Benjamin Sorba William Thomas (born 25 January 1999) is a 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 lea ...

who plays as a winger for club

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

and the Wales national team.

Club career

Early life & career

Thomas was born in

Barking, London Barking is a riverside town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It is east of Charing Cross. The total population of Barking was 59,068 at the 2011 census.If defined as the Abbey, Eastbury, Gascoigne, L ...

and attended St Margaret's Primary School and

Eastbury Community School Eastbury Community School is a co-educational all-through school and sixth form located in the Barking area of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham, England. History Eastbury Secondary School was founded at Dawson Ave in 1931. After t ...

. He played football for Barking & Dagenham District Schools team. He began playing at West Ham United's Academy before being released at 16.

Boreham Wood

Thomas joined the youth academy of

Boreham Wood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 36,322, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly known ...

at the age of 16. He began his senior career at Boreham Wood aged 17. He was an instrumental part of the under-18 side that reached the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

second round in 2016–17, which included a win over

English Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

side

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the c ...

. In January 2018, he spent a month on loan at

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional Association football, football league covering Greater London, East of England, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, th ...

North side

Cheshunt Cheshunt (/ˈtʃɛzənt/ CHEZ-ənt) is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, situated within the London commuter belt approximately north of Central London. The town lies on the River Lea and Lee Navigation, bordering th ...

. Whilst in the youth team at Boreham Wood, Thomas worked at

JD Sports JD Sports Fashion plc, commonly known as JD Sports, JD or JD Group is a British multinational sports-fashion retail company based in Bury, Greater Manchester, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 10 ...

Oxford Circus Oxford Circus is a road junction connecting Oxford Street and Regent Street in the West End of London. It is also the entrance to Oxford Circus tube station. The junction opened in 1819 as part of the Regent Street development under John Nash ( ...

and also as a scaffolder. Thomas made his debut in the first team in September 2017 and came on as a substitute in the

2018 National League play-off final The 2018 National League play-off final, known as the Vanarama National League Promotion Final for sponsorship reasons, was a football match played at Wembley Stadium in London on 12 May 2018 to decide the second team to be promoted from the Nati ...

as Boreham Wood lost 2–1 to

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ...

. He became a regular under Luke Garrard in 2018–19 and 2019–20. His performances attracted the attentions of

clubs and in January 2021 a bid was accepted by Boreham Wood from

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

Huddersfield Town

On 13 January 2021, Thomas signed a contract with

until the end of 2023–24 season with the club having the option of a further year's extension. He made his professional debut for Huddersfield in a 3–2

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...

loss to

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 188 ...

on 13 February 2021. In the first Championship game of the 2021–22 season, a 1–1 draw with

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

on 7 August 2021, Thomas got his first assist, supplying a cross from a free kick which was headed in by

Naby Sarr Mouhamadou-Naby Sarr (born 13 August 1993) is a French professional footballer who plays as centre back for Al-Markhiya. Club career Sarr made his senior debut with Lyon in the UEFA Europa League on 6 December 2012 against Hapoel Ironi Kiryat ...

. In the following game, a 5–1 home defeat to

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

, he overhit a backpass which ultimately resulted in Fulham's opening goal, but later provided the assist for Huddersfield's only goal from a corner kick,

Matty Pearson Matthew Joe Pearson (born 3 August 1993) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for club Doncaster Rovers. Career Blackburn Rovers Born and raised in Keighley, Pearson joined Blackburn Rovers at the age of 10, progress ...

scoring with a header. On 28 August 2021, he scored his first goal (as well as providing two assists) in a 4–0 home victory against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...

: he took possession of the ball at the halfway line, dribbled into the penalty area and placed a low shot past the goalkeeper. On 10 September 2021, Thomas was awarded

EFL Championship Player of the Month The EFL Championship Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the player adjudged the best for each month of the season in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Originally named the Football L ...

for August 2021. On 19 May 2022, one week before the 2022 EFL Championship play-off final, Thomas signed a new long-term contract with the club until summer 2026 with the club option to extend for a further year. Huddersfield lost the final 1–0 to

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

. In

2022–23 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 ...

Huddersfield struggled at the lower end of the Championship, and on 25 January 2023, Thomas joined play-off chasing

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

on loan for the remainder of the 2022–23 season. He played 17 times for Rovers as they missed out on a top six finish on goal difference. Thomas was a regular back at Huddersfield in 2023–24, making 42 appearances, as the Terriers suffered relegation to

League One League One or League 1 may refer to: Association football * EFL League One, the third tier of football in England. * China League One, the second tier of football in China * K League 1, the top-tier football in South Korea * Lao League 1 * Lea ...

. On 30 July 2024, Thomas joined French

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

club

Nantes Nantes (, ; ; or ; ) is a city in the Loire-Atlantique department of France on the Loire, from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. The city is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, sixth largest in France, with a pop ...

on loan for the 2024–25 season. Thomas played 27 times for Les Canaris, scoring once in a 2–2 draw against

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; Franco-Provençal: ''Sant-Etiève''), also written St. Etienne, is a city and the prefecture of the Loire département, in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regi ...

on 29 September 2024.

Stoke City

Thomas joined

on 7 June 2025, signing a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee.

International career

In March 2020, Thomas was called up to the

England C The England national football C team (previously known as the England National Game XI and the England Semi-Pro national team) are the football teams that represent England at non-League level. Formed in 1979 as the England Non-League team, it f ...

team for the first time for a fixture against

Wales C The Wales 'C' National Team is a football team that represents the Football Association of Wales governed Welsh football league system. The team is selected using players that play in the Cymru Premier, the highest level of Welsh football. Home ...

team however this match was postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. On 28 September 2021, Thomas was called up into the senior

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

squad for the first time for their 2022 World Cup qualifiers against

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

and

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. He made his international debut for Wales on 8 October 2021 as a second-half substitute in the 2–2 draw against Czech Republic, and completed his first full 90 minutes three days later in the match against Estonia. In November 2022 he was named in the Wales squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

. Thomas scored his first goal for Wales on 9 June 2025 in the 4-3 World Cup Qualifying match defeat to Belgium.

Personal life

Thomas was born in England to a Sierra Leonean father and Welsh mother. He qualifies to play for

through his mother who was born in

Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay * Newport (Vietnam), a United States Army and Army of t ...

Career statistics

Club

International

''Scores and results list Wales' goal tally first.''

Honours

Individual *

: August 2021

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Sorba 1999 births Living people Footballers from the London Borough of Newham Welsh men's footballers Wales men's international footballers Welsh people of Sierra Leonean descent Sierra Leone Creole people English people of Sierra Leonean descent Sportspeople of Sierra Leonean descent English people of Welsh descent Men's association football wingers Boreham Wood F.C. players Cheshunt F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players FC Nantes players Stoke City F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Isthmian League players Ligue 1 players 2022 FIFA World Cup players Welsh expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Welsh expatriate sportspeople in France 21st-century British sportsmen