Shea Emmanuel Charles (born 5 November 2003) is a professional footballer 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

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 Foo ...

side

Manchester City 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 Salford to the west. The tw ...

and the Northern Ireland national team.

Early life

Shea Charles was born in

Manchester 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 Salford to the west. The t ...

, where he started playing football, joining the Sky Blues' academy as a 7 years old. He is of

Northern Irish Northern Irish people is a demonym for all people born in Northern Ireland or people who are entitled to reside in Northern Ireland without any restriction on their period of residence. Most Northern Irish people either identify as Northern ...

descent through his mother.

Club career

Manchester City

Progressing through the Citizens youth teams, he became a key player of the under-23 squad during the 2021–22 season, winning the

Premier League 2 The Professional Development League is a system of youth football leagues that are managed, organised and controlled by the Premier League or by the Football League. It was introduced by the Football Association via the Elite Player Performanc ...

, whilst still playing with the under-18, as they also won the national competition. During that season, the young player was also first called by

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of club Manchester City. He is considered one of the greatest managers of all time and holds the re ...

to train with the

squad. On 22 February 2023, Charles was named as a substitute for City's

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 competit ...

last-16 tie away at

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig, and colloquially referred to as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company Red Bu ...

International career

Shea Charles was capped by Northern Ireland from the U16 to the U21: playing two games with the under-16, he later became a key player with the under-19—after the covid pandemic had halted junior competitions for most of 2020 and 2021—, winning two friendlies against

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ), or simply the Faroes ( fo, Føroyar ; da, Færøerne ), are a North Atlantic island group and an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. They are located north-northwest of Scotland, and about halfway bet ...

in 2021, before playing the Euro qualifiers. With the under-21, he played two games against

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in March 2022. First called to the senior team by

Ian Baraclough Ian Robert Baraclough (; born 4 December 1970) is an English football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of the Northern Ireland national team. He previously managed the Under-21 team. As a player, he was a defender fr ...

in May 2022, Shea Charles made his international debut for

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

on 2 June 2022, coming on as a substitute for

George Saville George Alan Saville (born 1 June 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for EFL Championship club Millwall and the Northern Ireland national team. Saville began his senior career with Chelsea but did not make a first tea ...

in the 79th minute of the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

match against

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. He then made his first start for the ''Green and White Army'' three days later, on June 5, in another Nations League match against

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

Style of play

Able to play both as a

defensive 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 ...

, a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

or a full-back, Charles is described as an athletic and technical player, already showing a great mentality from an early age.

References

External links

*
Irish Football Association profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charles, Shea 2003 births Living people Footballers from Manchester Association footballers from Northern Ireland Northern Ireland youth international footballers Northern Ireland international footballers English footballers English people of Northern Ireland descent Association football midfielders