Ryan William Fulton (born 23 May 1996) is a 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for side Heart of Midlothian. He has previously played for

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

, as well as loan spells at

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

and Chesterfield. Born in England, he was a youth player for

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

and a youth international for

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Club career

Liverpool

Fulton was born in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and joined

in 2007, representing them at under-10 level and upwards. Towards the end of the 2013–14 season, he made progress into the Under-21 squad. He featured sporadically during the 2014–15 campaign but was a regular starter in the

UEFA Youth League The UEFA Youth League is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) since 2013. In its current format, it is contested by the under-19 teams of the clubs competing in the UEFA Champions Le ...

for under-19 teams. He was first called up to the senior squad for their 2015 summer tour of Asia prior to the 2015–16 season. He was made Liverpool's third-choice keeper, behind

Simon Mignolet Simon Luc Hildebert Mignolet (born 6 March 1988) is a Belgian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Belgian Pro League club Club Brugge KV, Club Brugge. Mignolet started h ...

and

Ádám Bogdán Ádám Bogdán (; born 27 September 1987) is a Hungarian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper and is currently a free agent. Bogdán began his career in Hungary at Vasas before spending time on loan at Vecsés. In 2007, he moved ...

, after fellow reserve shot stoppers Danny Ward and

Lawrence Vigouroux Lawrence Ian Vigouroux (born 19 November 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Swansea City. Vigouroux has a Chilean father and Jamaican mother, and has represented Chile as a youth international level. Club car ...

were sent out on loan.

Loan to Portsmouth

In January 2016, Fulton emerged as a loan target for

as well as

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. On 22 January 2016, he was signed by

on a one-month youth loan deal. He made his senior debut the following day in a 1–0 defeat to

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club () is a professional association football, football club based in Oxford, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English football. Founded as Headingto ...

, a game in which he saved a penalty from

Liam Sercombe Liam Michael Sercombe (born 25 April 1990) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Forest Green Rovers. Career Exeter City Sercombe came through the youth ranks at Exeter City, and signed a full professional c ...

Loan to Chesterfield

On 9 July 2016, he was signed by Chesterfield on a season long loan deal for the 2016–17 season, as cover for the injured first-choice goalkeeper

Tommy Lee Thomas Lee (born Thomas Lee Bass; October 3, 1962) is an American musician who co-founded and plays drums for the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. He also founded rap metal band Methods of Mayhem and has pursued solo musical projects. Early ...

Hamilton Academical

On 18 July 2017, Fulton joined

on a two-year deal.

Heart of Midlothian

On 19 June 2024, Fulton joined Heart of Midlothian on a two-year deal after his contract with Hamilton expired.

International career

Although born in England, he has represented Scotland at under-16, under-19 and under-21 level.

Career statistics

Honours

Hamilton Academical *

Scottish Challenge Cup The Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup,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 ...

Raith Rovers 0–1 Hamilton Academical
Andrew Petrie,

BBC Sport BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC, providing national sports coverage for BBC BBC Television, television, BBC Radio, radio and BBC Online, online. The BBC holds the television and radio UK broadcasting rights to several sports, broadc ...

, 26 March 2023

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fulton, Ryan 1996 births Living people Footballers from Burnley Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's youth international footballers Scotland men's under-21 international footballers English men's footballers English people of Scottish descent Men's association football goalkeepers Liverpool F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players English Football League players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Scottish Professional Football League players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players 21st-century English sportsmen 21st-century Scottish sportsmen