lancashire. They currently compete in and play at Giant Axe. They are full members of the Lancashire County Footb ...

, Kendal Town,

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 ...

, Salford City,

AFC Fylde AFC Fylde is a professional football club based in Wesham in the Borough of Fylde, Lancashire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Mill Farm. Originally known as Kirkham & Wesham following a merger of Kirkham Town and Wesh ...

and

AFC Telford United AFC Telford United is a football club based in Telford, Shropshire, England. The club was formed in 2004 after the original Telford United, founded in 1872, folded due to financial problems. Currently members of the National League North, they ...

. Internationally, he represents

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

, earning his first caps in 2019. Having played in seven divisions for Fleetwood through the course of six promotions, Pond was recognised by Guinness as holding the

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

for appearing in the most different divisions with a single football club.

Club career

Early career and Fleetwood Town

Pond began his career with

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English football league that was founded in 1968. It has four divisions: the Premier Division (which stands at level 7 of the English football league system), Division One East, Division One West and Divisio ...

side

in 2003. Later that year he transferred to

. Pond was the club's current longest-serving player, having played a club record of 498 matches since 2003. including six promotions, most notably the club's promotion to 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 ...

in 2012. He joined Kendal Town on a month's loan in December 2010, making two appearances for the club. The loan was part of an agreement, due to the sale of Danny Rowe to Fleetwood. On 10 August 2012, Pond joined

on an initial one-month loan. Having made his first appearance on 11 August against

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 ...

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, during the following game on 14 August he scored the opening goal in the 69th minute in the 2–1 home defeat against

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

, a right-footed overhead kick in off the crossbar. After playing three times for Grimsby, Pond extended his loan stay until January 2013. On 8 September, he scored his second goal for Grimsby in a 1–0 victory against

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club are a professional football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team compete in , the third tier of the English football league system, and have played their home games at The New Lawn since ...

, a glancing header from a Frankie Artus free-kick. Following a successful loan spell, Grimsby looked into extending Pond's loan beyond January or possibly securing him on a permanent deal but on 1 January 2013 they admitted it was unlikely because Fleetwood were interested in taking the player back to look at him. Pond's final appearance for Grimsby in his loan spell brought his fifth goal of the season against

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

, two minutes into the game. Pond commented before his final game that the loan spell had been successful for both himself and the club and that he would relish the prospect of returning to Grimsby on a permanent deal in the January transfer window if he was unable to win back his place in the Fleetwood team. After signing a new contract in May 2015, Pond was named captain of Fleetwood. He signed new one year contracts in both June 2016, and January 2017, the latter with the option for an additional year. He passed

Jack Ainscough John Ainscough was an English professional footballer. A centre-half, he played in the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in ...

's record of 421 appearances for Fleetwood in the penultimate game of the 2015–16 season, ending the season on 423 appearances. Fleetwood exercised a one-year contract extension for him at the end of the 2017–18 season.

Later career

In May 2018 he joined National League team Salford City, where he was reunited with Graham Alexander. He was released on 16 May 2020. On 7 August 2020 he joined

following his release from Salford. Having been made club captain, he made his debut on the opening day of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, keeping a clean sheet in a 1–0 win over

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

on 6 October. He was released from his contract in May 2021, with manager

Jim Bentley James Graham Bentley (born 11 June 1976) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a centre back. He is currently manager of EFL League Two club Rochdale. Career Bentley, who debuted for Telford United in 199 ...

saying it was his toughest decision as Fylde manager. Pond joined

in July 2021, Telford manager Gavin Cowan described the initial offer to Pond as "tongue-in-cheek", believing he wouldn't sign, but said Pond had ambitions of another promotion in his career. Pond was released on 30 September, following a 'wild challenge' that saw him earn a red card in an

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 ...

tie with Stamford, with Cowan describing it as 'completely unacceptable' and that he 'couldn't stand by Pond'. On 6 October, he signed for

International career

Pond was called up for Montserrat in October 2019 and made his debut on 13 October, playing 90 minutes against

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. He scored his first goal in a 1–0 victory against

St Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerindia ...

to ensure Montserrat progress to 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualification.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Montserrat's goal tally first.

Honours

Fleetwood Town *

North West Counties Football League The North West Counties Football League is a football league in the North West of England. Since 2019–20, the league has covered the Isle of Man, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria, northern Staffordshire, northern S ...

Division One: 2004–05 *

Division One runner-up: 2005–06 *Northern Premier League Premier Division: 2007–08 *

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 ...

play-offs:

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Conference Premier The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profess ...

: 2011–12 *

Football League Two play-offs The EFL League Two play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from fourth to seventh in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are part of the annual Engli ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Salford City *

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

play-offs:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pond, Nathan 1985 births Living people Montserratian footballers Montserrat international footballers English footballers English people of Montserratian descent Association football defenders Lancaster City F.C. players Fleetwood Town F.C. players Kendal Town F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Salford City F.C. players AFC Fylde players AFC Telford United players English Football League players National League (English football) players Northern Premier League players Black British sportsmen