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Darren Ward (footballer, born 1974)

Footballer (born 1974)

Summary

Footballer (born 1974)

Field	Value
name	Darren Ward
image	Downing Street reception 28 July 2025 England women's football team 27 (Darren Ward).jpg
caption	Ward in 2025
full_name	Darren Ward
birth_date
birth_place	Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England
height	1.80 m
position	Goalkeeper
currentclub	England Women (goalkeeping coach)
years1	1992–1995
clubs1	Mansfield Town
caps1	81
goals1	0
years2	1995–2001
clubs2	Notts County
caps2	252
goals2	0
years3	2001–2004
clubs3	Nottingham Forest
caps3	123
goals3	0
years4	2004–2006
clubs4	Norwich City
caps4	1
goals4	0
years5	2006–2009
clubs5	Sunderland
caps5	33
goals5	0
years6	2009
clubs6	→ Wolverhampton Wanderers (loan)
caps6	0
goals6	0
totalcaps	490
totalgoals	0
nationalyears1	2000–2004
nationalteam1	Wales
nationalcaps1	5
nationalgoals1	0

Darren Ward (born 11 May 1974) is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in England, he made five appearances for the Wales national team. He is goalkeeping coach of the England women's national team.

Club career

Born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, Ward started his professional career with Mansfield Town, where he made 97 appearances, helping them reach the play-offs. He moved to Notts County for £150,000 in July 1995, where he would go on to make his most appearances. During a six-season stay, he played over 300 games for the Meadow Lane club.

He moved across the River Trent in 2001 to join local rivals Nottingham Forest. He spent three seasons in the First Division with Forest as they strove for promotion back to the Premier League, but a play-off spot in 2003 was as near as they managed.

He finally got his opportunity to play in the top flight when he joined newly promoted Norwich City in a two-year deal in August 2004.{{cite news

He was released at the end of the 2005–06 season after not signing a new contract at the club, and on 4 August 2006, he signed a contract at Sunderland.{{cite news

Ward found himself replaced by £9million new signing Craig Gordon upon Sunderland's return to the Premier League, but did manage three appearances, keeping a clean sheet in his first, a 1–0 win over Derby County. During the January 2008 winter transfer window, he rejected a move to Scottish giants Rangers, preferring to stay and fight to be the first-choice keeper at the Stadium of Light.

He failed to break back into the first team at Sunderland the following season and joined Wolverhampton Wanderers of the Championship in March 2009 on loan for the remainder of the campaign.{{cite news

He was released by Sunderland on 28 May 2009 and subsequently announced his playing retirement. On 12 October 2009 it was announced that Ward was the new goalkeeping coach for Peterborough United, replacing Andy Dibble, who departed from the role for personal reasons.{{cite news | access-date=1 May 2010}}

International career

Ward won five caps for the Welsh national team before announcing his international retirement in May 2007.{{cite news

Family

Ward married Nicola in 1997 and later became a father to Rhys Harry (2000) and Evie Mae (2003).

Honours

Sunderland

Championship: 2006–07

Individual

PFA Team of the Year: 1995–96 Second Division, 1997–98 Third Division

References

{{Hugman. 20478
"Darren Ward: Overview". Premier League.
(13 November 2006). "Sunderland 1 Southampton 1: Burley helps Keane on upward learning curve". The Independent.
Setanta Sports. (28 May 2009). "Sunderland announce major clear-out".
Sky Sports. "Ward announces retirement".
(1996). "The 1996–97 Official PFA Footballers Factfile". Queen Anne Press.
(1998). "The 1998–99 Official PFA Footballers Factfile". Queen Anne Press.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1974-births living-people footballers-from-worksop welsh-men's-footballers wales-men's-international-footballers wales-men's-under-21-international-footballers english-men's-footballers men's-association-football-goalkeepers mansfield-town-f.c.-players notts-county-f.c.-players nottingham-forest-f.c.-players norwich-city-f.c.-players sunderland-a.f.c.-players wolverhampton-wanderers-f.c.-players english-football-league-players premier-league-players association-football-goalkeeping-coaches peterborough-united-f.c.-non-playing-staff preston-north-end-f.c.-non-playing-staff sheffield-united-f.c.-non-playing-staff english-people-of-welsh-descent

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