Ryan William Stirk (born 25 September 2000) 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

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

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 ...

. Stirk began his career with

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

, for whom he made his EFL debut in 2021. He spent the 2021–22 season

on loan In sports, a loan involves a particular player being able to temporarily play for a club other than the one to which they are currently contracted. Loan deals may last from a few weeks to a full season, sometimes persisting for multiple seasons ...

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...

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 ...

and the second half of the following season on loan to

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 ...

club

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...

. Birmingham released him in 2023, and he signed for

. He was born in England, and has represented Wales at levels up to under-21.

Club career

Early life and career

Stirk was born in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, and raised in

Tamworth, Staffordshire Tamworth (, ) is a market town and borough in Staffordshire, England, north-east of Birmingham. The town borders North Warwickshire to the east and north, Lichfield to the north, south-west and west. The town takes its name from the River T ...

, where he attended Landau Forte Academy. His parents were both keen on football and he has two older brothers. He joined Birmingham City F.C.'s Academy in 2010, went on a pre-season tour with the under-18s while still a 14-year-old schoolboy, took up a scholarship in July 2017, and signed his first professional contract, of three years with the option for a fourth, on his 17th birthday. He was a member of the club's under-18 team that reached the semifinal of the 2017–18 FA Youth Cup, performing well against a strong

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

side, and became a regular in Birmingham's under-23 team in 2018–19.

Birmingham City

When head coach

Pep Clotet Josep Clotet Ruiz (born 28 April 1977) is a Spanish football coach, currently in charge of Italian Serie B club Brescia. As well as working as assistant at several clubs, he managed Cornellà, Figueres, Espanyol B, Halmstad, Málaga B, Oxfor ...

fielded an inexperienced team for the visit to

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

in the 2019–20 EFL Cup first round, in which several youngsters made their senior debuts, Stirk was an unused substitute. The club took up their one-year option on his contract, and when the Championship season resumed after its suspension because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, he was named on the nine-man bench for six of Birmingham's remaining nine matches under the temporary rules, but remained unused. Once

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

was safely avoided at the end of the 2020–21 season, Birmingham manager

Lee Bowyer Lee David Bowyer (; born 3 January 1977) is an English football manager and former professional player. As a player, he was a midfielder who featured for Charlton Athletic, Leeds United, West Ham United (two spells), Newcastle United, Birmingha ...

stated that he intended to use the two remaining matches to assess fringe members of the squad. Described by the ''

Birmingham Mail The ''Birmingham Mail'' (branded the ''Black Country Mail'' in the Black Country) is a tabloid newspaper based in Birmingham, England but distributed around Birmingham, the Black Country, and Solihull and parts of Warwickshire, Worcestershire ...

'' as a "diminutive but neat defensive midfielder who reads the game well and breaks up play before inviting team-mates into the play", Stirk made his first-team debut in a much-changed starting eleven for the Championship match at home to

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 1 May 2021, played the whole of the 4–0 defeat, and kept his place for the last fixture of the season. In June, Stirk extended his contract for a further year with an option for a second.

Loans

Stirk signed for

club

on 27 July 2021,

for the 2021–22 season. He joined up with former Birmingham U23 team-mate

Ryan Burke Ryan Darren Burke (born 23 November 2000) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a left back for League of Ireland First Division club Waterford. He joined English club Birmingham City from St Patrick's Athletic as a 16-year-old and m ...

, who joined Mansfield earlier in the month after being released by Birmingham. He made his debut on the opening day of the season, as a stoppage-time replacement for George Maris in a 2–1 win at home to

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been c ...

, and came close to opening the scoring with a "low first-time shot ... through a crowd of players" in the

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 ...

first-round tie at home to Championship opponents

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 ...

before the visitors went on to win 3–0. In mid-September he damaged ankle ligaments and was out for six weeks, but returned to score his first senior goal and secure a 2–1 win away to

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

on 13 November. He finished the season with 36 appearances in all competitions, helping Mansfield reach the

play-off final The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

but was an unused substitute as they failed to gain promotion. He made a couple of appearances for Birmingham in August 2022, before joining

club

on 16 February 2023 on loan until the end of the season. He was a regular in the starting eleven, scoring once from 14 appearances in the regular season, and won the club's Player of the Month award for two of the three months he was with Bromley as he helped the team reach the

play-offs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. He "was behind most of Bromley's good moves" as they beat

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

in the play-off eliminator, but was substituted in the semi-final as they lost out to

Chesterfield Chesterfield may refer to: Places Canada * Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan * Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom * Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England ** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...

3–2

after extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a Draw (tie), tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is ...

Walsall

Out of contract at the end of the 2022–23 season, Stirk was one of 13 professionals included on Birmingham's list of players released. On 16 June 2023, League Two club

confirmed that Stirk would join them on 1 July on a two-year contract.

International career

Stirk was born in England, and qualifies for Wales via his maternal grandmother. He was an unused substitute for Wales U16 while still a 13-year-old, made his under-17 debut at 15, and went on to play at under-19 and under-21 levels.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stirk, Ryan 2000 births Living people Footballers from Birmingham, West Midlands Footballers from Tamworth, Staffordshire Welsh men's footballers Wales men's youth international footballers Wales men's under-21 international footballers English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Birmingham City F.C. players Mansfield Town F.C. players Bromley F.C. players Walsall F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players English people of Welsh descent