Christian Albert Elliot Burgess (born 7 October 1991) is an English 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 plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023 ...

club

Union SG Royale Union Saint-Gilloise (), also known as Union Saint-Gilloise, Union SG or simply Union, is a Belgian professional football club from Brussels based in Forest. Founded in 1897 in the neighbouring Saint-Gilles, the club has played its home ...

Career

Youth career

Burgess began his career 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 ...

's academy and after he was released he went on to play with the youth and reserves teams at non-League

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district, in the county of Hertfordshire, England. It is in the London metropolitan area, London commuter belt, near the border with Essex, just west of the ...

before deciding to study history at the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

. Whilst in his second year university, Burgess earned a trial at

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

through a coach of the university's first team.

Middlesbrough

He impressed at Boro and he signed a two-year contract in July 2012. He made his professional debut on 4 May 2013 in a 2–0 defeat away at

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

Hartlepool United

He joined

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...

on loan in August 2013. The loan deal was extended until the end of the season in December. Burgess scored his first goal in professional football in a 5–0 win for Hartlepool in a

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

game against

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

in September 2013.

Peterborough United

On 19 August 2014, Burgess signed on a month's loan for Peterborough United. He completed a single game on loan, a 2–1 home defeat by

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 ...

, before completing a permanent transfer on 21 August 2014. Burgess signed a four-year contract for an undisclosed fee.

Portsmouth

On 25 June 2015, Burgess signed for south coast club

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 ...

as part of the summer overhaul at the club by new manager

Paul Cook Paul Thomas Cook (born 20 July 1956) is an English musician, best known as the drummer and a founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is nicknamed "Cookie" by friends in the punk music scene. Early life and career Cook was ...

. He went on to make his debut on 11 July 2015, in a pre-season friendly against local Conference South club Havant & Waterlooville. During the 2015–16 season, in which Portsmouth reached the play-off semi-finals, Burgess made 43 appearances in all competitions, partnered in most games by either Matthew Clarke or Adam Webster. Following a successful first campaign for Pompey, during which he established himself as the club's first-choice centre back, Burgess began the 2016–17 season as one of the team's central figures. In total, Burgess made 45 appearances and scored four goals over the course of the season, as Portsmouth won the League Two title. Burgess, along with teammate and fellow defender

Enda Stevens Enda John Stevens (born 9 July 1990) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a left back for club Stoke City and the Republic of Ireland national team. He will become a free agent on 30 June 2025. Stevens started his career in the L ...

, was named in the League Two team of the year; a reward for their part in Portsmouth's league-best defensive record. Burgess was awarded the

EFL League One Player of the Month The EFL League One Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the player adjudged the best for each month of the season in EFL League One, the third tier of English football. Originally named the Football League One Play ...

award in January 2020 and won the award for Portsmouth Player of the Season in the same year.

Union SG

Burgess turned down a contract extension at Portsmouth and on 7 July 2020 joined

Belgian First Division B The Challenger Pro League, previously known as 1B Pro League is the second-highest division in the Football in Belgium, Belgian football Belgian football league system, league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was created by the ...

club

, signing a three-year deal with the option of an additional year. He scored his first goal for the club in a 3–1 victory against

Club NXT Club NXT is the youth academy of Belgian football club Club Brugge. The most senior team of Club NXT acts as Club Brugge's reserve team, and competes in the Challenger Pro League, the second flight of Belgian football. History On 1 July 2020 ...

. At the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

USG were promoted, making it the second league title victory of Burgess' career. Burgess was awarded a place in the Team of the Season at the end of the season. On 21 November 2021, Burgess scored two goals for the club in a 7–1 victory against Oostende. The team finished first in the regular season of their return campaign, although they would lose out on the title during the six-game playoffs, finishing second. The following year, RUSG once again qualified for the championship playoffs, having finished level on points with Genk. In a close fight for first on the final day, Burgess and Union would lose out when they conceded three late goals against Club Brugge on the final day, thus losing out to Antwerp by a point. During 2023, Burgess, who had missed just three games throughout the league season, was given the nickname "Air Burgey" as a nod to his aerial prowess.

Personal life

He earned a BA Hons in history part-time at

Teesside University Teesside University is a public university with its main campus in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire in North East England. It was officially opened as ''Constantine Technical College'' in 1930, before becoming a polytechnic in 1969, and finally g ...

, having previously studied history at

before his move to Middlesbrough.

Career statistics

Honours

Portsmouth *

EFL League Two The English Football League Two, simply known as League Two and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Betting & Gaming, Sky Bet League Two, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League Two is the fourth division of the English ...

: 2016–17 *

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

: 2018–19 Union SG *

: 2024–25 *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

: 2023–24 *

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( ; ; ), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian Pro League champions (also received the Super Cup host) and the Belgian Cup winners. If both teams are the same, ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Challenger Pro League The Challenger Pro League, previously known as 1B Pro League is the second-highest division in the Football in Belgium, Belgian football Belgian football league system, league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was created by the ...

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 ...

Jules Pappaert Cup Trophy Jules Pappaert or Pappaert cup is a Belgian football trophy since 1953 and is awarded annually to a club in the first, second or third division of the Belgian Pro League with the longest uninterrupted series of unbeaten games. The award is ...

: 2021 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 ...

: 2016–17 League Two *PFA EFL League One Player of the Month: January 2020 *Portsmouth Player of the Season: 2019–20Burgess Named Player Of The Season
/ref> *

Team of the Season:

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burgess, Christian 1991 births Living people Footballers from the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham People from Barking, London Alumni of Teesside University English men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Arsenal F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Hartlepool United F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Royale Union Saint-Gilloise players English Football League players Belgian Pro League players Challenger Pro League players Alumni of the University of Birmingham English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium English expatriate sportspeople in Belgium 21st-century English sportsmen