Shaun O'Neill Newton (born 20 August 1975) is an English 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, rugb ...

who played 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 boundari ...

for

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 ...

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' ...

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 ...

and

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

before ending his professional football career in 2008.

Club career

Charlton Athletic

Newton started his career at second-tier

and worked his way up to the first team, making his debut as a 17-year-old on 14 August 1993 as a substitute in a 1–0 win over

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 ...

. He quickly became a first-team regular and was a virtual ever-present between 1995 and 1998. He was part of the team that reached the 1996 First Division play-offs, scoring inside the first minute of the first leg, which

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

won 3–1 on aggregate. This era also saw him recognised by his country as he won three England Under-21 caps during 1996. His debut came in a 2–0 win over Moldova U-21 on 31 August 1996. He won promotion to the

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 ...

in 1998 after a play-off final victory over

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, winning on penalties after a 4–4 draw, with Newton scoring Charlton's seventh penalty. Newton had earlier scored in the semi-final success over

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 professio ...

to take them to

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

. The midfielder's first season in the top flight was interrupted by a knee ligament injury, but, although he recovered, the club's fortunes did not and they were relegated. He regained his spot in the side in the 1999–2000 season as the club won promotion again at the first attempt as champions. He found him often on the sidelines in the Premier League though, as Claus Jensen was signed and youngster Scott Parker emerged. His only goal of the 2000–01 season came in an FA Cup third round replay against

Dagenham and Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Often known simply as D ...

on 27 January 2001. Frustrated by a lack of first-team opportunities as the team remained in Premier League, he requested a transfer in February and was placed on the transfer list. Although he remained at Charlton for a further six months, he finally left The Valley in August 2001, joining First Division club

for £850,000, rising to £1 million if Wolves were promoted with him registered at the club. In total, he had made 285 appearances for Charlton, scoring 26 goals.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Newton made a bright start at Wolves, scoring on his debut against

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 d ...

and producing a career-best seasonal goal tally of 8. Despite this, a late slump saw the club fall away from the top into the play-offs, where they lost to

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 ...

. However, the following season saw the midfielder win a third promotion to the top flight as the club won the play-offs, beating

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 ...

3–0 in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

. He was a first choice for the West Midlands club in the

, something that had evaded him in his Charlton days, but Wolves only managed one season at this level. He retained his place as the 2004–05 season began, but the arrival of

Glenn Hoddle Glenn Hoddle (born 27 October 1957) is an English former football player and manager. He currently works as a television pundit and commentator for ITV Sport and BT Sport. He played as a midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, Monaco, Chelsea an ...

as manager saw his opportunities diminish and he left the club in March 2005. In total, he made 130 appearances for Wolves, scoring 12 times.

West Ham United

Newton moved to

in March 2005 for an initial fee of £10,000. His transfer fee later rose to £125,000 after the club gained

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to the Premier League via the play-offs in May 2005. This marked Newton's fourth promotion from the second tier and he was rewarded with a new two-year contract in July 2005. He appeared regularly for West Ham in their return to the top flight, albeit mostly as a substitute, and he was not selected for their

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official atten ...

squad to face

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

at the season's end. His only goal for West Ham came during this season, the winner in a victory over Manchester City on 15 April 2006. In July 2006, Newton was suspended for seven months, backdated to 20 May 2006, after testing positive for cocaine following West Ham's FA Cup semi-final victory over Middlesbrough in April 2006. He remained with the club, but only made five further appearances under his recently arrived former Charlton manager Alan Curbishley upon his return. He made a total of 49 league and cup appearances for West Ham, scoring once.

Leicester City

Newton joined

on loan in March 2007 until the end of the 2006–07 season. He scored his first goal for Leicester against Birmingham on 17 April 2007. He was given the number 16 shirt, the third player to wear the number that season after Josh Low and Luigi Glombard. He signed a permanent one-year deal with the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

club on 6 July 2007 after the appointment of

Martin Allen Martin James Allen (born 14 August 1965) is an English football manager and former player. He played more than 100 games as a midfielder for both Queens Park Rangers and West Ham United before finishing his playing career with Portsmouth and ...

. However his time at the club came to an end in January 2008, with Leicester now onto their third manager of the season in

Ian Holloway Ian Scott Holloway (born 12 March 1963) is an English professional football manager, former player, media personality and television pundit who was most recently the manager of Grimsby Town. A midfielder, he notably played in the Premier League ...

, when his contract was terminated by mutual consent. He retired later that year, after spell on trial at Yeovil Town in April.

Personal life

In 2008 Newton was found guilty of nine counts of attempting to

pervert the course of justice Perverting the course of justice is an offence committed when a person prevents justice from being served on themselves or on another party. In England and Wales it is a common law offence, carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Statu ...

. Newton had attempted to bypass the speeding ticket procedure for fellow footballers,

Teddy Sheringham Edward Paul "Teddy" Sheringham, MBE (born 2 April 1966) is an English football manager and former player. He played as a forward, mostly as a second striker, in a 24-year professional career. Sheringham began his career at Millwall, where ...

and

Bobby Zamora Robert Lester Zamora (born 16 January 1981) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. Zamora began his career at Football League club Bristol Rovers, but was soon signed by Brighton & Hove Albion, where he found fi ...

by "losing" the tickets which had been sent to them. He was given a 28-week sentence suspended for two years and ordered to do 180 hours unpaid

community service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performe ...

. Newton was also ordered to pay £1,939 in costs and was disqualified from driving for one year. In July 2017, Newton was found guilty of a burglary committed while under the influence of alcohol and cocaine. He was sentenced to 100 hours community service.

Honours

Charlton Athletic *

Football League First Division play-offs The English Football League Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

: 1999–2000 Wolverhampton Wanderers *Football League First Division play-offs:

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A ...

West Ham United *

Football League Championship play-offs The English Football League Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Shaun 1975 births Living people Footballers from Camberwell English footballers Black British sportspeople England under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders Charlton Athletic F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players English sportspeople in doping cases Doping cases in association football Criminals from London British people convicted of burglary