Thomas Michael Aldred (born 11 September 1990) 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

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is a professional association football league in India and the highest level of the Indian football league system. Administered by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its commercial partner Football Sport ...

club

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Super Giant, commonly referred to as Mohun Bagan, is an Indian professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, it is one of the oldest football clubs in Asia. The club competes in the Indian Super League, ...

. Born in England, he represented Scotland at youth level. He began his career with

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team currently compete in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They have played their ...

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 ...

before joining

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

in 2010 and

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its ea ...

in 2011. He failed to make a first-team appearance for either club, but made loan appearances for

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in EFL League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton ...

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, Inverness CT or just Inverness, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team competes in , the third tier of the Scottish Professional Footba ...

and Barrow. Aldred joined

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England, that compete in the , the fourth level of the English football league system. They have spent their entire history playing a ...

in 2013 and then

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

two years later. He won promotion 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 ...

with Blackpool in 2017 before joining Bury. In January 2018, he moved on loan to

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

, and then in August 2018, signed again on a season-long loan.

Club career

Carlisle United

Born in

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, Aldred began his senior career with

. He was captain of the Carlisle youth team and signed his first professional contract with the club in December 2008. Aldred won the 2008–09 season

Apprentice of the Year Award, before winning Carlisle's youth team Player of the Year award. In August 2009, Aldred joined

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. The town is at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast, south-west of Carlisle and north-east of Whitehaven. At the 2021 census the ...

on an initial month-long loan and earned rave reviews from the

Conference North The National League North, officially known as Vanarama National League North for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Association football league in England. National League North is the second division of the National Leagues and step 2 o ...

side's manager,

Darren Edmondson Darren Stephen Edmondson (born 4 November 1971) is an English football coach and former player who manages Workington. Edmondson spent around half his professional playing career with Carlisle after signing as a youth player in 1990, later hav ...

, during a stay that was extended to the maximum three months following some excellent displays in the Cumbrian side's defence. He went on to make his first team debut for Carlisle as a late substitute in a 1–0 home win over

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 ...

on 12 December 2009. In May 2010, following a promising campaign, Aldred was offered a one-year contract extension with Carlisle. However, he rejected the offer and left the club, having made five first-team appearances for Carlisle.

Watford

Aldred joined

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 ...

club

on a two-year deal on 1 July 2010, with a compensation offer made to Carlisle. He felt that the move south would benefit his career. Still yet to make an appearance for Watford, Aldred joined

on loan in November 2010 until January 2011. He made seven appearances for County. On 21 June 2011, Aldred joined

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

club

on a six-month loan deal. He made his debut in a 3–0 away defeat to

on 23 July, and made four appearances in total, his last a 2–0 defeat to

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

where he conceded a penalty as his loan was cut short only one month into the spell. On his return to Watford, Aldred was released from the club having not made a first team appearance on 31 August 2011. He later reflected his time at Watford, saying: ''"I made a mistake when I was 19. I broke into Carlisle United's first team, played five or six games, did really, really well and probably did too well. You know what it's like at that age, a young centre-half, people were looking at me with that kind of potential and Watford paid money for me. That was great at the time, but realistically, looking back now, I moved too soon and then as a knock-on effect, I kind of struggled to settle for like the next two years."''

Colchester United

manager John Ward signed Aldred on a two-year deal following his Watford release on 1 September 2011. Two months later, he was loaned to

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

from 24 November to 2 January as injury cover, although he failed to make an appearance for the Gulls. Having failed to break into the Colchester first-team setup, Aldred joined Barrow on loan on 27 August 2012. He made his debut in a 2–0 defeat to

Macclesfield Town Macclesfield Town Football Club was an association football club based in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England. Initially known as Macclesfield F.C., the club was formed in 1874 and from 1891 played home games at Moss Rose. It competed in the short ...

. His loan was extended to the full 93 days allowed after he impressed during his initial month. Aldred completed his loan having made 13 appearances for Barrow. After Colchester appointed

Joe Dunne Joseph John Dunne (born 25 May 1973) is an Irish Manager (association football), football manager and former association football, footballer. He is youth team manager at Gillingham F.C., Gillingham. Dunne played as a defender (association fo ...

as manager, Aldred found himself further down the pecking order, and on 25 January 2013, the club announced that Aldred had been released from his contract.

Accrington Stanley

Following his release from Colchester, Aldred signed a contract until the end of the 2012–13 season with

on 31 January 2013. He signed a new two-year contract with the club on 18 June having started the final 12 games of the 2012–13 season.

Blackpool

Aldred signed for Championship side

on a 28-day emergency loan on 31 January 2015, before signing permanently two days later on a one-and-a-half-year contract. Aldred helped Blackpool win promotion to

in 2017.

Bury

Aldred signed for Bury in July 2017. He moved on loan to

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

club

in January 2018. He made his debut for Motherwell on 20 January 2018, in a 2–0 win against

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 ...

in the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Lanarkshire derby The Lanarkshire derby is a football rivalry based in Lanarkshire, Scotland, with matches contested between any two from Motherwell, Airdrieonians, Hamilton Academical, Albion Rovers (based in Coatbridge), East Kilbride F.C., Cumbernauld Colts F. ...

Brisbane Roar

On 25 June 2019, Aldred signed for

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

club

Brisbane Roar Brisbane Roar Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Brisbane, Queensland. competing in Australia's premier men's competition, A-League Men, which is the top tier Australia's football pyramid. When Queensland Lions F.C. were ...

on a one-year deal. Ahead of the 2019–20 season, he was named club captain. Aldred's first goal for Brisbane Roar came against

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional men's soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently since its formation, u ...

in February 2020. This goal came in the 74th minute and was the eventual winner in a 2–1 home victory.

International career

Aldred represented

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 ...

at under-19 level, as he was eligible to play for the national side through his mother's side of the family.

Personal life

In October 2023, Aldred said he announced his intentions to apply for an Australian citizenship, having settled in the country for four years. On 26 February 2024, it was announced that Aldred had successfully obtained Australian citizenship.

Career statistics

Honours

Blackpool *

EFL League Two play-offs The EFL League Two play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from fourth to seventh in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are part of the annual Engl ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Mohun Bagan * Indian Super League Shield: 2024–25 * ISL Cup: 2024–25 *

Durand Cup The Durand Cup (also called the IndianOil Durand Cup Powered by Coal India Limited for sponsorship reasons) is an annual domestic football competition in India which was first held in 1888 in Annadale, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. Hosted by the ...

runner-up:

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Individual *

Player of the Season: 2013–14 *

Player of the Season: 2016–17 *

Player of the Season:

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 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aldred, Tom 1990 births Living people Footballers from Bolton English men's footballers Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's youth international footballers English people of Scottish descent Men's association football defenders Carlisle United F.C. players Workington A.F.C. players Watford F.C. players Stockport County F.C. players Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Barrow A.F.C. players Accrington Stanley F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Bury F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Brisbane Roar FC players National League (English football) players English Football League players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Professional Football League players A-League Men players Naturalised soccer players of Australia Mohun Bagan Super Giant players Indian Super League players Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in India English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in India Expatriate men's footballers in India 21st-century English sportsmen 21st-century Scottish sportsmen