Craig Jonathan Short (born 25 June 1968) 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 played as a centre-back.

Playing career

Short was born in

Bridlington Bridlington is a coastal town and a civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is about north of Hull and east of York. The Gypsey Race enters the North Sea at its harbour. The 2011 ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

, England and after attending Amotherby primary school and Lady Lumley's School ( Pickering) along with his brother

Chris Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian, Christina, Christine, and Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, however it is not as common. People with the given name *Chris Abani (born 1966), Nige ...

, he started his professional career at

Pickering Town Pickering Town Football Club is an English football club based in Pickering, North Yorkshire. The club was founded in 1888 and are currently members of the . History Pickering Town Football Club were first established in 1888, for many yea ...

in the 1986–87 season. In October the following year they moved to

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

together, and in June 1989,

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...

together. However, while his brother was dogged by injury, Craig managed to ascend to greater things. After four seasons for Notts County he moved to

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 188 ...

at the beginning of the

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

season. He signed for £2.5million – a record for a club outside the top flight, and the highest fee for a defender at the time. He had been subject of a similarly high bid for ambitious

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 ...

side

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

, but opted to join Derby instead. He completed more than 100 competitive games for both Derby and his next club, Everton who he joined three seasons later. He left the

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...

club in 1999, joining Blackburn Rovers for £1.7 million – seven years after they had first tried to buy him. Short endeared himself to fans as a mainstay in the 2000–01 team which won promotion and established itself back in the top flight. However, he missed the 2002

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 ...

final against

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 ...

through suspension, a match which Blackburn won 2–1. He did gain European experience in the following season, playing two games in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

. After a 4–0 victory away to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

on 6 December 2003, manager

Graeme Souness Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current TV pundit. A midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Ranger ...

labelled Short the "perfect professional" after outplaying City striker

Christophe Dugarry Christophe Jérôme Dugarry (born 24 March 1972) is a French former professional footballer who played as a forward. His clubs include Bordeaux, Milan, Barcelona, Marseille, Birmingham City and Qatar SC. He was also a member of the France team ...

, who was sent off for elbowing Short. In his final league game for Rovers on 7 May 2005 against Fulham, Short was handed the captain's armband by then manager

Mark Hughes Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is the manager of Bradford City. During his playing career he usually operated as a forward or midfielder. He had two spells at Manchester United, an ...

. However, in an out of character incident, he was sent off for violent conduct against Fulham's Luis Boa Morte after the Portuguese striker dangerously fouled

Lucas Neill Lucas Edward Neill (born 9 March 1978) is an Australian former soccer player. Neill played as a defender, often playing as a centre back as well as a full-back. Neill spent almost 15 years of his career playing in England. He represented Austr ...

and Short pushed Boa Morte in the chest. He did however lead the team out for one final time a few weeks later in

Tony Parkes Anthony Parkes (born 5 May 1949) is an English former professional footballer. After retiring, he became a coach. He was most recently caretaker manager at Blackpool. It was the seventh such role of his coaching career, having performed the rol ...

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

, who was also leaving the club. In the summer of 2005 he was allowed to move on 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 ...

and was an important member of United's successful promotion campaign. He signed a one-year contract but only made two

appearances that season. He was released at the end of the 2006–07 season and retired from football.

Retirement

After retirement, Short returned to his sailing business on

Windermere Windermere (sometimes tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in length, and almost 1 mile (1.5 km) at its wides ...

, teaching sailing to the public and corporate teams, and delivering boats to their owners. He was featured on the

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

series ''Where are they now?''. Craig is currently the Assistant Manager at Oxford United Football Club. His partner Carly Barnes is a sports lawyer. He has 3 children - Beth, Ellie and Jonathan-Lucas.

Return to football

In September 2008, it was announced that Short had joined Sheffield United's sister club, Ferencvaros, as a player-coach to Bobby Davison. He played two games for the club, both in the

Hungarian League Cup The Hungarian League Cup ( hu, Magyar Ligakupa) was an annual football tournament contested by clubs in the Hungarian League. It was created in 2007 and the competition only lasted for 8 seasons, being cancelled in 2015/2016. Ligakupa Finals The ...

. On 30 November 2009, Ferencvaros officially signed Short as new manager; however, he left the Hungarian club because he did not possess the

UEFA Pro Licence UEFA, the governing body for football in Europe, mandates several coaching licences for professional managers, each valid for coaching at a certain level. These include the UEFA Pro Licence, the UEFA A Licence, and the UEFA B Licence. They are is ...

required in the Hungarian top division. On 4 June 2010, he was appointed as the new manager of Notts County. He was sacked on 24 October 2010. After a break from football, Short returned as Head of Recruitment for Derby County's academy. In 2013 Short was appointed first team coach at Blackburn Rovers where he had enjoyed a six-year spell as a player. Short was appointed to Darren Wassalls coaching staff at

for the closing stages of the 2015–16 campaign.

Career statistics

Manager

Honours

Blackburn Rovers * Football League Cup: 2002

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Short, Craig 1968 births Living people People from Bridlington English footballers Scarborough F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Everton F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players English football managers Ferencvárosi TC managers Notts County F.C. managers Pickering Town F.C. players English Football League managers Derby County F.C. non-playing staff Blackburn Rovers F.C. non-playing staff English expatriate football managers Footballers from North Yorkshire Footballers from the East Riding of Yorkshire Ferencvárosi TC footballers Association football defenders Expatriate football managers in Hungary