Dion Dannie Leonard Sanderson (born 15 December 1999) is an English

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 defender for

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...

club

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

. He began his career as a youngster with

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

and later spent time on loan at

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

, Birmingham City (two spells) and

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

, before leaving for Birmingham City in 2023. He spent the second half of the 2024–25 season on loan to

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

Career

Wolverhampton Wanderers and loan spells

Sanderson joined

' academy as an eight-year-old, signed his first professional contract in 2018, and a year later signed a two-year contract with a 12-month option. He was a member of the senior squad for their pre-season tour of China, where he played in the club's Premier League Asia Trophy Final victory over

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

. He made his competitive debut on 30 October 2019 in an

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

tie against

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

. Sanderson joined

club

on 31 January 2020

on loan In sports, a loan involves a particular player being able to temporarily play for a club other than the one to which they are currently contracted. Loan deals may last from a few weeks to a full season, sometimes persisting for multiple seasons ...

to the end of the season.

Sunderland (loan)

After Sanderson's contract with Wolves was extended until 2022, he joined

League One League One or League 1 may refer to: Association football * EFL League One, the third tier of football in England. * China League One, the second tier of football in China * K League 1, the top-tier football in South Korea * Lao League 1 * Lea ...

club

in October 2020 on a season-long loan. He scored his first goal for Sunderland, and his first professional goal, in a 2–0 win against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

on 6 March 2021. He was

cup-tied In association football, a player who has appeared for a football club during a knockout cup but subsequently transfers to another club is ineligible to play for the new club in the remainder of that season's cup competition. Such a player is sa ...

for Sunderland's victory in the 2021 EFL Trophy Final. Near the end of April, Sanderson was ruled out for the rest of the season due to a back injury, so missed out on Sunderland's unsuccessful play-off campaign. He was voted as Sunderland's Supporters' Young Player of the Year.

Birmingham City (loan)

Sanderson signed a new four-year deal with Wolves before joining Championship club

on 19 July 2021 on a season-long loan. He made his first-team debut for Birmingham in the EFL Cup second-round match at home to

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

. Starting in a three-man defence alongside the experienced

George Friend George Andrew Jordan Friend (born 19 October 1987) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender. He is currently Director of Football at Bristol Rovers. In the 2012–13 season, Friend won Middlesbrough players' playe ...

and fellow debutant Mitch Roberts, he played for 73 minutes before being replaced by another newcomer, Alfie Chang. He made his first league appearance on 18 September in a 3–0 defeat away to

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Peterborough United formed in ...

, replacing the injured Marc Roberts at half-time with the score 2–0, and established himself as a regular member of the starting eleven. However, on 4 January 2022, with several Wolves defenders injured or away on international duty, Sanderson was recalled on 4 January 2022.

Queens Park Rangers (loan)

Sanderson joined another Championship club,

, on 25 January 2022 on loan for the remainder of the season. He made 12 appearances, all but one in league competition.

Birmingham City (second loan)

Sanderson rejoined Championship club

on 5 July 2022 on a season-long loan. As he did during his previous loan, he started regularly, and was described in the ''

Birmingham Mail The ''Birmingham Mail'' (branded the ''Black Country Mail'' in the Black Country and ''Birmingham Live'' online) is a tabloid newspaper based in Birmingham, England, but distributed around Birmingham, the Black Country, and Solihull and parts ...

s mid-season assessment as "a classy presence on the right side of the back three", more athletic but less physically dominant than Marc Roberts or

Harlee Dean Harlee James Dean (born 26 July 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back, most recently for club Reading. He began his career at Dagenham & Redbridge, and had a number of spells on loan at non-League clubs in the ...

when played centrally. By February 2023, he was struggling both with a back injury and the need to avoid a tenth yellow card and resultant two-match ban. He remained on nine cards, but after 33 starts and one goal, he returned to Wolves for treatment to his back. Despite being initially ruled out for the season, he was able to start and score a late volleyed goal in Birmingham's final fixture, a 2–1 defeat at home to already promoted

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 ...

Birmingham City

After lengthy negotiations, Sanderson joined Birmingham City on a four-year contract on 15 July 2023; the fee was undisclosed. He was appointed captain.

Blackburn Rovers (loan)

On 10 January 2025, Sanderson joined Championship club

on loan until the end of the season, reuniting with former manager

John Eustace John Mark Eustace (born 3 November 1979) is an English professional football coach and former player who is currently head coach of club Derby County. During his playing career, he played as a central midfielder for Coventry City, Stoke City, ...

for the third time in his career. He made 12 league appearances.

Personal life

He is a nephew of the 1984 Olympic javelin gold medallist

Tessa Sanderson Theresa Ione Sanderson (born 14 March 1956) is a British former javelin thrower. She appeared in every Summer Olympic Games, Summer Olympics from 1976 to 1996, winning the gold medal in the Athletics at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Women's ja ...

. In April 2024, Sanderson was charged with

drink-driving Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash. In the United States, alcohol is in ...

Career statistics

References

External links

Profile
at the Birmingham City F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanderson, Dion 1999 births Living people People from Wednesfield Footballers from Wolverhampton English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Cardiff City F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players English Football League players Black British sportsmen 21st-century Black British people 21st-century English sportsmen