Sean David Longstaff (born 30 October 1997) 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 ...

who plays for

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

club Newcastle United 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 ...

Career

Longstaff began his career with the youth team of Newcastle United. He moved on loan to

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

club Kilmarnock in January 2017, along with Callum Roberts and

Freddie Woodman Frederick John Woodman (born 4 March 1997) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for EFL Championship club Preston North End F.C., Preston North End. Woodman sta ...

. In July 2017, he signed on loan for EFL League One club Blackpool for the 2017–18 season where he made 45 appearances and scored nine goals. His first goal for the Newcastle United first team was on 17 July 2018, when he opened the scoring in a 2–0 win over St Patrick's Athletic in a pre-season friendly at

Richmond Park Richmond Park, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is the largest of London's Royal Parks, and is of national and international importance for wildlife conservation. It was created by Charles I in the 17th century as a deer park ...

. Longstaff impressed manager Rafa Benítez in pre-season and was rewarded with a four-year contract in November 2018. Longstaff made his competitive first team debut against

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 the second round of the EFL Cup in August 2018, before making his

debut as a second-half substitute against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 189 ...

the following December. This was followed up by his first goal 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 ...

third round replay against

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. Th ...

before he put in a memorable performance by winning the penalty that gave Newcastle a 2–1 win over champions Manchester City in January 2019. On 26 February 2019, Longstaff scored his first Premier League goal for Newcastle in a 2–0 win over

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, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

. In March 2019, Longstaff was ruled out for the rest of the 2018–19 season following a knee ligament injury. On 31 January 2023, he scored a brace in a 2–1 win over

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

in the EFL Cup semi-final second leg to qualify his club to their first

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

since 1999. On 4 October 2023, he scored his first

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

goal, in a 4–1 win over

Paris Saint-Germain Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (), commonly referred to as Paris Saint-Germain, Paris, Paris SG or simply PSG is a professional football club based in Paris, France. They compete in Ligue 1, the top division of French football. As Fr ...

St James' Park St James' Park is a football stadium in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is the home of Premier League club Newcastle United F.C. With a seating capacity of 52,305 seats, it is the eighth largest football stadium in England. St James' Pa ...

Personal life

Raised in

North Shields North Shields () is a town in the Borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. Since 1974, it has been in the North Tyneside borough of Tyne and Wea ...

, Longstaff's younger brother Matty is a footballer who also played for Newcastle United. Their father

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

is a former Great Britain

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

player, who featured over 100 times for the national side, and was a coach for the

Whitley Warriors Whitley Warriors are an ice hockey team based in Whitley Bay in the north east of England. Founded in 1957 as the Bees, they changed their name to Whitley Warriors in 1964. Warriors played at the highest level of British ice hockey for much of ...

until the end of the 2022/23 Season. David Longstaff is also the cousin of former England international Alan Thompson. They are not related to former Newcastle academy player

Luis Longstaff Luis James Longstaff (born 24 February 2001) is an English footballer who plays as a midfielder for Scottish Championship side Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Career Longstaff made his professional debut for Liverpool on 17 December 2019, startin ...

. Longstaff's father stated that both Sean and Matty are lifelong fans of Newcastle United.

Career statistics

Honours

Newcastle United * EFL Cup runner-up: 2022–23

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Longstaff, Sean 1997 births Living people Footballers from North Shields English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Newcastle United F.C. players Kilmarnock F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players English Football League players Premier League players