Richard Smallwood (born 29 December 1990) is an English 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

central 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 club

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. Th ...

Club career

Middlesbrough

Smallwood's natural position is the holding role in the centre of midfield. He is a product of the Middlesbrough Academy and later became captain of the reserve team. At the start of the 2009–10 season, Smallwood signed his first professional contract with the club. Smallwood made his debut for Middlesbrough on 19 October 2010 in a 1–0 away defeat to

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. In January 2011, Smallwood signed an 18-month contract with the club. On 2 May 2011, Smallwood scored his first goal for the club in a 3–0 win against

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

. On 3 November 2012, he scored his second league goal in a 4–1 win away to

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

. However, in the 2013–14 season, Smallwood lost his first team place following new arrivals. Under the management of

Aitor Karanka Aitor Karanka de la Hoz (Basque and ; born 18 September 1973) is a Spanish football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of Segunda División club Granada. Save for a brief spell in the United States at age 32, Karanka ...

, Smallwood was among the players to be offloaded as part of Karanka's plans to reduce the squad size.

Rotherham United

On 23 January 2014, Smallwood 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 ...

on loan for the remainder of the 2013–14 season. Shortly after arriving at Rotherham United, Smallwood quickly went straight into the first team; he was sent-off for a late challenge on

Billy Knott Billy Steven Knott (born 28 November 1992) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Margate. He has represented England at under-16, under-17 and under-20 level. He joined Sunderland after being released from the Che ...

, as Rotherham United beat

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 ...

1–0 on 21 April 2014. As a result of the challenge, Smallwood had to serve a three-match suspension, missing the last two games of the season and one match in the play-offs. Smallwood scored the winning penalty in the shoot-out after taking the fifth penalty to win it as Rotherham secured promotion with a penalty shoot-out victory against

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 professio ...

. After the match, Smallwood said it was the first time he had taken a penalty in his professional career. As a result of his good performance at Rotherham United, the club made a bid to sign Smallwood in early July, only to be rejected by Middlesbrough. Initially signed in an emergency loan deal, Smallwood signed for Rotherham United on a permanent basis after Middlesbrough accepted a £175,000 bid for him. Smallwood scored his first ever goal for Rotherham United in their 3–3 home draw with

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 1884 ...

with a free-kick from the edge of the area. On 31 August 2016, new Rotherham United manager

Alan Stubbs Alan Stubbs (born 6 October 1971) is an English football manager and former professional footballer As a player he was a centre-back who played top flight football for every club he played for. He played in the Premier League with Bolton Wand ...

sent Smallwood out on a season long loan to

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. The side currently competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The tea ...

for the last year of his contract. With Stubbs no longer at the club, agreement was reached to terminate the loan on 9 January 2017. Smallwood scored one goal for Scunthorpe during his loan, the final goal in a 4–0 home defeat of

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

on 10 September 2016. Smallwood elected to leave Rotherham United at the end of his contract, turning down an extension offered by the club.

Blackburn Rovers

Smallwood signed a two-year contract with

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

on 20 June 2017. He scored his first goal for Blackburn in a 3–1

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

win against

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

on 8 August 2017. He helped Blackburn gain promotion back to the championship and became a fans favourite at Ewood Park, being referred to as the “king of ewood”.

Hull City

On 11 August 2020, Smallwood signed for

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving ...

, on a two-year deal with an option to extend a further year. Smallwood was then named as Hull City's captain for the upcoming 2020–21 season. Smallwood played his first game for the club on 5 September 2020, in the first round of the

away against

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, which Hull won on

penalties Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

after a 0–0 draw. He scored his first goal for Hull in a 4–1 win at

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

on 7 August 2021. Smallwood was released at the end of the 2021–22 season.

Bradford City

On 22 June 2022, Smallwood signed for

on a free transfer on an initial two year deal. In July 2022 he was made captain. At the end of the 2023–24 season, he triggered a contract extension.

International career

He was a member of the England under-18 squad which defeated Austria 2–0 at

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Hartle ...

Victoria Park Victoria Park may refer to: Places Australia * Victoria Park Nature Reserve, a protected area in Northern Rivers region, New South Wales * Victoria Park, Adelaide, a park and racecourse * Victoria Park, Brisbane, a public park and former golf ...

on 16 April 2008.

Career statistics

Honours

Rotherham United *

Football League One play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise tw ...

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 ...

Hull City *

EFL 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 ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual *

Player of the Season: 2014–15

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Smallwood, Richard 1990 births Living people Sportspeople from Redcar Footballers from North Yorkshire English men's footballers England men's youth international footballers Men's association football midfielders Middlesbrough F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players English Football League players