Tommy Smith (soccer player, 1990)

Tommy Smith
Tommy Smith (2009)
Personnel
Surname	Thomas Jefferson Smith
birthday	March 31, 1990
place of birth	Macclesfield ,  England
size	188 cm
position	Defender
Juniors
Years	station
	Ipswich Town
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
2007-2018	Ipswich Town	247 (21)
2008	→  Stevenage Borough  (loan)	15 0(0)
2010	→  Brentford FC  (loan)	8 0(0)
2011	→  Colchester United  (loan)	6 0(0)
2018-2019	Colorado Rapids	60 0(7)
2020–	Sunderland AFC	0 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals) 2
2007	England U17
2010–	New Zealand	38 0(2)
1 Only league games are given. As of April 1, 2020 2 As of November 17, 2019

Thomas Jefferson "Tommy" Smith (born March 31, 1990 in Macclesfield ) is an English-New Zealand football player . The defender has been under contract with Sunderland AFC since 2020 and represents the New Zealand national team internationally .

Club career

Born in Macclesfield , England , the defender played for Crewe Alexandra as a child , but moved with his family to New Zealand in 1998, where he also went through youth development programs. In 2004 he received an invitation from Ipswich Town for several weeks of trial training and was finally accepted into the youth academy. He received his first professional contract in 2007 and was loaned to Conference National at Stevenage Borough in February 2008 . After 15 league appearances until the end of the season, he returned to Ipswich, and made his debut in the Football League Championship under coach Jim Magilton in the 1: 2 defeat at the start of the 2008/09 season against Preston North End . In the fall of 2008, he broke his ankle while training and was out for seven months. It was only on the last day of the season that he made his comeback in a 2-1 win against Coventry City under new coach Roy Keane .

Under Keane, he was one of the permanent staff at the beginning of the following season before he dislocated two fingers in a training session in October 2009 and had to take a break. After his recovery, Smith, who could be used in the left-back and center-back position, was no longer considered and was finally loaned out to third division club Brentford in early 2010 in order to receive match practice.

National team

In September 2007, John Peacock Smith called into the English World Cup squad for the U-17 World Cup in South Korea. After a poor performance in the opening game against North Korea, he was no longer used in the further course of the tournament.

After the New Zealand national team had successfully qualified for the 2010 World Cup , Smith accepted the offer from national coach Ricki Herbert , who guaranteed the defensive talent a place in the 23-strong World Cup squad in the event of a change of association. Smith was subsequently nominated by Herbert for the first World Cup preparation game on March 3 against Mexico and was on the starting line-up in the 2-0 defeat.

Web links

• Tommy Smith in the soccerbase.com database
• Tommy Smith . FIFA, archived from the original onJune 22, 2010; accessed on September 19, 2014(English, original website no longer available). 
• International match statistics on nzfootball.co.nz

Individual evidence

1. ↑ bbc.co.uk: Ipswich Town defender Tommy Smith loaned to Brentford (Jan. 7, 2010)
2. ↑ nzherald.co.nz: Soccer: World Cup hope happy to change allegiance for NZ (Feb. 20, 2010)
3. ↑ nzherald.co.nz: Soccer: Smith's switch major boost for All Whites (23 Dec 2009)
4. ↑ nzherald.co.nz: Soccer: Fallon named in All Whites squad (Feb. 9, 2010)