Titus Malachi Bramble (born 31 July 1981) 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

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 ...

. Bramble played in 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 ...

over thirteen consecutive seasons from 2000 and 2013, representing

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 ...

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East En ...

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

and

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 ...

. After being released by Sunderland in 2013, he spent several years in a coaching capacity at the Ipswich Town academy, with whom he began his career in 1998. He had a short spell as a player coach at Stowmarket Town in 2017. At international level, he made 10 appearances for the England under-21s from 2000 and 2002.

Playing career

Ipswich Town

Born in

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

, Suffolk, Bramble started his career at home town club

. After making his debut in the 1998–99 season, Bramble went on to make 48 league appearances for the club, spending a brief period on loan at

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

over the 1999–2000 season. He scored four goals for Ipswich, with strikes against

in the league,

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

and Coventry in the League Cup and Torpedo Moscow 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 ...

Newcastle United

Bramble joined Newcastle in July 2002 for £6 million, vowing at the time to make himself indispensable to then manager

Sir Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswic ...

. At the end of the 2003–04 season, readers of the football e-mail newsletter

The Fiver ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

voted Bramble as the worst player of the year in the

. Bramble scored a volleyed goal against league champions Chelsea on 8 May 2006 in a 1–0 victory that secured qualification for the

Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, 'betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Foo ...

. On 10 August 2006, Bramble scored another vital goal for Newcastle in the

second qualifying round with a header against Latvian side

FK Ventspils FK Ventspils is a Latvian football club, based at Ventspils Olimpiskais Stadions in Ventspils city and is one of the most popular football clubs in the country. The club played in the Latvian Virsliga since 1997. It was abolished in 2020, but has ...

. In December, Bramble was admitted into hospital after his injured calf swelled to double its normal size. On 31 January 2007, Bramble returned to action against Aston Villa in the centre of defence alongside Steven Taylor.

Wigan Athletic

Bramble signed for

on a free transfer, agreeing to a three-year-deal on 4 June 2007. On 2 January 2008, he scored a goal at Anfield in a 1–1 draw against

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 ...

– a 20-yard strike handing Wigan a late equaliser. Bramble scored an equaliser against Newcastle United at St. James' Park, the match finishing in a 2–2 draw on 15 November 2008. His performances throughout the 2008–09 season picked him up four awards at the club's awards night, including 'Player of the Year' and 'Player's Player of the Year' for Wigan. On 14 July 2009, he extended his contract with Wigan until 2012.

Sunderland

On 23 July 2010, Bramble joined

for £1 million. He signed a three-year contract at the Stadium of Light, signed by his former manager at Wigan, Steve Bruce. He scored his first and only Sunderland goal in a 4–0 win against

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

on 18 September 2011. Bramble was one of seven players released by Sunderland at the end of the 2012–13 Premier League season. He played 51 games for Sunderland. After being released by Sunderland he trained with

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 ...

playing in their 6–2 pre-season defeat of

Cork City Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city's ...

. He returned to Ipswich in the pre-season to train, making his playing return in a game against Barnet but was not offered a contract.

Stowmarket Town

In August 2017, having been without a club for four years, Bramble joined Stowmarket Town, of the

Eastern Counties Football League The Eastern Counties Football League, currently known as the Thurlow Nunn League for sponsorship purposes, is an English football league at levels 9 and 10 of the English football league system. It currently contains clubs from Norfolk, Suffolk ...

, as a

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

Coaching career

Bramble was appointed Under-11 coach at Ipswich Town. In November 2014, he said it was a "disgrace" to apply the " Rooney Rule" to English football for compulsory ethnic minority management candidate consideration.

Personal life

One of his brothers, Tesfaye Bramble, is a footballer and has represented

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with roughly of coastline. It is n ...

at international level. The two brothers were arrested on suspicion of rape in September 2010 with Tesfaye being convicted of the offence, and Titus later being released without charge. On 28 September 2011, Bramble was temporarily suspended by Sunderland, after having been arrested on allegations of sexual assault and possession of a

Class A drug These drugs are known in the UK as ''controlled drugs'', because this is the term by which the act itself refers to them. In more general terms, however, many of these drugs are also controlled by the Medicines Act 1968, there are many other dru ...

. He was cleared of these charges on 31 May 2012.

Career statistics

Honours

Newcastle United *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, ' betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International Fo ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

Individual *

Player of the Year: 2008–09

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bramble, Titus 1981 births Living people Sportspeople from Ipswich Black British sportsmen British people of Montserratian descent English footballers England under-21 international footballers Association football defenders Ipswich Town F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Newcastle United F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Stowmarket Town F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Eastern Counties Football League players People acquitted of sex crimes Ipswich Town F.C. non-playing staff Association football coaches