Nathaniel Harry Phillips (born 21 March 1997) 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 ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for club

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

Early life

Phillips was born in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish weavers settled in the area in the 14th ce ...

, Greater Manchester.

Career

Early career

In 2016, Phillips left Bolton Wanderers' academy and trained at

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. ...

after he secured a scholarship at the

University of North Carolina at Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs through nine colle ...

. Two days before his planned flight to the United States, he joined Liverpool's academy instead.

Liverpool

In the summer of 2018 Phillips started to train with Liverpool's first team and became a member of

Jürgen Klopp Jürgen Norbert Klopp (; born 16 June 1967) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Liverpool. He is widely regarded as one of the best managers in the world. Klopp spent most of his playing ...

's squad but still played for the reserve team.

VfB Stuttgart loan and Liverpool recall

In 2019, he moved to German second-division club

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. Vf ...

on loan for the season. He made his professional debut for Stuttgart in the first round of the 2019–20 DFB-Pokal, coming on as a half-time substitute for

Holger Badstuber Holger Felix Badstuber (born 13 March 1989) is a German former professional footballer who played as a centre-back or left-back. Badstuber made his debut in the Bundesliga for Bayern Munich in the 2009–10 season, at the age of 19. He played n ...

in the away match against

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

club

Hansa Rostock FC Hansa Rostock () is a German association football club based in the city of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The club is also called as "the cog" because of its club crest. They have emerged as one of the most successful clubs from the forme ...

. Phillips made his first appearance in the 2019–20 2. Bundesliga on 17 August 2019 against

FC St. Pauli Fußball-Club St Pauli von 1910 e.V., commonly known as simply FC St Pauli (), is a German professional football club based in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg, that competes in the 2. Bundesliga. The football department is part of a larger ...

. On 27 December 2019, Liverpool announced that Phillips would be recalled from his loan on 1 January 2020 because of a defender injury crisis at his parent club. Twelve days later, after making his first team debut for Liverpool on 5 January 2020 in an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

third round match against Everton, he was loaned back to VfB Stuttgart for the remainder of the 2019–20 season.

Return to Liverpool

On 31 October 2020, Phillips made his league debut for the club, starting in Liverpool's 2–1 win over

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium ...

. On 10 March 2021, Phillips made his Champions League debut, putting in a man of the match performance in a 2–0 win over

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig, and colloquially referred to as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company Red B ...

, and helping Liverpool advance to the

quarter finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final mat ...

4–0 on aggregate. Phillips scored his first goal for the club on 19 May 2021, scoring a headed goal and Liverpool's second of the game during a 3–0 away win over

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River ...

in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

and with it, another man of the match award. The following season, Phillips played in Liverpool's 2–1 win against

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 season ...

at the

San Siro Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, commonly known as San Siro, is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy, which is the home of A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums ...

to complete the Champions League group stage with six wins. Days later it was revealed Phillips suffered a fractured cheekbone during the game. With game-time limited in the 2021-22 season, Nat Phillips admitted to being ready to leave the club in the January transfer window.

AFC Bournemouth (loan)

On 31 January 2022, he joined AFC Bournemouth on loan until the end of the season. Regarding the move, Klopp commented that "he would have loved to have kept him

t Liverpool T, or t, is the twentieth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is deri ...

and that he was "incredibly reliable nd agreat figure here at the training ground". He made his debut for the club in the FA Cup, 0–1 loss to non-league side Boreham Wood. Phillips made his league debut for the club, and his first appearance in the Championship, in a 3–1 victory against

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. Since 2011, the first te ...

Personal life

Nathaniel is the son of former footballer Jimmy Phillips and played under his management in the Bolton Wanderers academy.

Career statistics

Honours

;VfB Stuttgart *

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

runner-up: 2019–20 ;AFC Bournemouth *

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

runner-up: 2021–22

References

External links

Profile
at the Liverpool F.C. website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Nathaniel 1997 births Living people Footballers from Bolton English footballers Association football defenders Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Liverpool F.C. players VfB Stuttgart players AFC Bournemouth players 2. Bundesliga players Premier League players English Football League players English expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany English expatriate sportspeople in Germany People educated at Bolton School