Sam Ricketts

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Sam Ricketts
Personal information
Full name	Samuel Ricketts
Date of birth	11 October 1981
Place of birth	Aylesbury, United Kingdom
Height	6'1" (185 cm)
Position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Hull City
Number	21
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1999 - 2003 2002 - 2003 2003 - 2004 2004 - 2006 2006 -	Oxford United Nuneaton Borough (loan) Telford United Swansea City Hull City	45 (1) 11 (1) 41 (4) 86 (1) 10 (0)
National team**
2005 - present	Wales	10 (0)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 14 July 2006[1]. ** National team caps and goals correct as of 1 July 2006[2].

Sam Ricketts (born October 11, 1981 in Aylesbury, England) is a Welsh football player, currently playing for Hull City. His favoured position is full-back; he usually plays on the right for Hull, but is equally comfortable on the left.

Ricketts began his career at Oxford United, making 35 first-team appearances (with a further 13 as substitute) in all competitions and scoring one goal, before being released from his professional contract to sign for Conference side Telford United in the summer of 2003. His form for Telford led him to be selected for the England non-league XI that season.

Telford went out of business at the end of the 2003-04 season, and Swansea manager Kenny Jackett swooped for Ricketts, offering him a return to the Football League. Ricketts joined Swansea City on 27 May 2004.

Ricketts made such an impact in his first season with Swansea that John Toshack handed him his first Welsh cap on 9 February 2005 in a match against Hungary. Although born in England, Ricketts is qualified to play for Wales through his Welsh grandfather.

Hull City manager Phil Parkinson signed Ricketts from Swansea City on 14 July 2006 for a fee of £300,000 (triggering a minimum fee release clause in his contract with the Swans). In all competitions, to the end of the 2005-06 season, Ricketts had made 103 appearances for Swansea (with one further substitute appearance) and had scored three goals.

Ricketts made a good start to his Hull career, playing every minute of Hull's first ten games. However, he broke his cheekbone in the tenth game - a win against Hartlepool. The injury requires an operation, and Ricketts is set to be out for six weeks.

As a teenager, Ricketts was a keen horseman who chose football over equestrianism. His father is the 1978 world showjumping champion Derek Ricketts, now performance manager of the UK eventing team, and his uncle is the former National Hunt champion jockey John Francome.^[3]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Soccerbase: Sam Ricketts. Soccerbase. Retrieved on 1 July 2006.
2. ^ Wales A Squad. Football Association of Wales. Retrieved on 1 July 2006.
3. ^ 'If Millwall don't fancy it, then we've got a chance' says Telford's Ricketts - and he's not horsing around!. GiveMeFootball.com. Retrieved on 1 July 2006.

Hull City A.F.C. - Current Squad
1 Myhill | 3 Dawson | 4 Ashbee | 5 Coles | 6 Turner | 7 Elliott | 8 Barmby | 9 Forster | 10 McPhee | 11 Parkin | 12 Duke | 14 Jarrett | 16 Delaney | 17 Bridges | 18 Yeates | 19 Welsh | 20 Thelwell | 21 Ricketts | 22 Marney | 23 Collins | 24 Livermore | 27 Fagan | 28 Fry | 29 France | 35 Byron | 36 Aspden | 37 Wilkinson | Caretaker Manager: Brown