Zeli Ismail (born 12 December 1993) 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

right 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 Newtown in the Welsh Premier League. He has represented England at both under-16 and under-17 level.

Career

Born in

Kukës Kukës ( sq-definite, Kukësi) is a city in the Republic of Albania. The city is the capital of the surrounding municipality of Kukës and county of Kukës, one of 12 constituent counties of the republic. It spans and had a total population of 16 ...

, Ismail is a product of

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

' academy, which he joined at the age of 10. The midfielder signed his first professional contract in 2010, and made his senior debut on 25 September 2012 as a substitute in a 6–0 defeat at

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in 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 ...

under

Ståle Solbakken Ståle Solbakken (born 27 February 1968) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Norway national team. During his playing career, Solbakken was named 1995 Norwegian midfielder of the year, and h ...

. In November 2012 he joined

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 ...

side

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

on loan until 2 January 2013. Here, he made his league debut on 24 November 2012 as a substitute in a 5–1 win over

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

. Upon the end of his initial loan period he was immediately re-loaned for the remainder of the campaign, but this was ended after a month as Ismail failed to establish himself in their first team. Following Wolves' relegation to League One at the end of the 2012–13 campaign, Ismail was cited by new manager

Kenny Jackett Kenneth Francis Jackett (born 5 January 1962) is a former professional football player and manager, who is currently Director of Football at club Gillingham. A skilful left-footed player, able to play in defence or midfield, Jackett was cappe ...

as being part of his plans for the first team. He made his first league appearance for Wolves on 10 August 2013 when he started a 4–0 win against Gillingham, in what was the first of nine league appearances. Despite these games, Ismail did not hold down a regular place in the Wolves' team and, after not gaining any playing time at all during December 2013, he was loaned to

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 ...

club

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home groun ...

in January 2014 in a one-month loan deal. He scored his first senior goal on 8 February 2014 to earn a 1–0 victory at

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

. His loan stay was subsequently extended until the end of the season, allowing Ismail to play in the League Two Play-off Final for the Brewers, where they lost 1–0 to

Fleetwood Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830 ...

. In July 2014, Ismail signed a six-month loan deal with League One

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 ...

. He scored four times in sixteen appearances before suffering a knee injury against

Accrington Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to ...

in November 2014 that meant he had to return to his parent club and undergo surgery. On 29 July 2015, it was announced that Ismail would return to former club

on loan until January. This spell was however hampered by an ankle injury. Having recovered, he joined

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

in February 2016 on a month's loan, during which time he made 6 substitute appearances (5 of them in League matches). Ismail was almost immediately loaned out again; this time joining another League Two side,

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 N ...

, until the end of the 2015–16 season, where he made 11 appearances, scoring once against

. At the conclusion of the campaign his parent club announced they would not be taking up the option of offering Ismail a new contract. He made 12 appearances in total for the club, but none above League One level. On 25 June 2016 he signed for

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

. He scored his first goal for Bury in an

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

tie against Morecambe on 30 August 2016. On 31 August 2017, Ismail joined fellow

club

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

on loan until January 2018. Ismail scored his first goal for Walsall in an

tie against West Bromwich Albion Under-23s on 19 September 2017. He was released by Bury at the end of the 2017–18 season. After making sixteen league appearances on loan for the club, Ismail joined Walsall permanently on 26 June 2018, signing a one-year deal. He was released by Walsall at the end of the 2018–19 season. In June 2019 it was announced that he would sign for

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

on 1 July 2019, after signing a one-year contract with the club. He made his debut for the club on 3 September 2019 in an EFL Trophy match against

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

and made his league debut for the club on 7 September 2019 in a 2–1 win against

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 ...

, where he was also sent off. On 12 May 2021 he was one of nine players that Bradford City announced would leave the club on 30 June 2021 when their contracts expire. He subsequently joined

National League 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 Sy ...

club

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

. On 31 January 2022, Ismail signed for

Cymru Premier The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. Prior to 200 ...

side Newtown.

Career statistics

References

External links

England profile
at the FA * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ismail, Zeli 1993 births Living people People from Kukës English footballers England youth international footballers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players Burton Albion F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Bury F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players Hereford F.C. players Newtown A.F.C. players National League (English football) players English Football League players Albanian emigrants to England Association football midfielders Cymru Premier players