Ryan James Yates (born 21 November 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 lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for and

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

s club

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

. Yates joined Nottingham Forest's youth academy in 2005, and has been signed professionally to the club since 2016.

Club career

Nottingham Forest

Loans

Yates was named as part of the

first-team squad at the start of the 2016–17 season, before heading north to

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

side Barrow for an initial period of one-month on 26 August 2016. On 21 September Barrow opted to extend the loan deal, and again on 2 November until 9 January 2017. After this final extension to the deal, Barrow manager Paul Cox said of Yates: "He's a diamond in terms of wanting to learn, wanting to get better, wanting to get stronger. That's what makes Ryan so potent in this squad. He rubs off on other people with his hunger and desire." Yates was recalled by Forest on 13 January, having made nineteen appearances and scoring twice in all competitions for Barrow. On 31 January, shortly after his recall from Barrow, Yates was loaned out to

League One League One or League 1 may refer to: Association football * EFL League One, the third tier of football in England. * China League One, the second tier of football in China * K League 1, the top-tier football in South Korea * Lao League 1 * Lea ...

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1886, the club were inaugur ...

for the remainder of the season. He made his professional league debut on 14 February as a 64th-minute substitute of a 2–1 loss to

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Peterborough United formed in ...

. On 27 February, whilst on loan with Shrewsbury Town, Yates extended his contract at Forest until 2019. Yates was shown the first red card of his professional career on 1 April for two sliding tackles in a game at

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers FC is a men's professional football club in Bristol. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is affiliated to Bristol Rovers W.F.C., whose team play in the FA Women's National Leag ...

, despite having been pushed to the floor by the opponent's players after the second challenge, in a decision described by his loan club as "harsh". On 4 August 2017 Yates joined

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

on loan for the 2017–18 season, joining fellow Forest midfielder Jorge Grant at the club. His debut for the club came on 8 August away at

Scunthorpe United Scunthorpe United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The club was formed in ...

in the first round of the

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

. Yates started the match and scored in the last minute of the second period of extra time to equalise the score to 3–3. Although Notts lost the subsequent penalty shootout, Yates received praise from his manager

Kevin Nolan Kevin Anthony Jance Nolan (born 24 June 1982) is an English former professional footballer and coach, who manages Northampton Town. He has represented England at under-21 level. After growing up in Toxteth, Liverpool, Nolan signed for Bolton ...

, who described the teenager as a "leader" with "bags and bags of potential". On 11 January 2018, Yates signed a deal keeping him at Nottingham Forest until 2020, and was recalled from his loan at Notts County to join League One club Scunthorpe United for the remainder of the 2017–18 season. He scored on his Iron debut against Peterborough United, in what the ''

Scunthorpe Telegraph The ''Scunthorpe Telegraph'' is a local paid-for newspaper published and distributed weekly in Scunthorpe, England. History The newspaper was launched on 8 September 1937. Prior to the ''Scunthorpe Telegraph''s launch, the town was served by ...

'' described as a "

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

performance". ''

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

'' awarded Yates the man of the match trophy for the 1–1 draw with

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 ...

on 30 March.

Return to Forest

On 5 July 2018, Yates signed a new three-year deal with Nottingham Forest, keeping him at the club until 2021. He made his debut for Nottingham Forest on 14 August 2018, in the

in a 1–1 draw with Bury which Forest won on penalties. He scored his first goal for the club on 12 February 2019, in a 2–2 draw with

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

. On 5 December 2019, he extended his contract until 2023. Yates received praise for his performances during the 2021–22 season, with a particular increase in his goal output. He was heavily involved in the Nottingham Forest team which gained promotion to the Premier League for the first time in 23 years, making 43

EFL Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, it is the highest divi ...

appearances, 3 play-off appearances, and scoring eight league goals. He featured in the EFL Championship Team of the Season. Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper has described Yates as a "culture-setter" within the Nottingham Forest team. On 4 May 2024, Yates scored in a 3–1 win against

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 ...

, which made Yates join a select group of players to have scored in all five top divisions of English football. On 29 July 2024, Yates signed a new four–year deal with Forest, committing himself to the club until 2028.

Career statistics

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" , + Appearances and goals by club, season and competition , - !rowspan="2", Club !rowspan="2", Season !colspan="3", League !colspan="2",

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

!colspan="2",

!colspan="2", Other !colspan="2", Total , - !Division!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals!!Apps!!Goals , - , rowspan="11",

, 2016–17 , rowspan=6,

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 ...

, 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , colspan="2", —, , 0, , 0 , - , 2017–18 , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , colspan="2", —, , 0, , 0 , - , 2018–19 , 16, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0, , colspan="2", —, , 17, , 1 , - , 2019–20 , 27, , 3, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , colspan="2", —, , 28, , 3 , - ,

2020–21 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 ...

, 34, , 2, , 1, , 0, , 1, , 0, , colspan="2", —, , 36, , 2 , - , 2021–22 , 43, , 8, , 4, , 1, , 1, , 0, , 3, , 0, , 51, , 9 , - ,

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 ...

, rowspan=4,

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 ...

, 26, , 0, , 1, , 1, , 4, , 1, , colspan="2", —, , 31, , 2 , - , 2023–24 , 35, , 1, , 4, , 0, , 1, , 0, , colspan="2", —, , 40, , 1 , - , 2024–25 , 35, , 2, , 4, , 2, , 0, , 0, , colspan="2", —, , 39, , 4 , - , 2025–26 , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0 , - !colspan="2", Total !216!!17!!15!!4!!8!!1!!3!!0!!242!!22 , - , Barrow (loan) , 2016–17 , , 16, , 1, , 3, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 19, , 2 , - ,

(loan) , 2016–17 ,

, 12, , 0, , colspan="2", —, , colspan="2", —, , colspan="2", —, , 12, , 0 , - ,

(loan) , 2017–18 , League Two , 25, , 3, , 3, , 2, , 1, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 29, , 6 , - , {{nowrap,

(loan) , 2017–18 , League One , 16, , 2, , colspan="2", —, , colspan="2", —, , 2{{efn, Appearances in League One play-offs, , 0, , 18, , 2 , - !colspan="3", Career total !285, , 23, , 21, , 7, , 9, , 2, , 5, , 0, , 320, , 32 {{notelist

Honours

Nottingham Forest *

EFL Championship play-offs The English Football League (EFL) Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League play-o ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Individual * EFL Championship Team of the Season: 2021–22{{cite web, url=https://www.efl.com/news/2022/april/football-manager-efl-team-of-the-season-line-ups-announced/, title=Football Manager EFL Team of the Season line-ups announced, website=www.efl.com, date=24 April 2022, accessdate=25 April 2022

References

{{reflist

External links

{{commons category
Profile
at the Nottingham Forest F.C. website *{{Soccerway, ryan-yates/457301 {{Nottingham Forest F.C. squad {{2021–22 EFL Championship Team of the Season {{DEFAULTSORT:Yates, Ryan 1997 births Living people Footballers from Nottingham English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Nottingham Forest F.C. players Barrow A.F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players 21st-century English sportsmen