Joshua Guy Coburn (born 6 December 2002) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for club

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

Early life and education

Coburn was born in

Bedale Bedale ( ), is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. Bedale Beck is a tributary of the River Swale, which forms one of the Yorkshire Dales. The dale has a predominant agriculture sector and its related small traditional t ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, and attended Bedale Primary School, Crakehall Primary School and

Richmond School Richmond School & Sixth Form College, often referred to simply as Richmond School, is a coeducational comprehensive secondary school with academy status, located in North Yorkshire, England. It was created by the merger of three schools, the ...

. He returned to his primary school in November 2021 to open a new sports facility at the school, alongside local MP and previous

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2022 to 2024. Following his defeat to Keir Starmer's La ...

Career

Middlesbrough

After spending five years at

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 ...

's academy, he was released by them whilst going through a growth spurt and joined

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 ...

at under-16 level in September 2019. He signed his first professional contract with the club in January 2021, and was named on the first team bench for the first time on 13 March 2021 for a 3–0 home win over

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

. He made his debut for the club as a substitute in a 2–1 win over

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The team plays in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, after suffering relegation fr ...

on 21 April 2021. Coburn scored his first goal for the club in his next game with a "brilliant headed goal" in a 3–1 league win at home to

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 ...

on 24 April 2021. He scored once in four appearances in his debut season in professional football. On 11 August 2021, he made his first start for Middlesbrough in a 3–0

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 ...

defeat to

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

. He scored his first goal of the season in a 2–0 win over

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 ...

on 16 October 2021. He scored in successive fixtures against

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

and

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

in November 2021, the former coinciding with his full league debut. In January 2022, he signed a new contract with the club until 2025, with the option of a further year. On 1 March 2022, he scored the winning goal in

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

in an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

match against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

to take Middlesbrough through to the quarter-finals of the competition.

Bristol Rovers (loan)

On 1 September 2022, Coburn joined

EFL League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

club

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers FC is a men's professional football club in Bristol. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is affiliated to Bristol Rovers W.F.C., whose team play in the FA Women's National Leag ...

on loan for the 2022–23 season. Having suffered an injury on the opening day of the season, Coburn would stay with his parent club in the short-term to work on the rehab from this knee injury. On 4 October, Coburn made his debut for the club when he came on as a half-time substitute in a 2–0

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 ...

victory over Crystal Palace U21. Coburn made his league debut four days later, scoring the winner in a 2–1 victory over

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They currently compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed the U’s, the club h ...

, Rovers' first league win for eight weeks. Coburn impressed during his first ten league appearances for the club, scoring five goals, with manager

Joey Barton Joseph Anthony Barton (born 2 September 1982) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Barton made 269 appearances in the Premier League, including 130 for Manchester City; he was most recentl ...

tipping him to go on to play for England. In December 2022, amid talk of a potential recall, Middlesbrough Head of Football Kieran Scott reiterated the plan was to allow Coburn to stay with Rovers until the end of the season as originally planned. Despite going through a goal drought of over two months, he retained the faith of Middlesbrough manager

Michael Carrick Michael Carrick (born 28 July 1981) is an English professional Association football, football coach and former player who was most recently the head coach of club Middlesbrough F.C., Middlesbrough. He is considered as one of the best midfield ...

who challenged him to force himself back into the first-team regularly. On 2 May 2023, he ended his goal drought in the penultimate game of the season in a 2–1 defeat to

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1886, the club were inaugur ...

, his first goal since 7 January and his tenth of the season. At the end of the season, he received the club's Young Player of the Year award and their goal of the season award for his goal in October against Sheffield Wednesday.

Millwall

On 30 August 2024, Coburn joined fellow Championship side

on a season-long loan deal, scoring on his debut. In just his second appearance for the club, he suffered a calf injury that manager Neil Harris estimated would rule him out for a period of six to eight weeks. On 26 June 2025, Millwall completed the permanent signing of Coburn from Middlesbrough for an undisclosed club-record fee of up to £5million.

Career statistics

Honours

Individual *

Young Player of the Year:

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 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coburn, Josh 2002 births Living people English men's footballers Sportspeople from Richmond, North Yorkshire People from Bedale Footballers from North Yorkshire Men's association football forwards Middlesbrough F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Millwall F.C. players English Football League players 21st-century English sportsmen