Nicholas Pickering (born 4 August 1963 in South Shields) 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 ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

for Sunderland,

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 188 ...

, Darlington and

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

once for the England national team, against Australia in 1983. He was part of the England U21 team that won the 1984 European under-21 championships and reached the semi-final two years later. As a Coventry City player he was on the winning side in the

1987 FA Cup Final The 1987 FA Cup Final between Coventry City and Tottenham Hotspur on 16 May 1987 at Wembley Stadium, London, England was the 106th Final of the FA Cup, English football's primary cup competition. It was the third final for Tottenham Hotspur in s ...

. After retiring as a player he returned to his native north-east, where he was involved in youth coaching and radio work. In his first season in Sunderland's first team he had the honour of being voted both the club's young player of the year and player of the year by the fans.

References

External links

* * 1963 births Living people Footballers from South Shields English footballers England international footballers England under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders Sunderland A.F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Burnley F.C. players English Football League players FA Cup final players {{England-footy-midfielder-1960s-stub