Ross James Sykes (born 26 March 1999) 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 defender for

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

club

Union SG Royale Union Saint-Gilloise , abbreviated to Union SG or USG, unofficially simply called Union, is a Belgian football club originally located in the municipality of Saint-Gilles, in Brussels, although since the 1920s it has been based at the Jos ...

Career

Sykes was born in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

and attended Unity College in the town. He started his career with local side

, playing for their youth team between the ages of eleven and thirteen before being released. After nearly giving up the game he was persuaded to go on trial at

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their complete history ...

by his mother and was later signed up by the club. In May 2016, he signed his first professional contract on a two-year deal, despite being a first-year scholar. He made his senior debut for the club in August 2016, starting in the 3–0 defeat to

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

EFL 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 ...

group-stage. Accrington exercised a contractual option at the end of the 2017–18 season to retain him. On 23 June 2022, Sykes joined

side

for an undisclosed fee.

Career statistics

References

External links

Ross Sykes
at the

Accrington Stanley F.C. Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England. The club competes in EFL League One, League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They have spent their ...

website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sykes, Ross 1998 births Living people Footballers from Burnley English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Accrington Stanley F.C. players Southport F.C. players Royale Union Saint-Gilloise players English Football League players National League (English football) players Belgian Pro League players English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium English expatriate sportspeople in Belgium