Steven Sidwell

Club

_Retired Soccer

Position

Midfielder

Nationality

England

Date of birth

1982-12-14

Birthplace

Wandsworth, England

Height

1.78

Weight

72.56

Signing / transfer fee

Free

Steven James Sidwell (born 14 December 1982) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Brighton & Hove Albion. He is a former England U21 international.

Sidwell began his career at Arsenal and after winning two FA Youth Cups he had constructive loan spells at Brentford and Brighton & Hove Albion. Sidwell joined Reading in January 2003 and spent four-and-a-half-years with the Royals helping them to gain promotion to the Premier League in 2005–06. He joined Chelsea on a free transfer for the 2007–08 season, however opportunities were limited at Stamford Bridge and he moved on to Aston Villa in July 2008 for a fee of £5 million. In his two-and-a-half-year stay at Villa Park he played 64 times scoring four goals. Sidwell then spent three-and-a-half-years at Craven Cottage making 115 appearances scoring 17 goals. His time at Fulham ended after the club was relegated from the Premier League in 2013–14 and he joined Stoke City in June 2014 on a free transfer. He made only 13 appearances for the club, and rejoined Brighton & Hove Albion, initially on loan, in January 2016.

Sidwell was born in Wandsworth, London. He was part of the Arsenal youth team that won the FA Youth Cup in 2000 and 2001. One of his team mates during these years was James Harper, who he would go on to play with at Reading. Sidwell spent the 2001–02 season on loan at Brentford where he played 35 times scoring four goals as Brentford lost 2–0 to Stoke City in the play-off final. After originally having been sent on loan to Beveren, but not being able to obtain a first team place in preseason, he began the 2002–03 season on loan at Brighton & Hove Albion for whom he scored five goals in 12 appearances. In January 2003 Brighton and Stoke City both had bids for Sidwell rejected by Arsenal but an offer from Reading was accepted.

Sidwell moved to Reading for an undisclosed fee on a four-and-a-half-year deal in January 2003. He made his debut for Reading on 29 January 2003 in a 3–1 defeat against Leicester City. In his next match on 11 February 2003 he scored twice in a 5–2 victory over Burnley. Sidwell played 15 times in 2002–03 as Reading reached the play-offs where they lost out to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Sidwell made a good start to the 2003–04 season, scoring in the first three matches. Sidwell was sent-off for the first time in his career on 27 March 2004 for two-bookable offences against Coventry City. Reading failed to make the play-offs in 2003–04 finishing