Michael Owen Johnson (born 4 July 1973) is a 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 lea ...

who played as a defender, primarily at

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

, although he also played

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

when called upon. He is a current England U18s coach and club ambassador of Derby County. He made more than 550 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

and

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

, including more than 250 games for

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. The team compete in the ...

and more than 100 each for

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

, the club where he began his professional career, and for Derby County. Johnson was born in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located south-east of Sheffield and nor ...

, England, and played 13 times for the Jamaica national team, for which he qualified by descent. He retired as a player at the end of the 2008–09 season, and took up the post of youth team manager with Notts County.

Playing career

Notts County

Johnson began his career at

, making his league début in the 1991–92 season at the age of 18, playing 5 games as County were relegated from the First Division, the season before the

was founded. It would be 10 years before Johnson played in the highest league in England again. Johnson became a first team regular in the following season, playing 37 league games in the 1992–93 season and helping County avoid a second successive relegation. The 1993–94 season was more successful for County as they finished 7th, missing out on the playoffs by three points. In contrast, the 1994–95 season was disastrous. County finished bottom and were relegated to the Second Division (the third tier of English league football). At the end of the season, Johnson left County, joining

, who had just been promoted back to the First Division, for £230,000.

Birmingham City

Johnson played 33 league games in his first season with Birmingham, helping the club to a safe mid-table position. The 1996–97 season saw Birmingham finish 10th, 5 points off the playoffs. The following season saw Johnson score his first career league goal, in a 2–0 win over Sheffield United on 22 February 1998. Johnson finished the season with 3 goals in 38 league appearances as Birmingham finished 7th, missing out on the playoffs by

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

. Johnson scored 5 goals in 45 league appearances in the 1998–99 season and was the club's Player of the Year as Birmingham finished 4th, qualifying for the play-offs. After playing to a 1–1 draw in the play-off semi final, Birmingham lost to

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

, the eventual play-off winners, on penalties. The 1999–2000 season saw Birmingham again qualify for the play-offs and again fail to reach the final, losing in the

semi-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

, this time to

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

, 5–2 on aggregate. The 2000–01 season saw Birmingham come close to getting promotion and winning the League Cup. Johnson scored twice in 39 league games as Birmingham again finished 5th, losing 4–2 on penalties after a 2–2 draw in the play-off semi-final against Preston. Birmingham also reached the final of the League Cup, losing 5–4 to

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

on penalties after a 1–1 draw. The 2001–02 season saw Birmingham finally promoted to the

. Johnson scored one goal in 32 appearances as Birmingham finished 5th, beating Millwall 2–1 (on aggregate) in the semi-final and beating

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

on penalties in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

after a 1–1 draw. The 2002–03 season saw Birmingham finish safely mid-table in their first season back in the top division. However, Johnson found himself out of the first team picture, and only played six league games all season.

Derby County

Johnson joined Derby on a free transfer in August 2003 after eight seasons with Birmingham. Johnson quickly established himself in the heart of the Derby defence, playing 39 games and scoring once as Derby narrowly avoided relegation from the First Division. The 2004–05 season (the first as the Championship, the new name for the old First Division), was a great success for Derby, as they finished 4th and qualified for the play-offs, though injuries to key players Iñigo Idiakez and Grzegorz Rasiak meant they lost in the play-off semi-final to Preston. The 2005–06 season saw Johnson named as captain, a role he held until 2006 when he was named club captain. It was a disappointing for Derby as a pre-season change of manager and the sale of several key players meant that the club finished 20th, with Johnson playing 31 games and scoring once. The 2006–07 season began well for Derby. After being top of the table for most of the season, the team slipped away towards the end of the season, finishing third and qualifying for the play-offs. After beating

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

3–2 on aggregate in the

, Derby beat

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

1–0 in the

. Despite missing the end of the season (including all three play-off games) through injury, Johnson made 29 league appearances, scoring once. The 2007–08 season saw Johnson, now 34 years old, relegated to fifth-choice centre back. Consequently, in September 2007, Johnson joined

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

on an emergency one-month loan deal. He made his debut on 22 September and made an impact as Wednesday picked up their first points of the season (which was 9 games old) in a 1–0 win against Hull City at Hillsborough. His loan was extended for a third and final month in November 2007, with Johnson playing 13 league games for Wednesday before returning to Derby at the end of December 2007. On 26 December 2007, Johnson returned to the Derby team to face Liverpool, coming on as a first-half substitute. His return was greeted by Derby fans with cheers and chants of "There's only one Michael Johnson". Johnson made 2 further league appearances and came on as a substitute in the cup against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough, where he was greeted by a hero's welcome from the Wednesday fans. He then left to re-join the team where he started his career, Notts County, on loan for the remainder of the season.

Return to Notts County

On 29 February 2008 Johnson returned to Notts County on loan for the remainder of the 2007–08 season, playing 12 times and scoring once. The goal, against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

on 22 March 2008, was his first league goal in a Notts County shirt, and came some sixteen years after he had made his début for the club. At the end of the season, he agreed a one-year permanent deal with the club following the completion of his Derby contract on 1 July 2008. Johnson played 29 games and scored 2 goals in the 2008–09 season as Notts County finished 21st. He played the final league game of his career in a 3–0 defeat to Dagenham & Redbridge on 25 April 2009, announcing his retirement from professional football at the end of his contract in May 2009, and remained at the club taking over the role of youth team manager from the 2009–10 season.

Style of play

Johnson was a fans' favourite at all his clubs, most notably Birmingham, where he picked up the nickname "Magic" (in reference to Earvin "Magic" Johnson, the American basketball player), for his often immense performances. During his career he was known as a quick, clever centre back. Johnson was known for his incredible leap, which scored him a number of goals for Birmingham.

Managerial and coaching career

When

sacked manager Ian McParland, Johnson took over briefly as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caret ...

alongside Dave Kevan. During their brief spell at County, they drew with Rotherham United and beat Crewe Alexandra 2–0. When Notts County brought in

Hans Backe Hans Roland "Hasse" Backe (; born 14 February 1952) is a Swedish football manager and former player who most recently led Finland's national team. Prior to this he managed the New York Red Bulls. He has coached clubs in Sweden, Norway, Greece ...

as manager, Johnson returned to his role as youth team manager. A succession of managers came and went over a short period of time, however Johnson was dismissed when

Paul Ince Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince (; born 21 October 1967) is an English professional football manager and former player who was most recently manager of Reading. A midfielder, Ince played professionally from 1986 to 2007, starting his career with West ...

was sacked and replaced by Martin Allen. Johnson took up a coaching position with Cardiff City in July 2015, as assistant to under-21 team manager Kevin Nicholson. He was appointed as head coach of the Guyana national football team in June 2018, In March 2019 he said he had previously had 10 or 11 job interviews. aiming to help them qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. On 2 September 2019, and having resigned from his role with Guyana, Johnson was named as a coach for the England U21s as part of The FA's 2019–20 Elite Coach Placement Programme. On 26 August 2021, Johnson was named as assistant of the England U18s alongside Paul Williams.

Controversy

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, Johnson told a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

interview in 2012 that he would not support a

Football Association A football association, also known as a football federation, soccer federation, or soccer association, is a governing body for association football. Many of them are members of the sport's regional bodies such as UEFA and CONMEBOL and the world gov ...

(FA) campaign against

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...

"because of my beliefs, because of the Bible that I read, in the Bible it does state that homosexuality is detestable unto the Lord." In January 2014 the interview was referenced again when Johnson was appointed to the FA's Inclusion Advisory Board. He claimed that his opinion had shifted in the intervening period but nevertheless on 7 January 2014 he announced his intention to step down from the position.

Honours

Birmingham City *

Football League Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

runner-up: 2000–01

References

External links

*
Johnson's profile
at The Reggae Boyz Supporterz Club
Johnson's profile
on BBC Derby {{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Michael 1973 births Living people English people of Jamaican descent Sportspeople of Jamaican descent English Christians Jamaican Christians Black British sportsmen Footballers from Nottingham English men's footballers Jamaican men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Men's association football fullbacks Notts County F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players Jamaica men's international footballers 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players English football managers Jamaican football managers Cardiff City F.C. non-playing staff Notts County F.C. non-playing staff Notts County F.C. managers Guyana national football team managers English Football League managers 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup managers English expatriate football managers Jamaican expatriate football managers English expatriate sportspeople in Guyana Jamaican expatriate sportspeople in Guyana Expatriate football managers in Guyana