Kyle Naughton (born 17 November 1988) 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

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for club

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club ( ; ) is a Welsh professional football club based in Swansea, Wales. It competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Swansea have played their home matches at ...

. Naughton was a product of

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 ...

's academy before breaking into their first team in 2008, transferring to

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 ...

the following year. He has represented England at under-21 level as well as having loan spells with Gretna,

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 ...

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

and

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

. He spent the next 10 years with Swansea City.

Club career

Sheffield United

Naughton was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

, South Yorkshire. He was a product of

's centre of excellence and academy, having trained with the club the age of seven. He attended an England under-15 training camp during the 2004–05 season, and over the years has become a regular in the Academy and reserve teams. He captained his club's academy team to the quarter-finals of the FA Youth Cup in the 2006–07 season. He was signed by

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

team Gretna on

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

in January 2008, and made his league debut for Gretna against

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

on 16 January 2008. He played regularly for the rest of the season at the troubled Scottish club who were placed into administration during his tenure there. Despite this Naughton continued for Gretna as the Blades agreed to cover insurance payments needed to allow him to play. Naughton played 19 times for the club but was unable to help them avoid

relegation Promotion and relegation is used by sports leagues as a process where teams can move up and down among divisions in a league system, based on their performance over a season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are sometimes call ...

. Naughton made his first team debut for the Blades the following season, coming on as a second-half substitute in the first round of the League Cup against

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in , the third tier of the English football league system. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal ...

in August 2008. In his second substitute appearance for the club he netted the winning goal in a 2–1 League Cup success over Yorkshire rivals

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

. Naughton made his league debut on 20 September 2008 against

, he then went on to make his first start for Sheffield United in their 2–1 victory over

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

on 27 September 2008, gaining the man of the match award. From that point he cemented his place in the starting eleven and was virtually ever present for the rest of the season, becoming first choice at right back whilst also making a couple of appearances in midfield and finishing the season playing at left back to cover for the injured

Gary Naysmith Gary Andrew Naysmith (born 16 November 1978) is a Scottish football coach and former player, who is the manager of Scottish League One side Stenhousemuir. Naysmith, who played as a left-back or left-winger, started his senior career with Hea ...

. His successful season was rewarded when he was voted Young Player of the Year by the United supporters club, was runner up to

Matthew Kilgallon Matthew Shaun Kilgallon (born 8 January 1984) is an English former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Kilgallon began his career at Leeds United, where he came through the youth set up before becoming a fixture in their first ...

in the senior Player of the Year award and was included in the Championship

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 ...

Tottenham Hotspur

Despite major interest from Everton, Naughton signed for

in July 2009 along with fellow

player

Kyle Walker Kyle Andrew Walker (born 28 May 1990) is an English professional footballer who plays as a right-back for club AC Milan, on loan from club Manchester City, and the England national team. Walker started his career at his boyhood club Sheffi ...

for a combined fee of £9 million. He made his Spurs non-competitive debut against

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in the 2009

Wembley Cup The Wembley Cup was an invitational football tournament. The only edition for professional teams was the first edition of the tournament which took place between 24 and 26 July 2009 at Wembley Stadium, Wembley Park, London, United Kingdom. The wi ...

which ended in a 1–1 draw. He came on as a substitute in the 94th minute in the match against

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

, which was the club's third match in the 2009–10 season to mark his debut in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. Naughton then signed a six-month loan deal with

on 1 February 2010. He made his debut in the 1–1 draw against

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

. After returning to Tottenham he was loaned out again initially until January to another

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

club,

. He made his debut on 16 October in a 1–1 draw against

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. They play their home ...

. In his second match for Leicester City, against Leeds United, he scored the second league goal of his career. He scored again for Leicester City in the 5–1 win against Doncaster Rovers. He also scored against Barnsley in a 4–1 win on 5 February with a 30-yard drive into the top corner. Naughton also scored a 25-yard rocket to equalise for Leicester in the M69 derby against Coventry. On 12 March, Naughton scored Leicester's 3rd goal in their 3–0 win over Scunthorpe. Leicester extended Naughton's loan until the end of the 2010–11 season on 8 January after a permanent move failed to materialise. In April, Naughton was named as right back in the Championship PFA Team of the Year for the second time in three years and won the Leicester City Young Player of the Year award. On 21 July 2011, Naughton signed a season-long loan deal to

team

from Tottenham Hotspur. He was handed squad number 25 for his year in Norfolk. Naughton was an unused substitute for the Canaries opening Premier League fixture against Wigan Athletic on 13 August 2011. Naughton displaced Russell Martin as the first-choice right back, and started the matches against Stoke, Chelsea and West Brom. In all, he made twenty-three appearances over the course of the season at either right back or centre back. Naughton made his first full league start for Tottenham on 16 September 2012 away to Reading, a match in which Tottenham won 3–1.

Swansea City

Naughton joined

on 22 January 2015 for a reported £5 million. Naughton quickly established himself as first choice right back for Swansea, before being ruled out for the remainder of the

2014–15 Premier League The 2014–15 Premier League (known as the Barclays Premier League for sponsorship reasons) was the 23rd season of the Premier League, the top English professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 1992, and the ...

season with ankle ligament damage in a 3–1 victory over

. On 2 May 2025, it was announced that Naughton would depart Swansea at the end of the 2024-25 EFL Championship season.

International career

In November 2008, after only eleven league appearances, Naughton was called up to the England under-21 team for the friendly against the Czech Republic under-21 team at

Bramall Lane Bramall Lane is a association football, football stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which is the home of Sheffield United F.C., Sheffield United. The stadium was originally a cricket ground, built on a road named after the Bramall ...

. He duly made his England debut, coming on as a 60th-minute substitute in a 2–0 victory. Naughton is also eligible to play for the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

national team.

Career statistics

Honours

Individual *

: 2008–09 Championship, 2010–11 Championship *

Young Player of the Year:

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Young Player of the Year: 2008–09

References

External links

Profile
at the Swansea City A.F.C. website * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Naughton, Kyle 1988 births Living people Footballers from Sheffield English men's footballers England men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football defenders Sheffield United F.C. players Gretna F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players Black British sportsmen English people of Irish descent 21st-century English sportsmen