Maximillian James Aarons (born 4 January 2000) is an English 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 ...

who plays as a defender for club

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 ...

. He is primarily a

right-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 ...

, but can also play as a

left-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 ...

Club career

Aarons began his career at

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

, and moved to join

's academy in 2016. He signed a three-year professional contract with the Canaries in June 2018, before making his debut in an

EFL 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 ...

game against

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a large town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevena ...

on 14 August. His first senior goal also came in the EFL Cup, as he concluded a 3–1 win over Cardiff City two weeks later. Aarons made his first league appearance on 2 September, starting in the

East Anglian derby The East Anglian derby is a sobriquet used to describe football matches held between Norwich City and Ipswich Town, the only fully professional football clubs in the neighbouring East Anglian counties of Norfolk and Suffolk respectively. In rec ...

against

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 ...

, a 1–1 draw. On 10 October, he extended his contract at the club until June 2023. In March 2019 he was selected to the 2018–19 Championship Team of the Season, and was also awarded the 2018–19 EFL Young Player of the Season award. He was promoted with Norwich 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 Foo ...

after a 2–1 victory over

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 ...

. In April 2021 he was nominated for the EFL Young Player of the Season. In January 2022, Aarons made his 150th appearance for Norwich City in a Premier League match against West Ham United.

International career

After breaking into the Norwich City first team at the start of the 2018–19 season, Aarons earned a call-up to the England under-19 team in September 2018. On 30 August 2019, Aarons was included in the

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...

squad for the first time and made his debut during the 3–2 2021 U21 Euro qualifying win against Turkey on 6 September 2019. Despite his England caps, in March 2021 it was reported that Aarons would be called up to the Jamaica national team, as part of a plot by the

Jamaican Football Federation The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) is the governing body of football in Jamaica and is in charge of the Jamaica national football team and the Jamaica National Premier League. History Early history (1893–1962) According to the JFF, th ...

to purposely target a number of English and English-born players for call ups in order to increase the nation's chances of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. JFF president

Michael Ricketts Michael Barrington Ricketts (born 4 December 1978) is an English former footballer. He played as a striker and was capped once by England, in a friendly against the Netherlands in 2002. Ricketts had a 14-year career which saw him play for W ...

claimed that Aarons was going to apply for a Jamaican passport in order to play for the nation. However, Aarons subsequently revealed he had not been contacted by Jamaica, stating: "I am able to play for Jamaica but I never heard anything from them or whatever. I had people messaging me, a few family members from Jamaica, and I had to say that I hadn't heard anything". Aarons also revealed that he had no interest in playing for anyone other than his home nation, commenting: "my full focus is definitely on England".

Personal life

Aarons is of Jamaican descent. He is the cousin of

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

player

Rolando Aarons Rolando Aarons (born 16 November 1995) is a Jamaican professional footballer who plays as a winger for Championship club Huddersfield Town and the Jamaica national team. He has had previous loan spells with Hellas Verona in Italy, Slovan Libe ...

Career statistics

Honours

Norwich City *

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

: 2018–19,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual * EFL Young Player of the Year: 2018–19 *EFL Team of the Season: 2018–19 2020–21 *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 2018–19 Championship 2020–21 Championship *EFL Young Player of the Month: December 2020

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aarons, Max 2000 births Living people Footballers from Hammersmith English footballers England youth international footballers England under-21 international footballers Association football defenders Luton Town F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players English sportspeople of Jamaican descent