Benjamin Sorba William Thomas (born 25 January 1999) 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 winger for

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 loan from

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. The ...

and the Wales national team.

Club career

Boreham Wood

A youth product of

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

, Thomas joined the youth academy of

Boreham Wood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 31,074, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly known ...

at the age of 16. He began his senior career at Boreham Wood aged 17. He was an instrumental part of the under-18 side that reached the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

second round in 2016–17, which included a win over

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engl ...

side

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

. In January 2018, he spent a month on loan at

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 tea ...

North side

Cheshunt Cheshunt ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, Hertfor ...

Huddersfield Town

On 13 January 2021, Thomas signed a contract with

until the end of 2023–24 season with the club having the option of a further year's extension. He made his professional debut for Huddersfield in a 3–2

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

loss to

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

on 13 February 2021. In the first Championship game of the 2021–22 season, a 1–1 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 ...

on 7 August 2021, Thomas got his first assist, supplying a cross from a free kick which was headed in by

Naby Sarr Mouhamadou-Naby Sarr (born 13 August 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as centre back for Al-Markhiya. Career Sarr made his senior debut with Olympique Lyonnais in the Europa League on 6 December 2012 against Hapoel Ironi Ki ...

. In the following game, a 5–1 home defeat to

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

, he overhit a backpass which ultimately resulted in Fulham's opening goal, but later provided the assist for Huddersfield's only goal from a corner kick,

Matty Pearson Matthew Joe Pearson (born 3 August 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Huddersfield Town. Career Blackburn Rovers Born and raised in Keighley, Pearson joined Blackburn Rovers at the age of 10, progr ...

scoring with a header. On 28 August 2021, he scored his first goal (as well as providing two assists) in a 4–0 home victory against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

: he took possession of the ball at the halfway line, dribbled into the penalty area and placed a low shot past the goalkeeper. On 10 September 2021, Thomas was awarded

EFL Championship Player of the Month The EFL Championship Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the player adjudged the best for each month of the season in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Originally named the Football ...

for August 2021. On 19 May 2022, one week before the 2022 EFL Championship play-off Final, Thomas signed a new long-term contract with the club until 2026. On 25 January 2023, he joined fellow

side

on loan for the remainder of the 2022–23 season.

International career

In March 2020, Thomas was called up to the

England C The England national football C team (previously known as the England National Game XI and the England Semi-Pro national team) is the football team that represents England at non-league level. Formed in 1979 as the England Non-League team, it fe ...

team for the first time for a fixture against Wales C team however this match was postponed due to 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 ...

. On 28 September 2021, Thomas was called up into the senior

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

squad for the first time for their 2022 World Cup qualifiers against

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. He made his international debut for Wales on 8 October 2021 as a second half substitute in the 2–2 draw against Czech Republic, and completed his first full 90 minutes three days later in the match against Estonia. In November 2022 he was named in the Wales squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

Personal life

Born in England, Thomas was born to a Sierra Leonean father and Welsh mother. He qualifies for

through his mother who was born in Newport.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Individual *

: August 2021

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Sorba 1999 births Living people Footballers from the London Borough of Newham Welsh footballers Wales international footballers Welsh people of Sierra Leonean descent British sportspeople of Sierra Leonean descent Sierra Leone Creole people English sportspeople of Sierra Leonean descent English people of Welsh descent Boreham Wood F.C. players Cheshunt F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Isthmian League players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Association football wingers