Lee Trevor Williamson (born 7 June 1982) is a former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who is currently an academy coach at Burton Albion Born in

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

, Williamson started his career at

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third level of the English football league system. The club was formed in 1897 as Mans ...

and went on to play for

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the c ...

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The team plays in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, after suffering relegation fr ...

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

, Burton Albion, Kimberley Miners Welfare, Kidsgrove Athletic and Congleton Town. Williamson played internationally for

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

, including at

Copa América Centenario The Copa América Centenario (, , ; literally ''Centennial America Cup'') was an international men's soccer tournament that was hosted by the United States in 2016. The competition was a celebration of the centennial of CONMEBOL and the Copa Am� ...

and during

2018 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations to decide 31 of the 32 teams which would play in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, with Russia national football team, Rus ...

Club career

Early career

Williamson started his career at

, making 165 appearances in his stay at

Field Mill Field Mill, currently known as One Call Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a Football pitch, football ground in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England, and the home of Mansfield Town F.C., Mansfield Town Football Club. It is the oldest ground in ...

. He then moved to

early in the 2004–05 season where he quickly established himself as an automatic choice in the first team where he scored two goals. Williamson then joined

in the summer of 2005, and once again established himself in first team.

Watford

He completed a move to Watford along with teammate

Will Hoskins William Richard Hoskins (born 6 May 1986) is an English footballer who plays for club Kings Langley, where he plays as a forward. Playing career Rotherham United Hoskins was born in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, where his career began at lo ...

for a combined fee of £1.2 million on 5 January 2007. On 31 January 2007 he played his first

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

match for Watford against

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

. Williamson scored three times in his first season at

Vicarage Road Vicarage Road is a stadium in Watford, England, and is the home stadium of EFL Championship, Championship club Watford F.C., Watford. An all-seater stadium, its current capacity is 22,200. History It has been the home of Watford since 1922, w ...

but was then loaned to

at the end of March until the end of the 2008–09 season. He scored his only Preston goal on 18 April 2009 against

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

which rounded off a 6–0 win at

Deepdale Deepdale is a football stadium in the Deepdale area of Preston, England that is the home ground of Preston North End. Built in 1875 and in use since 1878, Deepdale is recognised as being one of the oldest continuously used football stadium ...

Sheffield United

Williamson signed with

for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around £500,000, during the 2009 close season. Having suffered a back injury in pre-season Williamson found himself sidelined until the end of October and had to wait until December to score his début goal for the club against Crystal Palace. He continued to be dogged by injuries during his first season with the ''Blades'' and eventually returned for a second operation on his back in the close season. This time, however, Williamson almost died after suffering complications during the operation. He was placed on a life support machine for two days after contracting an infection. Commenting at the time, then ''Blades'' Manager

Kevin Blackwell Kevin Patrick Blackwell (born 21 December 1958) is an English professional football manager, executive and former player who is currently the technical director of Ekstraklasa club Lechia Gdańsk. Playing career Blackwell was born in Luton an ...

said: "''He was placed on life support. He's a very lucky lad to be alive.''" On 26 July 2012, on Sheffield United's pre-season tour of Malta, manager, Danny Wilson confirmed Williamson would not sign a new deal with the club and had subsequently been told to stay away from training with the squad. Despite this Wilson refused to rule out Williamson signing a new deal.

Portsmouth

On 16 August 2012, Williamson signed a one-month deal with

. In January 2013 he was released by Portsmouth along with 5 other players due to financial reasons.

Blackburn Rovers

Williamson signed for

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

side

in an 18-month deal on 8 February 2013. He made his debut away at

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the fifth round of the FA Cup, playing the whole match in gloves alongside Jason Lowe as his new team produced a surprise 1–0 win, courtesy of a late

Colin Kazim-Richards Colin Kazim-Richards (born 26 August 1986), also known as Colin Kâzım, Kâzım or Kâzım Kâzım, is a British-born former professional Association football, footballer who played as a forward. Internationally, he represented the Turkey natio ...

goal. On 14 September 2013, Williamson was red-carded in the

East Lancashire derby The East Lancashire derby, also known as the Cotton Mills derby is an association football rivalry between Blackburn Rovers and Burnley. The rivalry nickname originates from the fact that both Blackburn and Burnley are former mill towns and c ...

against

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

after fouling striker Danny Ings in a last man situation during injury time with the scores level at 1–1. This was well received by the fans of

as an admirable and selfless piece of good play for the sake of the team, preventing the first local derby defeat for 35 years (11 attempts). Williamson was roundly applauded for stopping Danny Ings being clean through.

Burton Albion

On 25 July 2016 Williamson signed for Burton Albion on a one-year deal. He was released at the end of the 2016–17 season.

International career

On 23 May 2008, Williamson was included in a 28-man squad to play for

. He was again called up in 2015 by

Winfried Schäfer Winfried "Winnie" Schäfer (born 10 January 1950) is a German football manager and former player who is the technical director for the Ghana national football team. Playing career Winfried Schäfer played 403 Bundesliga matches and scored 46 goa ...

, to feature as part of Jamaica's first 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying squad. He made his international debut on 8 September 2015, playing the full 90 minutes for Jamaica as they beat

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

4–3 on aggregate to advance to the Fourth CONCACAF Round of qualifying.

Coaching career

In May 2023, Williamson joined

Northern Premier League The Northern Premier League is an English Association football, football league that was founded in 1968. Together with the Isthmian League and the Southern Football League, Southern League it forms levels seven and eight of the English footba ...

Premier Division club Ilkeston Town as a first-team coach. Williamson is now an academy coach at Burton Albion on the Professional Player to Coach Scheme, a joint programme from The PFA, the

and the EFL designed to increase the number of Black, South Asian and mixed heritage players who transition into full-time coaching roles in the professional game.

Career statistics

Honours

Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's Football in England, En ...

: 2001–02 Third Division

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williamson, Lee 1982 births Living people Footballers from Derby English men's footballers English people of Jamaican descent Sportspeople of Jamaican descent Black British sportsmen 21st-century Black British people Jamaican men's footballers Jamaica men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Mansfield Town F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Watford F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players Burton Albion F.C. players Kimberley Miners Welfare F.C. players Kidsgrove Athletic F.C. players Congleton Town F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players East Midlands Counties Football League players Northern Premier League players North West Counties Football League players Copa América Centenario players 21st-century English sportsmen