Nathan John Porritt (born 9 January 1990) is an English former

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 ...

. He started his career with his hometown club

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 ...

where he attracted interest from Chelsea despite never featuring for the first-team.

Early life

Porritt was born in

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 ...

. At the age of ten, he joined

Middlesbrough F.C. Middlesbrough Football Club ( ) is a professional association football club based in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Nicknamed the Boro, they were fo ...

's youth academy while continuing his education at The King's Academy.

Club career

Middlesbrough

Secret filming for

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...

's programme '' "Undercover: Football's Dirty Secrets"'', aired in September 2006, exposed an agent acting without Middlesbrough's permission in offering the then 15-year-old Porritt to club representatives, including Chelsea's youth director

Frank Arnesen Frank Arnesen (born 30 September 1956) is a former Danish footballer and sporting director at Dutch football club Feyenoord. Arnesen was the director of football at English football clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, and was sporting directo ...

, in contravention of

the Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

's rules. Porritt signed a two-year scholarship with Middlesbrough in the summer of 2006, and signed his first professional contract with the club on 10 June 2008. Porritt's contract with Middlesbrough was cancelled by mutual consent on 1 February 2010. Porritt was reported to have trained with Portuguese clubs

Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply Belenenses, is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 19,856 ...

, and

Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense (), commonly known as Olhanense, is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Algarve Football Association First Division, the fifth tier of ...

but did not sign for them. After a frustrating six-month spell at financially troubled Belgian Third Division club

Olympic Charleroi Royal Olympic Club Charleroi, commonly referred to as Olympique Charleroi and abbreviated as ROCC, is a Belgian association football based in Charleroi, Hainaut. The club set to compete in the Challenger Pro League from 2025–26, the second t ...

Porritt was released from his contract with the club. Porritt has since had trials with

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 ...

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 ...

and

Hartlepool Hartlepool ( ) is a seaside resort, seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is governed by a unitary authority borough Borough of Hartlepool, named after the town. The borough is part of the devolved Tees Valley area with an estimat ...

. On 23 February 2013 he signed for Billingham Synthonia. From 2017 until 2020, he was the kitman at

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 ...

International career

Considered a bright prospect, he was a member of the England under-17 squad at the

2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup 2007, the twelfth edition of the tournament, was held in South Korea between 18 August and 9 September 2007. For this event, the number of teams had been expanded from 16 to 24, with the top two of each group and the four ...

. He was called up to the England under-18 squad in 2008. He had also played a number of games for the U16 team, previous to this.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Porritt, Nathan 1990 births Living people Footballers from Middlesbrough English men's footballers England men's youth international footballers Men's association football forwards Middlesbrough F.C. players Darlington F.C. players Olympic Charleroi players Stokesley Sports Club F.C. players Billingham Synthonia F.C. players English Football League players Hartlepool United F.C. non-playing staff 21st-century English sportsmen