Reece Randall Grego-Cox (born 12 November 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a right winger for club

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

. He joined

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus ...

in 2010 after a prolific season for Bedfont Eagles under-14. He was first selected for a matchday squad in January 2015, and made his debut 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 ...

in March. In late 2016, he had a short loan at Newport County in

League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Le ...

. He was released by QPR in January 2018 and joined

of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

. He went onto feature eighteen times, scoring four goals before leaving for

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team com ...

in July. He returned to Woking in July 2022. Born in England, Grego-Cox chose to represent the Republic of Ireland at international level. He has featured for them up to under-21 level.

Club career

Queens Park Rangers

Born in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

, London, Grego-Cox joined the club at the age of 13 in 2010, after scoring nearly 60 goals in a season for Bedfont Eagles under-14. In the 2014–15 season, while a part of the Queens Park Rangers Under-18 team, he was also a regular with the Under-21s under Steve Gallen, scoring 4 goals in 7 starts. In August 2014, with the Under-18 team, he scored from 50 yards in a 3–2 win over

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

, which the ''

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ci ...

'' compared to a goal by

David Beckham David Robert Joseph Beckham (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending f ...

in 1996. He signed his first professional contract with the club on 22 December 2014, a two-and-a-half-year deal lasting until 2017. He said "It's really weird actually. Growing up watching QPR and then being in the position you wish you were, playing for QPR. It's a great feeling." He took part in a friendly on the same day with the first team against

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

, coming on as a 77th-minute substitute for

Niko Kranjčar Niko Kranjčar (; born 13 August 1984) is a Croatian former professional footballer. He primarily played as an attacking midfielder, but could also operate as a winger or second striker. As of 5 May 2021, he works as an assistant to Josip Šimu ...

and scoring with his first touch in a 3–2 victory. Grego-Cox was included in a matchday squad for the first time on 4 January 2015, remaining an unused substitute as they lost 0–3 to League One side

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games a ...

Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained i ...

in the third round of the

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 ...

. He made his professional debut on 7 March, replacing Karl Henry for the last two minutes of a 1–2 home defeat against

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

in the

. After two more substitute appearances, he was given his first start on 24 May, playing the full 90 minutes as relegated QPR ended the season with a 5–1 defeat away to

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the Nation ...

. On 31 August 2016, Grego-Cox joined

club Newport County on loan until 31 January 2017. He made his debut on 3 September by starting at home to Barnet but the match was abandoned at half time due to a waterlogged pitch. He returned to QPR on 7 December after his loan was cut short due to injury. On 12 January 2018, Grego-Cox left Queens Park Rangers by mutual consent, alongside teammate Michael Petrasso.

Woking

Following his release from QPR, Grego-Cox joined

side

on a deal until the end of the season. A day later, he made his debut in a 1–0 home defeat against Tranmere Rovers, replacing Declan Appau in the 54th minute. On 23 January, Grego-Cox scored his first career goal to open a 1–1 draw at Gateshead. Grego-Cox went onto score three more times for the Cards before leaving the club following their relegation to the

National League South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

Crawley Town

On 16 July 2018, Grego-Cox made the move to League Two side

on a two-year deal, following a successful trial period. He signed a new contract, running until 2022, in July 2019. In February 2022, he joined Barnet on loan until the end of the season. Grego-Cox was released at the end of the 2021–22 season.

Return to Woking

On 15 June 2022, Grego-Cox agreed to return to Woking ahead of the 2022–23 campaign, signing a one-year deal following his release from Crawley.

International career

Although born in England, Grego-Cox represents the Republic of Ireland at international level qualifying to do so through his grandparents. He began in the Under-17 team, in their

elite round In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. De ...

for the 2013 European Championship. He made his debut on 25 March 2013 against

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, scoring the only goal of the game in

Schwechat Schwechat () is a town southeast of Vienna known for the Vienna International Airport and Schwechater beer. The city is home to the refineries of the Austrian national oil company OMV. Geography Schwechat is named after the river Schwechat, wh ...

in the 22nd minute. He also featured in the two other games of the round against

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

and

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hung ...

, as group hosts Austria advanced to the finals. On 13 November 2014, Grego-Cox made his debut for the Under-19s as they hosted their group in the qualifying round for the 2015 European Championship, starting in a 1–0 win over

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

at the

Regional Sports Centre The Waterford Regional Sports Centre (or simply, the RSC) is part of Waterford Corporation's Municipal sporting facilities and home to Waterford F.C. of the League of Ireland. Waterford moved to the newly opened RSC from their former home, ...

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

. Two days later, he opened the scoring in the 3rd minute of a 4–1 victory against Gibraltar at

Ferrycarrig Park Ferrycarrig Park has been the home of League of Ireland side Wexford Football Club since joining the league in 2007. The building works for the new stadium and facilities, at Newcastle, Crossabeg, have been ongoing since 2003. Currently specta ...

Wexford Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N1 ...

, and on 18 November in Waterford he netted the equaliser for a 1–1 draw with Switzerland. The Republic of Ireland came second in their group and advanced to the

. On 4 September 2015, Grego-Cox made his under-21s debut, coming on as a second-half substitute for

Sean Kavanagh Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán ( anglicized as '' Shaun/Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...

in their 4–1 win over

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

Gigg Lane Gigg Lane is a football ground in Bury, Greater Manchester, England, built for Bury F.C. in 1885. The first match was played on 12 September 1885 between Bury and a team from Wigan. One of the world's oldest professional football stadiums, Gig ...

in Bury; he scored their third goal. In

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

for the 2019 European Championship on 9 October 2017, he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wi ...

in a 4–0 home win over

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, including a goal after 40 seconds.

Style of play

In May 2014, ''

The Irish Post ''The Irish Post'' is a national newspaper for the Irish community in Great Britain. It is published every Wednesday and is sold in shops in Britain and Ireland. History The first print edition of ''The Irish Post'' was published on Friday, ...

'' named Grego-Cox as one of 10 young British-based prospects for the Republic of Ireland. They noted how his "pace and aggressive style of play" had proven successful with the international under-17 team, but acknowledged concerns over his temperament, despite concluding that "a competitive edge didn't do

Roy Keane Roy Maurice Keane (born 10 August 1971) is an Irish football pundit, coach and former professional player. He is the joint most successful Irish footballer of all time, having won 19 major trophies in his club career, 17 of which came during h ...

much harm". Queens Park Rangers under-18 manager Steve Gallen compared Grego-Cox to first-team player Charlie Austin in August 2014, saying "They are tenacious, they cause problems for defenders and they can score goals. They won't give you a moments 'sic''rest. Like Charlie has done at times for the first team, Reece creates a goal out of nothing".

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grego-Cox, Reece Living people 1996 births Footballers from Hammersmith English men's footballers Republic of Ireland men's association footballers Republic of Ireland men's youth international footballers Republic of Ireland men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football forwards Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players Woking F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players Barnet F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players National League (English football) players English people of Irish descent