Stephen Jagielka (10 March 1978 – 17 March 2021) was 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 played 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

Having begun his career without success at Stoke City, Jagielka broke through at

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

, where he spent six seasons before falling out of favour under Jimmy Quinn as they were relegated to the Conference in 2003. He then moved to

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

for a season, where despite the presence of his younger brother

Phil Phil may refer to: * Phil (given name), a shortened version of masculine and feminine names * Phill, a given name also spelled "Phil" * Phil, Kentucky, United States * ''Phil'' (film), a 2019 film * -phil-, a lexical fragment, used as a root ter ...

and a good relationship with manager Neil Warnock, he did not play a first-team match. Jagielka then spent two seasons 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 his ...

, contributing to their promotion to the Football League as Conference champions in 2006. Jagielka subsequently spent a season at

Droylsden Droylsden is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, east of Manchester city centre and west of Ashton-under-Lyne, with a population at the 2011 Census of 22,689. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, in the ...

, helping them win promotion to the Conference National, but decided to leave due to difficulties navigating from Shrewsbury where he had a plumbing business. To remain in

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

he signed a one-year deal with

AFC Telford United AFC Telford United is a football club based in Telford, Shropshire, England. The club was formed in 2004 after the original Telford United, founded in 1872, folded due to financial problems. Currently members of the National League North, they ...

of the

Conference North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Syst ...

after initiating a phonecall with their manager. It was followed by playing for

Hednesford Town Hednesford Town Football Club is a football club based in Hednesford, Staffordshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Keys Park. History The club was established in 1880 as a merger of the Red & Whites and Hill Top.

and Shropshire teams Ellesmere Rangers and

Market Drayton Market Drayton is a market town and electoral ward in the north of Shropshire, England, close to the Cheshire and Staffordshire borders. It is on the River Tern, and was formerly known as "Drayton in Hales" (c. 1868) and earlier simply as "D ...

Personal life

Of Polish and Scottish descent, he was the elder brother of Premier League footballer

Phil Jagielka Philip Nikodem Jagielka ( or ; born 17 August 1982) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for club Stoke City. Jagielka started his career with Sheffield United in 2000, where he played mainly as a central midfiel ...

. After retiring from football, he worked for

Caterpillar Inc. Caterpillar Inc. (stock symbol CAT) is an American ''Fortune'' 500 corporation and the world's largest construction-equipment manufacturer. In 2018, Caterpillar was ranked number 65 on the ''Fortune'' 500 list and number 238 on the Global ''Fo ...

and for his own plumbing business. He was formerly married, to Jo Fallows, with whom he had three children. On 17 March 2021, it was announced that Jagielka, who was living in

Rodington Rodington is a village in Shropshire, England. Situated between the towns of Wellington and Shrewsbury it lies on the relatively level Shropshire plain and just within the borough of Telford & Wrekin. The Church of England parish church, St Ge ...

, Shropshire, had died aged 43.

Career statistics

Honours

Accrington Stanley * Conference National: 2005–06

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jagielka, Steve 1978 births 2021 deaths People from Sale, Greater Manchester Footballers from Greater Manchester English footballers Association football midfielders Stoke City F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Accrington Stanley F.C. players Droylsden F.C. players Market Drayton Town F.C. players AFC Telford United players Hednesford Town F.C. players Ellesmere Rangers F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players English people of Polish descent English people of Scottish descent Drug-related deaths in England