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 le ...

who played as a

centre-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 ...

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 Cen ...

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 Amotherby is a village and civil parish in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire, England. It is about west of Malton. Description The village appears in the ''Domesday Book'' (1086) as 'Aimundrebi' which is derived from 'Eymund's farm' ...

primary school and

Lady Lumley's School Lady Lumley's School is a coeducational secondary school and sixth form located in Pickering, North Yorkshire, England. It was founded in Thornton-le-Dale in 1670. It was endowed by deed of Frances, Richard Lumley, 1st Viscount Lumley, Viscoun ...

( 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), N ...

, 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 (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

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 1884 ...

at the beginning of the 1992–93 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 Foo ...

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. T ...

, 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 county, metropolitan and ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of List of ceremonial counties of England, 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Merse ...

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 association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

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 Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

. After a 4–0 victory away to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional 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. Since 2011, the first te ...

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 t ...

, who was sent off for elbowing Short. In his final league game for Rovers on 7 May 2005 against

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 ...

, 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, and a ...

. However, in an out of character incident, he was sent off for violent conduct against Fulham's

Luis Boa Morte Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

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 tautology (language), tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere, Cumbria (town), Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in leng ...

, 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 Robert Davison (born 17 July 1959) is an English former professional footballer who played as a striker. He began his professional career with Huddersfield Town before spending time at Halifax Town, Derby County (twice), Leeds United, Sheffield ...

. 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 iss ...

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 Wassall Darren Paul James Wassall (born 27 June 1968) is an English football coach and former player who played as a defender. He has been academy director of Derby County since 2009; he was also the club's head coach on a temporary basis during 2016. ...

s coaching staff at

for the closing stages of the 2015–16 campaign.

Career statistics

Manager

Honours

Blackburn Rovers *

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

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