Pablo Simeon Ishmael Mills (born 27 May 1984) is an English

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 ...

. He predominantly plays 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 ...

or defender who plays for Mickleover Sports.

Club career

Mills joined

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 188 ...

as a 14-year-old, turning professional at 18. In the early stages of his career he played at full back for Derby. Mills went on to appear in 64 first team games in league and cup for the Rams and during this time had loan spells at

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

and

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

. Whilst at MK Dons he scored twice; once in the league against Swansea City and once in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

against

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 ...

. He joined

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 ...

during the summer of 2006, adding strength to the centre of defence. Mills allegedly returned to training for the 2007–08 season three stone overweight and was loaned out to

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team co ...

of the

Conference National 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-profes ...

on 24 August 2007 to regain his fitness. His loan was extended until the end of October, and he scored one goal for Crawley mainly playing in the centre of midfield. Mills returned to the Rotherham squad after his loan spell ended and signed a new two-year deal at Millmoor in May 2008. Mills was also appointed club captain by manager

Mark Robins Mark Gordon Robins (born 22 December 1969) is an English football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Coventry City in the EFL Championship. As a player, he was a striker and is best known for his time in the Premier Leagu ...

, for the 2008–09 campaign. In a match against

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

on 9 March 2009, Mills was involved in a challenge with

Nathan Elder Nathan or Natan may refer to: People *Nathan (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name *Nathan (surname) *Nathan (prophet), a person in the Hebrew Bible * Nathan (son of David), biblical figure, son of King David an ...

which left Elder suffered a double fracture of the cheekbone and a fractured eye socket and was out for the rest of the season. Manager of Brentford Andy Scott was very unhappy with the challenge and wanted the FA to take action. Mills says he was sick after the challenge and insisted there was no malice in the challenge. But Mills will not be charged by the FA and has been cleared of any wrongdoing. Mills was released by Rotherham after the League Two Play-off Final defeat 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 ...

in May 2010. He re-signed for Crawley on 6 July. He was named Man of the Match in Crawley's FA Cup fifth round loss to

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

at Old Trafford, on 19 February 2011. He was named in the Conference Team of the Year for the 2010–11 season after Crawley won the title and were promoted to

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 ...

. Mills was released by Crawley on 8 May 2012. Mills described his release as 'amicable' and wished the club well for the future. Mills was linked with his former club Rotherham United. In July 2012, Mills was linked with French

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

side

Boulogne Boulogne-sur-Mer (; pcd, Boulonne-su-Mér; nl, Bonen; la, Gesoriacum or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Boulogne lies on the ...

after the club invited Mills for negotiations. However, Mills rejected a chance to move to France after deciding to stay in the UK for family reasons. In August 2012, Mills joined conference side

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an English professional football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, that was wound-up after a High Court ruling on 16 September 2020. Initially known as Macclesfield F.C., the club was formed in 1874 ...

. Mills joined

on 30 August 2013 after a successful trial with the club. On 3 January 2014, Mills signed for

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

after being released by Rotherham United. After his release by Bury, Mills signed for

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 ...

side Brackley Town on 4 August 2015. On 8 August 2016, Mills signed for

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 Mickleover Sports

Brawl incident

On 27 March 2012, Mills was involved in a post-match fight against

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. ...

and was shown a red card along with four other players (one Crawley and three Bradford). As a result, he was given a three match ban as well as being stripped of his captaincy and fined two weeks' wages. Both Mills and

Claude Davis Claude Davis (born 6 March 1979) is a Jamaican former footballer who played as a defender. He previously played for Portmore United (Jamaica), Preston North End, Sheffield United, Derby County, Crystal Palace, Crawley Town and Rotherham Unite ...

(one of the players involved in the fight) wrote a letter of apology and said:

International career

Mills has represented his country at youth level, winning

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the England under 16, under-18, and under-19 teams.

Personal life

On 7 September 2006, Mills was charged with burglary and causing criminal damage at a property in Derby on 1 July 2006. Appearing at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court in Derby, Mills entered no plea and was remanded on conditional bail. The case was adjourned and heard at Derby Crown Court on 30 November 2006. His club, Rotherham United gave full backing to the player. The burglary charge was later dropped, but Mills pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage, and was handed a

community order Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performed ...

for the offence.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mills, Pablo 1984 births Living people Footballers from Birmingham, West Midlands English footballers Association football defenders Derby County F.C. players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players Macclesfield Town F.C. players Bury F.C. players Cheltenham Town F.C. players Brackley Town F.C. players Mickleover Sports F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players