Brandon Lee Colin Barker (born 4 October 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as a left sided winger for Omonia in the Cypriot First Division. Barker has previously played for

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 ...

, Rotherham United,

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

, Hibernian,

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

, Reading and Oxford United. He has also represented England at the under-18, under-19 and

under-20 Junior is a category of athletics in which athletes compete under the age of 20 years. Countries all around the world compete in athletics. World Junior Athletics Competitions are held every two years which contain the best junior competitors in ...

international levels.

Club career

Manchester City

Barker joined the Manchester City academy at the age of eight. He was the winner of the Academy Players' Player of the Year award in the 2013–14 season and signed his first professional contract with

in July 2014. In the opening months of the 2015–16 season he appeared on the first team bench for a number of times but did not manage to make an appearance. Barker made his first-team debut for City on 21 February 2016, coming on as a substitute for

Bersant Celina Bersant Celina (born 9 September 1996) is a Kosovan professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for EFL Championship club Stoke City, on loan from French club Dijon, and the Kosovo national team. He began his professional career with Ma ...

in a 5–1 defeat against Chelsea in the

fifth round Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash t ...

of the FA Cup. On 6 November 2015, Barker signed for Rotherham United of the Championship on a loan with an initial length of two months. The next day he made his professional debut, playing 90 minutes and scoring in a 5–2 loss to Ipswich. On 15 December 2015, Barker was recalled from his loan by Manchester City. In August 2016, Barker was sent to

of the Dutch Eerste Divisie on loan for the 2016-17 season. He made his debut on 19 August, as a substitute in a 2–1 loss to Maastricht. His first goal came on 21 October, in a 3–1 win over Fortuna Sittard. On 17 August 2017, Barker was loaned to Scottish Premiership side Hibernian for the 2017–18 season. Barker said in November that he had been encouraged to move to Scotland by the example of Patrick Roberts, a winger who had moved on loan from Manchester City to

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. Barker scored his first goal for Hibs in a 2–1 win against

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

on 31 January, but then suffered a torn hamstring in his next match. Towards the end of the season, Barker said he expected to be loaned out again by Manchester City and that he would be interested in returning to Hibs. Barker joined

on loan for the 2018–19 season. Barker's first goal for Preston North End came in a 3–1 win over

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district in Lancashire, England. It is in Morecambe Bay on the Irish Sea. Name The first use of the name was by John Whitaker in his ''History of Manchester'' (1771), w ...

in the

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

on 14 August 2018.

Rangers

Barker signed for

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

in August 2019. He scored his first goal for the club in his league debut at Ibrox against

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

on 14 September 2019, scoring the third goal in a 3–1 victory. On 31 January 2022, Barker departed Rangers by mutual consent.

Oxford United (loan)

Barker joined Oxford United on loan until the end of the season on 1 February 2021. He scored three league goals for United during the 2020–21 season; his goal against

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

on 10 April 2021 was voted the club's Goal of the Season.

Reading

On 15 February 2022, Barker joined

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

side Reading on a short-term deal until the end of the 2021–22 season. On 20 May, Reading confirmed that Barker would leave the club upon the expiration of his contract.

Omonia

On 30 June 2022, Barker joined Cypriot club Omonia on a two-year deal.

International career

Barker made his international debut for England under-18 in October 2013 and went on to play for his country at under-19 and

levels.

Career statistics

Honours

Rangers * Scottish Premiership:

2020–21 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 ...

Individual * Manchester City EDS Player of the Year: 2013–14

Notes and references

External links

* *
Brandon Barker
Manchester City EDS {{DEFAULTSORT:Barker, Brandon 1996 births Living people English footballers England youth international footballers Association football midfielders Manchester City F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players NAC Breda players Hibernian F.C. players Preston North End F.C. players Rangers F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Reading F.C. players AC Omonia players English Football League players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Scottish Professional Football League players English expatriate footballers English expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands English expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Cyprus