Stuart Anthony Thurgood (born 4 November 1981) is an English convicted criminal and former 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 ...

. He played professionally for clubs including

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

and Gillingham. In 2021 he was convicted of drugs smuggling offences and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Career

Born in Enfield, London, Thurgood made his debut for Gillingham in the 2–1 home win over

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...

on 24 November 2007. He signed for Gillingham on a permanent basis in January 2008, keeping him at the club until 2009. Thurgood rejoined

Grays Athletic Grays Athletic Football Club is a football club based in Grays, Essex, England. They are currently members of the and play at Chadfields in nearby Tilbury. History The club was established as Grays Juniors in 1890, before merging with former ...

on 13 March 2008 on

loan In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the deb ...

until the end of the 2007–08 season. He signed for Grays for a third time on 19 August 2008, on loan until the end of the 2008–09 season. This was cut short though when he was released by Gillingham on 23 January 2009, at which point he joined Grays permanently again until the end of the season. After the end of the season, in May, he joined League Two team

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club (), often known simply as Dagenham and abbreviated when written to Dag & Red, is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England that play in the , the sixth level of the En ...

on a two-year contract. During November 2009 he sustained an injury; in September 2010, he retired aged 28. However, after a successful period with playing for Grays Athletic's reserve team, Thurgood signed for the

Isthmian League The Isthmian League () is a regional Association football, football league covering Greater London, East of England, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, th ...

Division One club on 11 October 2011. In November 2011, Thurgood signed for

Conference South The National League South, officially Vanarama National League South, is a professional Association football league in England. National League South is the second division of the National Leagues and step 2 of the NLS and sixth-highest ti ...

club

Thurrock Thurrock () is a unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Essex, England. It lies on the north bank of the River ...

, where he would return for another spell in March 2017. During the 2013-14 season, he played for East Thurrock United and

VCD Athletic VCD Athletic Football Club (short for Vickers, Crayford & Dartford Athletic Football Club) is a semi-professional football club based in Crayford in south-east London, England. The club was founded in 1916, during the First World War, as a compa ...

Imprisonment

In 2021, Thurgood was sentenced to eight years in prison for drugs smuggling offences. He was a member of an organised crime group which smuggled

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

into the United Kingdom and distributed it to county lines gangs in Essex and surrounding areas.

Honours

FA Trophy The Football Association Challenge Trophy, also known as the Isuzu FA Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is a men's football knockout cup competition run by and named after The Football Association (the FA) and competed by mainly National League ...

: 2005, 2006 *

(VI): 2005

References

External links

Stuart Thurgood player profile
at gillinghamfootballclub.com * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thurgood, Stuart 1981 births Living people Footballers from the London Borough of Enfield People from Enfield, London English men's footballers Player-coaches England men's semi-pro international footballers English expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Men's association football midfielders Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Shimizu S-Pulse players Southend United F.C. players Grays Athletic F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. players Thurrock F.C. players East Thurrock United F.C. players VCD Athletic F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Isthmian League players J1 League players English expatriate sportspeople in Japan 21st-century English sportsmen