Chris Lumsdon

Chris Lumsdon
Personal information
Full name Christopher Lumsdon
Date of birth (1979-12-15) 15 December 1979
Place of birth Newcastle, England
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1997–2001 Sunderland 4 (0)
2000 → Blackpool (loan) 6 (1)
2000 → Crewe Alexandra (loan) 16 (0)
2001 → Barnsley (loan) 12 (2)
2001–2004 Barnsley 98 (11)
2004–2009 Carlisle United 161 (18)
2009–2010 Darlington 3 (0)
Total 300 (31)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 16:26, 15 August 2009 (UTC).

Christopher 'Chris' Lumsdon (born 15 December 1979 in Newcastle upon Tyne) is an English footballer who had to retire through a back injury in July 2010. He represented Sunderland A.F.C in the Premier League as well as winning the Championship title with them. Chris also played for Barnsley and Carlisle United, where he won the Conference play off final and the League Two Championship title. A short spell at Darlington followed before injury occurred. During his days at Sunderland, he also played on loan for Blackpool, Crewe Alexandra and Barnsley in the Championship.

Club career

Sunderland AFC

Lumsdon began his career at Sunderland A.F.C and made his first team debut against Wolverhampton Wanderers on the 7th February 1998. In the same week he signed a 5-year professional contract, and was also called up to the England U18 squad. He was part of the Sunderland squad that won the Championship Title in the 1998/99 season under Peter Reid. After Sunderland were promoted to the Premiership Lumsdon impressed in pre season matches against Rangers and Sampdoria in the centre of midfield. He made his Premiership debut on the first day of the 1999/2000 against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge against the likes of Gianfranco Zola, Diego Poyet, Didier Deschamps and Marcel Desailly. Lumsdon remained part of the Premiership match day squad over the next three seasons as Sunderland enjoyed consecutive 7th-place finishes, playing and training with players such as Kevin Phillips, Lee Clark, Niall Quinn and Thomas Helmer.

A loan spell to Blackpool was arranged early in Lumsdon's career to gain first team experience alongside players such as Kevin Richardson, Mike Newell and Gary Ablett. A very successful 16 match loan at Crewe Alexandra in the Championship followed with manager Dario Gradi submitting bids in the region of £500,000 for his services. Sheffield United, Preston and Birmingham also showed an interest.

Barnsley

Lumsdon signed for Championship side Barnsley for £500,000 in December 2001 with substantial add on fees attached to the deal based on appearances. Lumsdon went on to make 28 starts from October in his first season in the Championship scoring 9 goals. He collected the Supporters Player of the Year Award after strong performances, especially against Wolves who included Paul Ince and Alex Rae, and then Portsmouth with Shaun Derry, Peter Crouch and Croatian international Robert Prosinecki in their line up. But his time there in the end was not an enjoyable one after the club suffered financial difficulty and were forced into administration. Lumsdon later found out that at times he was not selected in the match day squad due to his next appearance triggering a payment to former club Sunderland. At the end of his first season with Barnsley a move to Birmingham City was in the pipeline but with Steve Bruce's men securing promotion to the Premiership, Barnsley then raised the fee on the player and the move collapsed.

Carlisle United

In 2004 Lumsdon joined Paul Simpson's ambitious Carlisle United where his large wages for a club that size were helped funded by former Gretna owner Brooks Mileson to help seal the deal ahead of other suitors. Chris played a major part in the Cumbrians promotion through the play-offs back into the Football League, winning 16 man of the match awards at Brunton Park, and collecting the Players Player of the Year Award as well as Paul Simpson's Manager's Player of the Year. A year later he was again another major part of the team that ran away with the League 2 title in which he won Coca Cola League 2 player of the month twice. He also played at the Millennium Stadium against Swansea in a 2–1 defeat in the Johnstones Paint final, coming up against his friend and former teammate Gary Monk.

The 2007–08 season was a near miss for Carlisle and Lumsdon as he excelled on the pitch with outstanding displays, this evident in the 3–1 home victory against undefeated Leeds, and 3-0 away win at promotion contenders Leyton Orient. Carlisle were narrowly beaten by Leeds United in the play-off semi finals through a late Johnny Howson strike. Lumsdon received many Man of the Match awards throughout the campaign, and collected a Player of the Year award as well as winning the top midfielder category for The Sunday Sun publication, beating Nicky Butt, Scott Parker and Julio Arca to the title.

Unfortunately Lumsdon's 2008/09 season was ravaged by a back injury which occurred in a pre season match against Partick Thistle and days before a proposed move to Leeds United. With this Carlisle slumped to the depths of League 1 without him and only avoided relegation on the final day, Lumsdon only made 3 appearances in the run in and never ended up on the losing side.

Lumsdon left Carlisle United in May 2009 when he was one of six players released by the club due to budget constraints, much to the surprise and disappointment of the Cumbrian faithful and journalists alike. He later joined Darlington but after only 3 games he had a reoccurrence of his previous back injury and required surgery.

In July 2010, Lumsdon retired from football at the age of 30 because of injury. He said: "Last year I was told that I would suffer in later life if I carried on. I couldn’t cough or sneeze without my back hurting, I cant complain as I've lived every lads dream for the last 15 years. I have no right to moan or feel down as one of my mates is a firefighter and one is just back from Afghanistan, they are the ones who have a right to worry, not me."

Lumsdon has completed various coaching courses.

Chris is also working for BBC Radio Cumbria as part of their Carlisle United commentary team and writes weekly articles for the News and Star publication for Cumbria. He has also been employed by Carlisle United as their Club Ambassador.

Honours

References

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