Toby George Edser (born 28 February 1999) 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 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

Ebbsfleet United Ebbsfleet United Football Club is a professional football club based in Northfleet, Kent, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the club competes in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football. The club was formed in 1946 from ...

. Edser began his senior career at

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 ...

and spent time on

loan In finance, a loan is the lending of money by one or more individuals, organizations, or other entities to other individuals, organizations, etc. The recipient (i.e., the borrower) incurs a debt and is usually liable to pay interest on that d ...

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 ...

and

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

. He never played a first-team game with Nottingham Forest and joined

Aldershot Town Aldershot Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area i ...

after being released in June 2020. He joined Ebbsfleet United after two seasons with Aldershot and helped Ebbsfleet to win the

National League South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

title at the end of the 2022–23 season.

Early and personal life

Edser is from

Burpham Burpham is a rural village and civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. The village is on an arm of the River Arun slightly less than northeast of Arundel. A slight minority of the population qualifies as within the workin ...

and attended

George Abbot School George Abbot School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form with academy status in Burpham, north-east of the town centre of Guildford providing a comprehensive education, for around 2,000 young people, aged 11–18. History The ...

Career

Nottingham Forest

Edser was spotted by

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 ...

playing for the Guildford Saints as an eight-year-old and was signed to the club's

Academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

until his release at age 15. He was then an associated schoolboy at

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

before he signed a two-year scholarship at

in 2015. He helped Forest's under-18 team to win their league and reach the fifth round of 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 ...

during the 2015–16 season. He went on to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

the under-23 side the following season and was an unused substitute for the first-team in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

, first appearing on the bench at the

City Ground The City Ground is a football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest Football Club since 1898 and has a capacity of 30,445. The stadium was a venue when E ...

in October 2016; it was reported that he was expected to have made his senior debut had

Mark Warburton Mark Warburton (born 6 September 1962) is an English professional football manager and former player who is a first-team coach at West Ham United. As a player, Warburton was a right back at non-League level with Enfield and Boreham Wood. He beg ...

's side not taken until the final day of the season to secure safety from

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. ...

. He went on to sign a new three-year

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

, but found breaking into the first-team more difficult during the 2017–18 season due to an influx of midfielders signed in the summer. On 19 October 2018, he joined

side

on a one-month

deal. He made his debut for the "Cardinals" at the

Kingfield Stadium Kingfield Stadium, currently known as The Laithwaite Community Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is the home of Woking F.C. in the Kingfield area of Woking, Surrey which has a capacity of approximately 6,000, of which, 2,500 are seated on gran ...

the next day, helping his new team to beat

Welling United Welling United Football Club is a professional football club, based in Welling in the London Borough of Bexley, England. The club's first team play in the National League South, at the sixth tier of English football. History Welling United Foot ...

1–0 in the fourth qualification round of the

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 ...

. After his loan was extended he scored his first goal for the club on 24 November, in a 2–0 victory over

Folkestone Invicta Folkestone Invicta Football Club is a association football, football club based in Folkestone, Kent, England. They are currently members of the and play at Cheriton Road. History The club was established in 1936 and joined the East Kent Wedne ...

in the third qualification round of the

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, commonly known as the FA Trophy, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after the English Football Association and competed for primarily by semi-professional teams. The compet ...

to secure the "Cards" a place in the first round proper of the competition. Woking went on to cause a cup upset in the second round proper of the FA Cup, knocking out

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 ...

side

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

at the County Ground. He scored a total of four goals in 19 appearances for

Alan Dowson Alan Dowson (born 17 June 1970) is an English football manager and former professional player who manages Dartford. He made 55 appearances in the Football League between 1988 and 1993, before spending 13 years as a player in non-league football ...

's Woking. On 31 January 2019, he joined League Two club

on loan until the end of the 2018–19 season. He returned on loan to Woking in August 2019, who were now playing in the

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 ...

. He later said he regretted leaving Woking after his first spell. He was released by Nottingham Forest at the end of the 2019–20 season.

Aldershot Town

On 18 September 2020, Edser signed with National League side

and said, "I'm really happy; it's been a bit stressful over the last few months". He scored four goals in 43 league appearances in the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season and was re-signed for another year. However, he missed two months of the 2021–22 campaign with injury, marking his return to fitness in January with a goal in a 1–1 draw with

Maidenhead United Maidenhead United Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. They are currently members of and have played at York Road since 1871, making it the 'oldest senior football ground continuously ...

at the

Recreation Ground A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. N ...

Ebbsfleet United

In July 2022, he signed for National League South side

following a trial. He scored twelve goals from 47 appearances in the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

season, including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a final day 5–0 win over

Hungerford Town Hungerford Town Football Club is a semi-professional Football club (association football), football club based in Hungerford, Berkshire, England. Affiliated to the Berks & Bucks Football Association, they are currently members of and play at B ...

Stonebridge Road Stonebridge Road is a multi-purpose stadium in Northfleet, Gravesend, Kent, England, also known as Kuflink Stadium for sponsorship reasons. It is primarily used for football matches. Stonebridge Road was constructed in 1905, and was initial ...

. Ebbsfleet won the National League South title, setting a club record of 32 wins and 109 goals. He then featured 39 times in the 2023–24 season.

Style of play

Edser has been described by the Port Vale club website as "a talented

playmaker In association football, a playmaker is a player who controls the flow of the team's play, and is often involved in offensively and defensively playing passing moves which lead to goals, through their vision, technique, ball control, creativit ...

with a strong technical ability". The Nottingham Forest club website stated that "his intelligence on the ball allows him to dictate play wherever he is on the field". He has described himself as "quite a leader on the pitch".

Career statistics

Honours

Ebbsfleet United *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edser, Toby 1999 births Living people Footballers from Guildford English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Fulham F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Woking F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Aldershot Town F.C. players Ebbsfleet United F.C. players National League (English football) players