Richard Eckersley (soccer player)

Richard Eckersley
Personnel
Surname	Richard Jon Eckersley
birthday	March 12, 1989
place of birth	Worsley ,  England
size	1.83 m
position	Defender
Juniors
Years	station
2004-2007	Manchester United
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2007-2009	Manchester United	2 (0)
2009–2012	Burnley FC	0 (0)
2010	→ Plymouth Argyle (loan)	7 (0)
2010-2011	→ Bradford City (loan)	12 (0)
2011	→ Bury FC (loan)	3 (0)
2011	→ Toronto FC (loan)	23 (0)
2012-2013	Toronto FC	49 (0)
2014	New York Red Bulls	14 (0)
2015–	Oldham Athletic	4 (0)
1 Only league games are given. As of March 15, 2016

Richard Jon Eckersley (born March 12, 1989 in Worsley ) is an English football player . He is currently under contract with the English third division club Oldham Athletic in Football League One . He is used as a defender.

Club career

Eckersley began his professional career in 2004 when he was inducted into Manchester United 's U-17 youth team . He went through other youth teams of the club. From 2007 he officially belonged to the professional squad of the first team in Manchester, but continued to play regularly in the youth teams. Eckersley rarely came to the first team. It was not until January 27, 2009 that he made his league game debut in the Premier League when he came on for Gary Neville in the 71st minute in the game against West Bromwich Albion .

For the 2009/10 season Eckersley moved to Burnley FC , where he signed a four-year contract. There he was initially unable to assert himself and was not used in any league game; only in the FA Cup and the League Cup he came to individual missions. As a result, he moved in March 2010 on loan to Plymouth Argyle in the Championship , where he came on seven league appearances for Plymouth.

Eckersley returned to Burnley in the summer of 2010, but still had no prospects there. In November 2010 he was loaned to League One at Bradford City , where he played 13 league games. In early 2011, he briefly returned to Burnley, but was eventually loaned out to League One again, this time to Bradford's league rival, Bury FC . In the following time Eckersley came on three appearances in League One for Bury.

On April 15, Eckersley was loaned from Burnley to the Canadian franchise Toronto FC in the North American Major League Soccer . The loan was initially to run until the end of the 2011 MLS season , but Eckersley was eventually signed by Toronto FC on a permanent basis. He made his first game for Toronto against the Columbus Crew .

At Toronto FC Eckersley was able to assert himself as a regular player from the start. In the 2011 season he played 23 games, all of them from the start, except for his debut game. In the MLS 2012 Eckersley made 33 appearances, in the MLS 2013 16. Eckersley was also used in the CONCACAF Champions League : He made eight in the 2011/12 Champions League season and eight in the 2012 Champions League season / 13 on three stakes. However, Eckersley never scored a goal for a competitive game for Toronto.

For the 2014 MLS season , Eckersley was transferred from Toronto FC to the New York Red Bulls . In return, Toronto received a pick for the fourth round of the MLS SuperDraft 2017. Eckersley signed a one-year contract with New York, with the club holding the option to extend the contract for another year. For the New Yorkers, he was used in nine league games and five games in the play-offs. The New York Club announced at the end of 2014 that it would not be withdrawing the option to extend the contract with Eckersley and that the contract would expire.

Eckeryley then left the USA and returned to his home country England, where he initially remained without a club. In September 2015, he finally hired in the third-tier League One at Oldham Athletic .

Web links

• Richard Eckersley in the database of weltfussball.de
• Richard Eckersley in the soccerbase.com database

Individual evidence

1. ^ Club games by Richard Eckersley . weltfussball.de
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Richard Eckersley in the database of MLSSoccer.com (English)