Benjamin Thomas Davies (born 24 April 1993) is a Welsh 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 plays as a

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

and

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for club

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

and the Wales national team. Davies is an academy graduate of Swansea City, a Welsh club based in Swansea who play in the English football league system, also joining Danish club

Viborg FF Viborg Fodsports Forening ("Viborg Footsport Association"), or Viborg F.F. and VFF for short, is a Danish professional football club based in Viborg. The club was founded in 1896 and waited more than a century before winning its only national ...

's academy while his family lived in Denmark. He made his professional debut for Swansea City in the second

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 Fo ...

game of the

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

season against

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 ...

, scoring his first professional goal in a 3–1 Premier League win against Stoke City in January 2013. In the 2013–14 season, Davies was once again a regular for Swansea City. In July 2014, Davies was signed by Tottenham Hotspur for an undisclosed fee, making his debut for Tottenham in a

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

game against Cypriot side

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou ( el, Αθλητική Ένωση Λεμεσού, translation=Athletic Union of Limassol) commonly known as AEL, is a Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL also maintai ...

. During

Mauricio Pochettino Mauricio Roberto Pochettino Trossero (; born 2 March 1972) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player. He was most recently the head coach of Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain. Pochettino played as a central defender and b ...

's tenure, Davies battled Danny Rose for the starting left-back spot, but Davies was redeployed as a left-sided centre-back in a defensive back three by

Antonio Conte Antonio Conte (; born 31 July 1969) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Playing as a midfielder, Conte began his career at local club Lecce and later ...

. Davies made three appearances for the Welsh national U-19 football team in his youth. His appearances all came as part of qualification for the 2012 UEFA European Under-19 Championship. Davies made his debut senior

Welsh national team ) , Association = Football Association of Wales (FAW) , Confederation = UEFA (Europe) , Coach = Rob Page , Captain = Gareth Bale , Most caps = Gareth Bale (111) , Top scorer = Gareth ...

against Scotland at the

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA#Structure, FIFA confederations. The 2014 FIFA World Cup featured 32 teams, with one place reserved for the host nation, Brazil national football team, Bra ...

in 2012. He has since made over 70 senior appearances for Wales, and represented the side at

UEFA Euro 2016 The 2016 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2016 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2016) or simply Euro 2016, was the 15th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

, reaching the semi-finals, and

UEFA Euro 2020 The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2020 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2020) or simply Euro 2020, was the 16th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Europe ...

. Davies also helped Wales qualify for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

in 2022, the last time was in 1958.

Early life

Davies was born in Neath, West Glamorgan. After spending time in the youth academy at Swansea City, he and his family moved to Viborg, Denmark, after his father accepted a job offer. They spent three years living in Denmark, where he played for

's youth team before returning to Swansea. Davies attended

Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera Ysgol Gymraeg Ystalyfera Bro Dur is a Welsh-medium comprehensive school in Neath Port Talbot, Wales. The school provides education to three to eighteen-year-old pupils in Neath Port Talbot and south Powys from three campuses in Ystalyfera and ...

and he is a fluent

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has ...

speaker.

Club career

Swansea City

After spending time with the youth ranks, Davies signed a two-year contract with Swansea City, making his first-team debut against

for the

on 25 August 2012, coming on as an 84th minute substitute for Neil Taylor in a 3–0 home win. Davies became a regular starter for Swansea in the 2012–13 season, following a long-term injury to Taylor. On 23 November 2012, Davies signed a new three-and-a-half-year contract with Swansea. On 19 January 2013, Davies scored his first goal for Swansea against Stoke City in a 3–1 victory. In doing so, at 19 years and 270 days, he became Swansea's youngest scorer in the Premier League. In September 2013, he scored his second and third Premier League goals for Swansea, against West Brom and Arsenal respectively. On 24 December 2013, Davies signed a one-year contract extension, keeping him at Swansea until June 2017.

Tottenham Hotspur

On 23 July 2014, Davies joined

on a five-year contract for an undisclosed fee. He joined on the same day as his Swansea teammate

Michel Vorm Michel Armand Vorm (born 20 October 1983) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and was a goalkeeping coach at Tottenham Hotspur. Vorm began his professional career at FC Utrecht in 2005, spending his first season ...

, with Gylfi Sigurðsson being exchanged as part of the deal. Davies made his Premier League debut for Tottenham Hotspur as a late substitute in a 0–3 defeat to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. He made his first start for the club in the league in a 2–1 away win at

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

on 23 November 2014. He was an unused substitute for the 2015 League Cup Final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

on 1 March 2015, in which Tottenham were beaten 2–0 by

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 ...

. Davies scored his first goal for the club on 8 January 2017, a header in an FA Cup tie against Aston Villa. He signed a new four-year contract at Tottenham on 9 March 2017, extending his deal to 2021. Davies scored his second Tottenham goal – and his first for them in the Premier League – against Hull City on the final day of the 2016–17 season; a first-time strike from outside the box into the top left corner added a sixth goal in an eventual 7–1 win for Tottenham. Davies started for Tottenham in the opening match of the 2017–18 season, and scored a goal in a 2–0 win away to Newcastle United. Davies signed a new 5-year contract with Tottenham in July 2019. Davies scored his first goal of the 2020–21 season, his first in over three years, in the Carabao Cup tie against Stoke City, helping the team win 3–1 to reach the semi-finals. At the start of the 2021–22 season, Davies started only one Premier League game during

Nuno Espírito Santo Nuno Herlander Simões Espírito Santo (born 25 January 1974), often referred to as simply Nuno, is a Portuguese football manager and former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the manager of Saudi Professional League club Al- ...

's brief tenure as head coach. He has been a regular starter since

was hired as head coach in November 2021, where he has been redeployed as a left-sided centre-back as part of a defensive back three, the same role he tends to play for the Wales national team. Davies scored his first goal of the 2022–23 season in a league match against Bournemouth on 29 October, an equaliser in an eventual 3–2 comeback victory.

International career

In September 2012, Davies was selected for the

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

squad for

matches in September 2012. He replaced club teammate Neil Taylor, who had suffered a broken ankle in a Premier League match against Sunderland. Davies made his full international debut in the 2–1 win against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

on 12 October 2012. In May 2021 he was selected for the Wales squad for the delayed

tournament. In November 2022 he was named in the Wales squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in

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 ...

Outside football

In the summer of 2021, Davies was awarded a 2:1 degree in Economics and Business from the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

, after balancing his studies with his job as a professional footballer over a period of five years.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''As of match played 29 November 2022. Wales' score listed first, score column indicates score after each Davies goal.''

Honours

Swansea City * Football League Cup:

Tottenham Hotspur *Football League Cup runner-up: 2014–15 *

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 competi ...

runner-up: 2018–19

References

External links

Profile
at the Tottenham Hotspur F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Ben 1993 births Living people Footballers from Neath Welsh footballers Wales youth international footballers Wales international footballers Association football defenders Swansea City A.F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Premier League players UEFA Euro 2016 players UEFA Euro 2020 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players People educated at Ysgol Gyfun Ystalyfera