Westley Nathan Morgan (born 21 January 1984) is a former 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 made over 750 professional appearances as a defender for

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 ...

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

and the Jamaican national team, as well as a brief loan spell at

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed in ...

. Morgan spent the first ten years of his career with his boyhood club,

, playing 402 matches and scoring 14 goals. He was their longest-serving player when he transferred to Leicester City in January 2012. Morgan became Leicester's captain later that year, and captained the club for 9 years until his retirement in 2021. He captained the club during its most successful ever period, captaining them to 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 ...

title in 2014, their first

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 ...

title two years later in 2016 and their first

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 ...

win in 2021, in which he made his final ever professional appearance coming on as a substitute in the 2021 FA Cup Final. Born and raised in England, Morgan chose to represent Jamaica at international level, making his debut for them in 2013 and was part of their teams that competed in two

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

tournaments and finished runners-up at the

2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 13th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and the 23rd CONCACAF regional championship overall in the organization's fifty-four years of existence. It was held in the United States, with two matches bein ...

. He was also the first Jamaican player to score in a

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 ...

game.

Club career

Nottingham Forest

Early years

Morgan was born in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

. Having been rejected by

's near neighbours

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

at the age of 15, he went to study business at South Notts College while playing semi-professionally in central midfield for

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.Midland Football Alliance The Midland Football Alliance was an English association football league for semi-professional teams. It covered Leicestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire and also southern parts of Derbyshire and Not ...

. His performances were tracked by non-League teams and Forest, who took him as an apprentice while he continued studying. There was no transfer fee, but Dunkirk received two Forest kits. Their clubhouse has his Forest and Leicester shirts on the wall. In February 2003, with manager

Paul Hart Paul Anthony Hart (born 4 May 1953) is an English association football, football manager, coach, and former professional player who made 567 appearances in the English Football League, Football League as a Defender (association football), def ...

considering him close to a first-team breakthrough after his reserve performances, Morgan was loaned to

of the Third Division. He made his professional debut on 1 March, playing the full 90 minutes of a 3-1 loss to Scunthorpe United at Aggborough, deflecting a 25-yard

Peter Beagrie Peter Sidney Beagrie (born 28 November 1965) is an English former professional footballer, sports television pundit and commentator. As a player, he was a left-winger in a career that lasted from 1983 to 2006. He played for ten different clubs ...

shot for the first goal. Morgan totalled five appearances for the

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

side, scoring his first goal two weeks after his debut, heading to confirm a 2–0 victory at

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on Ne ...

. Hart wanted Morgan to lose weight before joining the first team, which became a priority as the team had lost several players after losing in the last season's play-offs. He made his debut at left-back on 12 August 2003 away to

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 ...

at the age of 19; after a goalless draw, Forest won a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

to advance to the second round of the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. Four days later he made his First Division debut in a 3–0 loss to

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 ...

; Hart considered him the

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

. On 18 October, he scored his first goal for Forest, heading

Eoin Jess Eoin Jess (born 13 December 1970) is a Scottish football coach and former player. As a player he was an attacking midfielder who notably played in the Premier League for Coventry City and Bradford City, and in the Scottish Premier League for A ...

' cross to finish a 6–0 win over bottom team

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

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 ...

. He totalled 32 games across the season, also scoring an equaliser on 3 December in the home game against

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

, and was sent off twice over the campaign.

First-team regular

In the 2007–08 campaign, Morgan missed only four games all season, as he helped Forest finish second in the league and gain promotion from

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

to the

. His only goal of the season came in a 2–0 victory at

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

, while Forest kept a season-record 24 clean sheets. Morgan found it hard adapting to life back in the Championship during the first half of the 2008–09 season, with Forest languishing in the relegation zone by Christmas. Following the dismissal of

Colin Calderwood Colin Calderwood (born 20 January 1965) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is the assistant manager at Northampton Town. As a player, he was a centre-back who notably played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hots ...

on Boxing Day 2008, and the arrival of Billy Davies soon after, Morgan and the Forest defence looked far more solid as the season progressed which eventually led to the Reds retaining their Championship status. At the end of the 2008–09 season he had made a total of 274 appearances in all competitions, including 255 starts. October 2011 saw Wes Morgan make his 400th appearance for Nottingham Forest against Hull City in a match in which he was also handed the captaincy. On 20 January 2012, Nottingham Forest announced they rejected a bid for Morgan from local rivals Leicester City.

Leicester City

On 30 January 2012, Morgan joined East Midland rivals

for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £1 million. As a result of his performances towards the end of the 2011–12 season, he was rewarded with the Leicester City captaincy ahead of the 2012–13 season. His impressive performances early on earned him a nomination for

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 English football league system, second tier of English football. ...

for September. Leicester won the 2013–14 Championship, in which he missed only one game. Afterwards, the club used a clause in his would-be expired contract to keep him for another season; he eventually signed a new three-year deal. In the

for the 2014–15 season, Morgan scored his first goal of the season in a 4–3 defeat to

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

on 21 March 2015, and another in 3–0 win over

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

on the 5 May. On 19 April 2015, Morgan was selected in the " Football Manager Team of the Decade" at the

Football League Awards The EFL Awards is an annual awards ceremony commemorating association football players, clubs and associated individuals involved in the three divisions of the English Football League (EFL). The event was established in 2006 and is usually hel ...

. Morgan kept his place for the 2015–16 season, playing in every minute of all 38 Premier League matches, one of only 4 players to achieve that accolade (including teammate

Kasper Schmeichel Kasper Peter Schmeichel (born 5 November 1986) is a Danish professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Nice and the Denmark national team. Schmeichel began his career with Manchester City, but had loan spells with Darlington, B ...

) in that season. On 3 April 2016, he scored the only goal against Southampton, despite feeling ill. On 1 May, he equalised with a header in a 1–1 draw with

Manchester United 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 City of Salford, Salford to ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

, and the next day Leicester won the title, with Morgan becoming the first Jamaican to win a Premier League medal. After captaining Leicester City to the title, Morgan was included in the Premier League

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

, alongside teammates

Jamie Vardy Jamie Richard Vardy (''né'' Gill; born 11 January 1987) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for club Leicester City. Regarded as one of the best strikers in the world, Vardy is known for his prolific goalscoring aided ...

N'Golo Kanté N'Golo Kanté (born 29 March 1991) is a French professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for club Chelsea and the France national team. Considered by many to be one of the world's best midfielders, Kanté is widely praised ...

and

Riyad Mahrez Riyad Karim Mahrez ( ar, رياض كريم محرز, Riyāḍ Karīm Maḥraz; born 21 February 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Manchester City and captains the Algeria national team. Mahrez began his career ...

. He also became the third outfield player in Premier League history to play every minute of a title-winning season after

Gary Pallister Gary Andrew Pallister (born 30 June 1965) is an English former professional footballer and sports television pundit. As a player, he was a defender from 1984 to 2001 and is most noted for his nine-year spell at Manchester United from 1989 unt ...

in 1992–93 and

John Terry John George Terry (born 7 December 1980) is an English professional football coach and former player who played as a centre-back. He was previously captain of Chelsea, the England national team and Aston Villa. He was most recently the a ...

in 2014–15. Manager

Claudio Ranieri Claudio Ranieri Grande Ufficiale OMRI (; born 20 October 1951) is an Italian football manager and former player. He will be the new head coach of club Cagliari from 1 January 2023. Ranieri began his managerial career in the lower leagues in ...

said "Wes Morgan is

Baloo Baloo (from hi, भालू ur, بھالو ''bhālū'' "bear") is a main fictional character featured in Rudyard Kipling's ''The Jungle Book'' from 1894 and ''The Second Jungle Book'' from 1895. Baloo, a sloth bear, is the strict teacher of ...

off ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, ...

''. He is a big gentle bear who looks after all the lads. He does not speak so much but when he does speak, everybody listens. He is the perfect captain. I never knew anything about him before I came here. But I watched all the matches, I watched how solid, strong and intelligent he was". On 25 February 2017, reports emerged alleging that Morgan was among several teammates who met with chairman

Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha ( th, วิชัย ศรีวัฒนประภา;} born Vichai Raksriaksorn, th, วิชัย รักศรีอักษร; 4 April 1958 – 27 October 2018) was a Thai billionaire businessman and th ...

following their 2–1 Champions League defeat at Sevilla on 22 February, which led to Ranieri being sacked. On 14 March 2017, he scored the first goal in Leicester's 2–0 win against

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Gua ...

, contributing to a 3–2 aggregate score which allowed the club to qualify for the quarter-finals of the

. This also made him the first Jamaican player to score in a Champions League game. Morgan later came on in the 82nd minute of the 2021 FA Cup Final to help Leicester win their first ever FA Cup. On 21 May 2021, Leicester City announced that Morgan would retire at the end of the season.

International career

On 1 September 2013, Morgan was called up to the Jamaican squad for the first time. He made his debut in a 0–0 draw against

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

at the Estadio Rommel Fernández in

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

on 7 September 2013. Morgan captained the ''Reggae Boyz'' for the first time in the 3–1 defeat to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

on 9 September 2014. Morgan was part of the Jamaican squad invited to the 2015 Copa América in Chile. He played every minute of their campaign, in which they were eliminated in last place in their group. Weeks later, he was again in the team at the

in the United States and Canada, helping them 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 cont ...

. Jamaica lost 3–1 to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Lincoln Financial Field Lincoln Financial Field is an American football stadium located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It serves as the home stadium of the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL) and the Temple Owls football team of Temple University. ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Nottingham Forest * Football League One runner-up: 2007–08 Leicester City *

: 2015–16 *

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 ...

Football League 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 En ...

: 2013–14 Jamaica *

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

runner-up:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Individual *

: 2010–11 Championship, 2012–13 Championship, 2013–14 Championship, 2015–16 Premier League * The Football League Team of the Decade *

Player of the Season: 2012–13 *Leicester City Players' Player of the Season: 2012–13 * CONCACAF Best XI:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

References

External links

Wes Morgan profile
at the Leicester City F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Wes 1984 births Living people Footballers from Nottingham English footballers Jamaican footballers Jamaica international footballers Association football defenders Notts County F.C. players Dunkirk F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Kidderminster Harriers F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players FA Cup Final players 2015 Copa América players 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Copa América Centenario players Black British sportspeople English people of Jamaican descent