Aaron Paul Morley (born 27 February 2000) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for

EFL League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

club

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

Career

Early career

Morley started his career in the academy of

Manchester City 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 tw ...

and then later, the academy of

, before signing for the academy of Rochdale.

Rochdale

After progressing through Rochdale's academy he first featured for the senior team during the 2016-17 pre-season campaign. After being named as an unused substitute regularly in League One, Morley made his competitive debut in a 2–1

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

victory over Notts County on 4 October 2016. He made his league debut four days later in a 3–0 win over Southend United. Morley also had a five-minute cameo in Rochdale's 2-0 FA Cup victory over

Maidstone United Maidstone United Football Club is a professional football club based in Maidstone, Kent, England. The team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league system. The current club filled the void left by the ol ...

, playing as a left-winger rather than his preferred central role. Morley made a further three appearances for the club during the season – in two EFL Trophy matches and one league fixture. On 1 March 2017, he signed his first professional contract with the club following his 17th birthday. He was offered a new contract by Rochdale at the end of the 2018–19 season. On 28 June 2019, Morley signed a new three-year contract with Rochdale.

Bolton Wanderers

On 11 January 2022, it was announced Morley had re-signed for

, having previously played in the Bolton Wanderers academy as a child, and signed a three and a half year contract with

team. He signed for an undisclosed fee which reported by The Bolton News to be around £100,000.The Bolton News: "Bolton Wanderers snap up Aaron Morley from Rochdale in six-figure deal"
/ref> He made his debut on 15 January in a 2–0 home win against Ipswich Town. On 2 April, he started in the 2023 EFL Trophy Final which Bolton won 4–0 against

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

Career statistics

Honours

Bolton Wanderers *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Morley, Aaron 2000 births Living people English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Manchester City F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Rochdale A.F.C. players English Football League players Footballers from Bury, Greater Manchester