Mark Flanagan (born 4 December 1987) is an English former professional

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

footballer who played as a or forward in the Super League and the NRL, and the

England Knights England Knights (previously known as Emerging England and England A) is considered the feeder team for the England rugby league team. The Knights play a key role in the development of emerging talent, allowing players to gain experience in an i ...

at international level. He played for the

Wigan Warriors The Wigan Warriors are a professional rugby league club in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the Super League. Formed in 1872 as Wigan Football Club, Wigan was a founding member of the Northern Rugby Football Union followin ...

, St Helens and the

Salford Red Devils The Salford Red Devils are a professional rugby league club in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, who play in the Super League. Formed in 1873, they have won six Championships and one Challenge Cup. Their home ground since 2012 has been t ...

in the Super League. He won the 2014 Super League Grand Final with Saints, and spent time on loan from the club at the

Rochdale Hornets The Rochdale Hornets are a professional rugby league club from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, competing in the Championship, the second tier of European rugby league. The Rochdale Hornets are one of the original twenty-two rugby clubs ...

in the

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 system ...

. He also played for the

Wests Tigers The Wests Tigers are an Australian professional rugby league football team, based in the Inner West and South West Sydney. They have competed in the National Rugby League since being formed at the end of the 1999 NRL season as a joint-venture ...

in the

National Rugby League The National Rugby League (NRL) is an Australasian rugby league club competition which contains clubs from New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New Zealand. The NRL formed in 1998 as a joint partnership ...

Early life

Mark Flanagan was born on 4 December 1987 in

Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, amid the Pennines and between the rivers Irk and Medlock, southeast of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

, England. He is the son of former Great Britain international Terry Flanagan. Flanagan started his rugby league career at the amateur side

Saddleworth_Rangers Saddleworth Rangers are an amateur Rugby League side, formed in 1930, based at Shaw Hall Bank Road, Greenfield, Greater Manchester in the Saddleworth district of Oldham. The club has teams at a number of levels from junior to the first team, wh ...

before joining the

Bradford Bulls The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...

when he was 16. He was considered one of the most promising young British players and has caps for England Academy including caps against the Australian Schoolboys in 2006.

Professional playing career

Wigan

On 4 January 2007 it was announced that Flanagan would join

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, on the River Douglas. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. Bolton lies to the north-east and Warrington t ...

on a two-year contract with Wigan, paying £10,900 in compensation to Bradford for the loss of the player. He was signed to provide cover and possibly become a replacement to Australian stand-off

Trent Barrett Trent Barrett (born 18 November 1977) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach who is a former head coach and a former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. He was previously the head ...

. Flanagan was the third player that Brian Noble had brought from his previous club Bradford, the other players being

Stuart Fielden Stuart Fielden (born 14 September 1979) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. He was formerly an assistant coach for the Huddersfield Giants in the Super League, and now is a Person ...

and

Michael Withers Michael Withers (born 16 May 1976) is a former Ireland international rugby league footballer who played as a and in the 1990s and 2000s. He played club football in Australia for the Balmain Tigers in the National Rugby League, and in England ...

. Flanagan was a regular in the Wigan reserves team. He went to Halifax on loan in June 2008 and scored two tries in his first game for the club. After some impressive performances in the reserves Flanagan made his Wigan début from the bench during the second half of a 22–16 defeat by the Crusaders RL at

Brewery Field Dunraven Brewery Field ( cy, Cae'r Bragdy Dunraven) is an 8,000 (1,100 seated) capacity sports stadium in Bridgend, Wales. It is the home ground of the rugby union team Bridgend Ravens. Bridgend Athletic RFC often use the ground for their h ...

. He made more appearances for

putting in some very impressive performances, most noticeably for his defensive effort in the derby loss away at St Helens.

Wests Tigers

It was announced 23 September 2009 that Flanagan had signed a 1-year contract with the

, with the Tigers having the option for a further season. Tigers' recruitment manager Warren McDonnell described him as, "a raw talent," and, "a tough no-nonsense player with a strong work ethic." Flanagan played 21 games in his first season with the Tigers, mostly starting on the bench. Having been left out of the side for most of 2011, Flanagan made his return late in the season and played in both of the Wests Tigers' semis appearances.

St Helens

It was confirmed on 19 July 2011 that St Helens had signed Flanagan on a 2-year contract, he made the move before the start of the 2012 season. The move meant that Flanagan was reunited with Head Coach

Royce Simmons Royce Michael Simmons (born 2 May 1960) is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer and coach. A one-club man, he played as a for the Penrith Panthers in the NSWRL from 1980 to 1991, winning a premiership in his final season. ...

who he previously worked with at West Tigers. St Helens reached the 2014 Super League Grand Final, and Flanagan was selected to play at scrum-half in their 14–6 victory over the

at Old Trafford.

Salford

Flanagan left St Helens at the end of the 2015 season to join Salford, where he was reunited with his former Wests Tigers coach

Tim Sheens Tim Sheens (born 30 October 1950) is an Australian professional rugby league football coach and former player. Head Coach of the Australia national team between 2009 and 2015, he has also been the head coach of National Rugby League (NRL) clubs ...

. He played in the 2019 Super League Grand Final defeat by St Helens at Old Trafford. On 24 September 2020 Flanaghan confirmed his intention to retire at the end of the 2020 season. On 17 October 2020, he played in the 2020 Challenge Cup Final defeat for Salford against Leeds at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...

Personal life

In 2015, Flanagan opened an independent coffee shop with former Saints team mate Jon Wilkin in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

city centre. Mark married in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

at the iconic Santa Maria Del Mar on 2 December 2017. Mark is the son of former GB international Terry Flanaghan MBE .