Jordan Pickford

Jordan Lee Pickford (born 7 March 1994) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Sunderland.
Pickford has previously played for Sunderland's academy and reserve teams in addition to loan spells at Darlington, Alfreton Town, Burton Albion, Carlisle United, Bradford City and Preston North End.
Pickford has represented England at under-16, under-17, under-18, under-19 and under-20 and under-21 levels.

Pickford was born in Washington, Tyne and Wear and attended St Robert of Newminster secondary school. His brother Richard Logan is also a former professional footballer who played for Darlington.

Sunderland

Pickford joined Sunderland's Academy at the age of eight and progressed through the age groups before signing two-year scholarship terms in 2010. The following year, Pickford was promoted from the Academy to the reserve team. In 2011, Pickford signed his first professional contract with the club. The following year, Pickford signed a contract extension with the club.

After being recalled by Sunderland from a loan spell at Burton Albion twice, Pickford spent eleven matches as an unused substitute on the bench as a cover for Vito Mannone between 23 November 2013 and 18 January 2014. At the end of the end of the 2013-14 season, Pickford signed a four-year contract with the club, keeping him until 2018.

Loan spells

Pickford signed on loan for Darlington in time to make his debut against Fleetwood Town on 21 January 2012, which he did and played the whole game, which saw them lose 1-0. The initial month-long loan was subsequently extended until the end of April. Pickford went on to make seventeen appearance for Darlington, but was unable to help the club avoid relegation and was subsequently liquidated.

On 25 February 2013, Pickford signed for Alfreton Town, again on an initial month-long loan and was a cover for Phil Barnes, who was injured. He then made his Alfreton Town debut the next day, making his first start and conceded once, in a 5-1 win over Hyde United. His loan spell at the club was subsequently extended until the end of the season. During this spell, Pickford kept five clean sheets in twelve games.

On 2 August 2013, Pickford signed another loan deal, this time with Burton Albion. He made his debut on 3 August 2013 against Cheltenham Town. However his loan ended on 17 August, after Sunderland recalled him with Pickford featuring three times for Burton. On 13 September 2013, Pickford re-joined Burton Albion on loan. Pickford's first game after signing for the club on loan for the second time came on the next day, in a 2-1 loss against Portsmouth. His handful of first team appearances at Burton Albion led to extending his loan spell for another month. After making twelve appearances in both of these loan spells, Pickford was recalled by his parent club once again.

Although it was rumored that he could rejoined Burton Albion on loan for the third time, it was reported on 8 February 2014, Pickford joined Carlisle United on a one-month loan instead. On the same day, Pickford went straight to the first team, making his debut, in a 2-1 loss against Gillingham. His form and handful of first team appearances led the club to keep Pickford on loan for the rest of the season. After extending his loan at the club, Pickford went on to make eighteen appearance for the club.

On 21 July 2014, Pickford joined League One club Bradford City on a season-long loan for the 2014–15 season. Pickford made his debut on 9 August in a 3–2 win against Coventry City at Valley Parade. He kept his first clean sheet in the following game, a 0–0 draw against Walsall. Pickford then received his red card after he was just sent-off to the 11th minutes in the game, in a 2-1 loss against Rochdale on 10 January 2015. After the match, Pickford served a one match suspension. Four weeks later, on 7 February 2015, Pickford was once again sent-off in the last minute, in a 2-2 draw against Port Vale. After being given a two match ban, the club appealed. The appeal was successful to allow Pickford playing. Pickford established himself as a first choice goalkeeper for almost most of the season until he was recalled by his parent club on 9 March 2015.

On 31 July 2015, Pickford joined Preston North End on a season-long loan for the 2015–16 season. He kept a clean sheet on his debut in a 0-0 draw against Middlesbrough. Further clean sheets in a 1-0 win against Milton Keynes Dons in his second league game and a 0-0 draw with Rotherham United on 18 August made it a clean sheet in all three of his first three league games for the club. On 25 August Pickford kept another clean sheet as Preston defeated Premier League side Watford 1-0 in the League Cup. On 7 November, Pickford recorded a 6th consecutive clean sheet in a 0-0 draw against QPR equalling the club record. During his stint at Preston, Pickford impressed his veteran goalkeeping teammate Chris Kirkland, who said “Jordan comes out to take crosses and has an authority for someone still very young... As for his kicking, that is brilliant! I have never seen anyone kick a ball like he does." On 20 December 2015, Pickford was controversially sent off in a 1-0 defeat against Leeds United- he rushed out of his box to challenge striker Chris Wood, and was adjudged to have handled the ball. Preston successfully appealed the decision, using replay footage that showed the ball hitting his chest.

Return to Sunderland

On 31 December 2015, Pickford was recalled by Sunderland, with the side struggling in 19th place in the 2015–16 Premier League. He made his first-team debut on 9 January 2016, in a 3-1 FA Cup loss to Arsenal. He made his Premier League debut against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on 16 January losing 4-1, meaning he had played in the top five leagues of English football by the age of 21. On 26 January 2016, Pickford signed a new contract committing his future to Sunderland until 2020.

Pickford began the 2016-17 season as understudy to Vito Mannone. However, after Mannone suffered a serious arm injury in training, Pickford started Sunderland's third league game of the season, away to Southampton. He made several saves in the match, but in the 85 minute he made an error which allowed Jay Rodriguez to equalise for the host in a 1-1 draw.

Pickford has represented England at every level from under-16 through to under-21. In October 2009, Pickford made his England U16 debut against Wales U16.

On 25 August 2015 he was called up to the England under-21 squad for the first time. Pickford made his debut for the England Under 21s in a friendly against the United States under-23s at Deepdale on 3 September 2015. He made his second appearance four days later against Norway under-21s. On 14 October, Pickford assisted Nathan Redmond's goal in the U21s' 3-0 victory over Kazakhstan at the Ricoh Arena with a long range pass from his own penalty area. He was part of the team that won the 2016 Toulon Tournament, their first such win for 22 years.

On 9 October 2016 Pickford received his first ever call-up from the England squad, replacing an injured Tom Heaton for the 2018 World Cup qualifier against Slovenia.

As of match played 17 December 2016

International

• Toulon Tournament: 2016