Samuel Parkin (born 14 March 1981) 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 ...

; a radio presenter for BBC Wiltshire, regularly involved with

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

's coverage; and commentator for

Chelsea TV Chelsea TV was a British subscription based sports television channel, dedicated to the fans of the English Premier League football club, Chelsea. The channel first launched in August 2001 on Sky Digital. The station was registered with Ofco ...

. Throughout his career Parkin has played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for Chelsea,

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 188 ...

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional association football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. As of the 2025–26 EFL League Two, 2025–26 season, the team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the Eng ...

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the c ...

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club, commonly referred to as Orient, is a professional association football club based in Leyton, Waltham Forest, London, England. The team compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. ...

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland. The team competes in the , the second division of Scottish football. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun (or Saint Johnstoun)—an old name o ...

, Queen of the South, St Mirren, and most recently

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third level of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

in League Two.

Club career

Chelsea

Parkin started his career at Chelsea as a trainee. For first team experience he was loaned out.

Loan spells

Parkin joined

on loan during the 2000–01 season. He scored four goals in seven appearances for the Lions. He then joined

on loan later in the 2000–01 season. At Wycombe, Parkin scored a headed winner against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

during their run to the semi-finals of the

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 ...

. However his loan had finished and he returned to Chelsea denying him a chance to play in the quarter-finals versus

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

or semi final v

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 ...

. He scored one other goal for Wycombe in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

against Leyton Orient. Parkin also played on loan for

during the 2000–01 season. He scored three goals in seven appearances for the Latics. Parkin joined

on loan during the 2001–02 season. He scored five goals in 46 appearances for the Cobblers.

Swindon Town

In August 2002, Parkin signed for

, then in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

. In his three seasons at the County Ground he quickly became one of the most feared goalscorers in the division after scoring a hat trick on his debut at home to Barnsley in a 3–1 victory he went on to score 67 goals in 124 league games for the Robins.

Ipswich Town

In the summer of 2005, Parkin was signed by

on a four-year deal for £550,000. He made his Ipswich debut against

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

and scored on his second game against QPR. Parkin was Town's top scorer with five goals in 19 games before on 22 November he incurred his first serious injury when he broke his ankle. He did not play for the first team again until the last day of April. He played two games for Ipswich in August 2006–07 before changing clubs again.

Luton Town

On 25 August 2006, Parkin was transferred to

for a fee of £340,000. He played ten games up to 17 October before serious injury struck a second time ruling out for the rest of the season. Luton were relegated to League One. In his comeback Parkin was badly injured in his second game in August in the 2007–08 season but scored on his return to the team in late January. Luton, now in administration, suffered a second successive relegation with Parkin scoring a total of five goals in 19 league games. Parkin returned fully recovered in the 2008–09 season, scoring three goals in the first four league games. However, as a result of financial restructuring at Luton and Parkin being one of the club's highest earners, any offers from other clubs were to be considered.

Leyton Orient

On 23 October 2008, Parkin joined League One side

on a three-month loan deal under O's manager

Martin Ling Martin Ling (born 15 July 1966) is an English Association football, football manager and former player currently director of football for Leyton Orient F.C., Leyton Orient. He played in over 100 The Football League, Football League matches for ...

. Following the resignation of Ling, Parkin's loan was terminated, and he returned to Luton on 19 January 2009 without scoring in his time at

Brisbane Road BetWright Stadium, traditionally known as Brisbane Road and originally known as Osborne Road, is a football stadium in Leyton, East London, England. It has been the home ground of Leyton Orient since 1937, before which it was the home of amat ...

. Parkin played in 18 further Luton games during the season, including as a substitute in Luton's

final success at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

, scoring one goal in that time. Luton were relegated for the third successive season, dropping out of

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

, and on 27 May 2009, Parkin was released by Luton after coming to the end of his contract.

Walsall

On 16 July 2009, Parkin signed a one-year contract with

in League One. He scored three goals in 27 appearances for The Saddlers.

St Johnstone

On 15 July 2010 Parkin signed for Scottish Premier League side

on a two-year contract. Parkin scored five goals for St Johnstone before suffering a broken ankle in February 2011. He only made two substitute appearances for Saints in the 2011–12 season before he was released from his contract by mutual consent in January 2012.

Queen of the South

On 24 January 2012 Parkin signed for

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

club Queen of the South until the end of the 2011–12 season. Parkin scored two goals on his debut in a 2–1 victory over

Greenock Morton Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the . The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Greenock Morton in 1994 to celebr ...

St Mirren

Parkin signed a one-year deal with St Mirren on 7 June 2012. Parkin scored his first goal for the club against

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

on 13 August 2012.

Exeter City

On 9 July 2013, Parkin completed a move to

on a free transfer. Parkin scored on his debut in a 2–1 win against

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 ...

on 3 August 2013. Parkin was released by the club on 8 May 2014 after scoring three goals in 29 appearances at

St James Park St James Park and variants may refer to: Football stadiums * St James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, ground of Newcastle United F.C. * St James Park (Exeter), England, ground of Exeter City F.C. * St James Park, ground of Brackley Town F.C., ...

International career

Parkin was eligible to play 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 ...

through his Scottish mother. He made his Scotland debut in a Scotland Future international against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. He was injured early in the match and was substituted.

Media career

Sam Parkin is one of 3 former professional footballers, who host a podcast called ''Hanging Up The Boots (HUTB)''. The podcast features a special guest every episode. Parkin has presented for BBC Radio Wiltshire and has provided media content for his former clubs Swindon Town and Chelsea. More recently he is to be heard regularly on BBC Radio London as a co-commentator, on the podcast The Totally Football League Show, and seen as a TV pundit on the free-to-air EFL round-up show on the ITV channel. He can also be heard as an EFL co-commentator on

talkSPORT Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

Career statistics

Honours

Luton Town *

: 2008–09 St Mirren *

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Individual *

Player of the Year: 2002–03, 2004–05 *

Football League One Player of the Month The EFL League One Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the player adjudged the best for each month of the season in EFL League One, the English football league system, third tier of English football. Originally nam ...

: February 2005 *

Goal of the Season: 2005–06 *Swindon Town Hall of Fame: Inducted 2017

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parkin, Sam 1982 births Footballers from the London Borough of Wandsworth People from Roehampton Living people Anglo-Scots English men's footballers English people of Scottish descent Scotland men's B international footballers Chelsea F.C. players Millwall F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players St Johnstone F.C. players English Football League players Walsall F.C. players Queen of the South F.C. players St Mirren F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Scottish Premier League players Men's association football forwards Scottish Football League players 21st-century English sportsmen 21st-century Scottish sportsmen