Darel Francis Roy G. Russell (born 22 October 1980) is an English former

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

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 ...

. Russell began his career with

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

in 1997 and played 147 times for the Canaries before joining Stoke City in 2003. He was a regular starter under

Tony Pulis Anthony Richard Pulis (; born 16 January 1958) is a Welsh football manager and former footballer who last managed Sheffield Wednesday. Pulis obtained his FA coaching badge at age 19, followed by his UEFA 'A' licence aged 21 – making him on ...

at Stoke, spending four seasons in the Potteries playing over 180 times. Russell returned to Norwich in July 2007 where he helped them win the

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 ...

title in 2009–10. He went on to play for Preston North End,

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

and in North America with

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BM ...

and

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tie ...

Career

Norwich City

Born in

Mile End Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the m ...

, Russell began his career as a youth player at

making his debut on the last day of the 1997–98 season in a 1–0 victory against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

. He made 13 appearances in 1998–99 before establishing himself in the first team in 1999–2000. In April 2000, Norwich manager

Bruce Rioch Bruce David Rioch (; born 6 September 1947) is a football manager and former player for the Scotland national team. His last managerial post was at AaB in the Danish Superliga in 2008. As a player, he made more than 550 appearances in the Fo ...

was replaced by

Bryan Hamilton Bryan Hamilton (born 21 December 1946) is a Northern Irish former professional football player and manager. He gained 50 caps for Northern Ireland between 1969 and 1980, and later managed the national team for four years. He later became Techn ...

whose old school style of management made it a tough environment for Russell to develop. Hamilton was sacked in December 2000 with the side in relegation trouble, he was replaced by

Nigel Worthington Nigel Worthington (born 4 November 1961) is a Northern Irish former professional footballer who was most recently the manager of York City. He played a defender and a midfielder, playing his club football for Ballymena United, Notts County, ...

who guided them to a safe position of 15th with Russell making 47 appearances in 2000–01. At the end of the season Russell was linked with a move to East Anglia rivals

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 ...

. He made 26 appearances in 2001–02 as Norwich reached the 2002 Football League First Division play-off Final where they lost on penalties 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 ...

. Russell missed two months of the 2002–03 campaign after breaking a bone in his foot. In June 2003 Russell rejected a new contract offer from Norwich.

Stoke City

Russell joined Stoke in 2003 for a fee of £125,000 in August 2003. He made his Stoke debut on 9 August 2003 in a 3–0 win away at

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 ...

. Russell scored twice in a 3–1 win against Sunderland on 16 September 2003. Russell was an ever-present under

in 2003–04 playing 50 times as the team finished in 11th position. He scored on the opening day of the 2004–05 season in a 2–1 win over promotion favorites

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 ...

. Russell missed only one match in 2004–05 as Stoke were unable to mount a promotion challenge finishing in 12th. He made 39 appearances in 2005–06 as Stoke finished in 13th place under Dutch manager

Johan Boskamp Johannes "Johan/Jan" Boskamp (born 21 October 1948) is a Dutch former football player and manager. He played the majority of his career for hometown club Feyenoord and Belgian side RWDM and managed primarily in the Belgian leagues. Currently he ...

. Pulis returned to the club in 2006–07 and several new signings enabled them to push for a play-off spot. Russell won the Championship player of the month award for November 2006. Russell scored a career best of seven goals in 2006–07 as Stoke narrowly missed out on a play-off place by two points.

Return to Norwich

On 30 July 2007, Russell rejoined the Canaries for an undisclosed fee (reported to be around the £410,000 marked down from £600,000 due to a 30% sell-on clause the canaries had in the deal taking Russell to Stoke in 2003), on a three-year contract. Russell played 44 times in 2007–08 as the Canaries finished in 17th spot. Under the management of

Glenn Roeder Glenn Victor Roeder (13 December 1955 – 28 February 2021) was an English professional football player and manager. As a player, Roeder played as a defender for Arsenal, Leyton Orient, Queens Park Rangers, Notts County, Newcastle United, Watfo ...

in 2008–09, Russell was played out of position as a forward which did not go down well with Norwich supporters. Roeder was sacked in January 2009 and replaced by

Bryan Gunn Bryan James Gunn (born 22 December 1963) is a Scottish former professional goalkeeper and football manager. After learning his trade with Aberdeen in the early 1980s, he spent most of his playing career at Norwich City, the club with which h ...

but he was unable to prevent Norwich being relegated to

. In the summer of 2009 Norwich rejected a bid of £500,000 from

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 ...

newcomers

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

. He remained at Carrow Road and helped the side gain an instant return to the Championship in 2009–10 winning the League One title with a club record 95 points. On 1 July 2010, it was confirmed that Russell had rejected the offer from Norwich of a new contract, and he was released.

Preston North End

Russell signed for Preston North End on a three-year deal on 4 August 2010. He scored his first and what turned out to be only goal for Preston 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 ...

against

on 13 September 2011. His time at

Deepdale Deepdale is a football stadium in the Deepdale area of Preston, England, the home of Preston North End. Deepdale is "widely recognised as being the oldest 'continuously used' football stadium in the world, though this is contested". History ...

was unsuccessful as Preston were relegated to League One in

2010–11 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. ...

. He was transfer listed by the club in May 2012.

Charlton Athletic (loan)

On 24 November 2011 Russell signed on loan for League One rivals

until January 2012. On 7 January 2012 this loan was extended until the end of the season. He played 11 times in 2011–12, scoring twice helping the Addicks win the League One title.

Portsmouth

On summer transfer deadline day 2012, Russell joined

on an initial one-month deal. Russell left Portsmouth on 28 January 2013, a day before his contract with the club was due to expire. He had made 18 appearances for Pompey with the side destined for relegation after suffering a ten-point deduction.

Toronto FC

On 14 February, Russell joined Canadian Major League Soccer side

on a trial basis. On 1 March, he signed a contract with the Canadian club. He made his debut for the club on 9 March in a 2–1 home victory over Sporting Kansas City, he came on as a second half sub for John Bostock. Russell scored his first goal for the club on 6 April, the goal came in the 90th minute to earn Toronto a 2–2 home draw against

FC Dallas FC Dallas is an American professional soccer club based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The club competes as a member of the Western Conference in Major League Soccer (MLS). The franchise began play in 1996 as a charter club of the le ...

. He was not retained following the 2013 season.

Tampa Bay Rowdies

Russell joined

for the

2014 North American Soccer League season The 2014 North American Soccer League season was the 47th season of Division II soccer in the United States and the fourth season of the revived North American Soccer League. It was contested by ten teams including two from Canada. Joining the NAS ...

. He played 26 times, scoring three goals as the team failed to reach the championship play-offs. He retired at the end of the season.

Personal life

Russel was born in England and is of Saint Lucian descent. His sister Shar Alexander (real name Sharlene Russell), is a singer in the band ' Miss Frank' who competed in the sixth series of X Factor.

Career statistics

Honours

; Norwich City *

champions: 2009–10 ; Charlton Athletic *

champions: 2011–12

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Darel 1980 births Living people Footballers from Mile End English footballers English people of Saint Lucian descent English expatriate footballers Men's association football midfielders Norwich City F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Toronto FC players Tampa Bay Rowdies players Expatriate soccer players in Canada Expatriate soccer players in the United States English Football League players Major League Soccer players North American Soccer League (2011–2017) players English expatriate sportspeople in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in Canada