Grant Leadbitter

Grant Leadbitter
Grant Leadbitter in the Ipswich Town Shirt (2010)
Personnel
birthday	January 7, 1986
place of birth	Chester-le-Street ,  England
size	175 cm
position	midfield player
Juniors
Years	station
2002-2003	Sunderland AFC
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2003-2009	Sunderland AFC	111 (11)
2005	→  Rotherham United  (loan)	5 0(1)
2009–2012	Ipswich Town	116 (13)
2012-2019	Middlesbrough FC	212 (28)
2019–	Sunderland AFC	1 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
2004-2005	England U-20	1 0(0)
2007-2008	England U-21	3 0(0)
1 Only league games are given. As of February 5, 2019

Grant Leadbitter (born January 7, 1986 in Chester-le-Street ) is an English football player . The central midfielder comes from the Sunderland AFC academy and is currently under contract there again.

Athletic career

Leadbitter grew up in the small village of Fencehouses on the outskirts of the City of Sunderland County and joined the youth department of Sunderland AFC at the age of 16 . In the club, whose supporter he was from a young age, he worked his way up to the professional team and made his debut there on September 23, 2003 in the 2-4 home defeat in the League Cup against Huddersfield Town .

After a second professional appearance almost a year later in the same competition (3: 3 against Crewe Alexandra ), he came to his first five championship games at the beginning of the 2005/06 season during a six-week loan period at third division Rotherham United and scored his first competitive goal against Swansea City . After his return, Leadbitter received his chances in the Premier League at Sunderland AFC and played eleven of the remaining games of the 2005/06 season under the then coach Mick McCarthy , especially from February 2006 .

After the club's relegation in 2006, the promising performances of the passable central midfielder and the sluggish contract negotiations, speculation about an imminent move increased. But it did not materialize; Rather, Leadbitter became a new key player in the team of the new coach Roy Keane and, with seven goals, as the club's third-best goalscorer, was largely responsible for the direct promotion. He then established himself as a service provider in the top English league and in June 2008 he signed a new three-year contract with the "Black Cats".

In September 2009, Leadbitter moved to the second division side Ipswich Town for 2.65 million pounds . Along with teammate Carlos Edwards , who cost an additional £ 1.35m, the three-time England U-21 international continued his work with Roy Keane, who had been sacked in Sunderland during the 2008-09 season.

Web links

• Grant Leadbitter in the weltfussball.de database
• Grant Leadbitter in the database of transfermarkt.de
• Grant Leadbitter in the soccerbase.com database

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Rotherham 2-2 Swansea" (BBC Sport)
2. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The PFA Footballers' Who's Who . Mainstream Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84596-474-0 , pp. 245-246 .
3. ^ "Leadbitter signs new contract with Sunderland" (BBC Sport)
4. ↑ "Black Cats Pair Seal Switch" (Sunderland AFC)