Elliott Ward

West Ham United

Ward was born in Harrow, Greater London, and came through the youth system of West Ham United, making his debut for the Under-17 side before joining the first team in August 2003. In 2004, Ward went out for two loan spells, at Peterborough United and Bristol Rovers in July and December 2004 respectively. Ward made an impact on the West Ham first team during the second half of the 2004–05 season, while the club were in the Football League Championship. Primarily due to injuries to more established defenders such as Christian Dailly and Malky Mackay, he found himself with the opportunity of partnering Anton Ferdinand in the centre of defence. When Ward was brought into the first team, for the 1–3 loss against Reading on 12 March 2005, the club were lying outside the playoff places and looked unlikely to make it back to the Premiership. The pairing of Ward and Ferdinand enabled the team to remain unbeaten for the rest of the season. This unbeaten run included the three play-off games, thus ensuring their return to the Premiership for the following season. At the beginning of the 2005–06 season, to prepare for the upcoming Premiership campaign, West Ham signed a number of players, including central defenders Danny Gabbidon and James Collins from Cardiff City. Gabbidon became the preferred choice to partner Ferdinand, and this resulted in chances being few and far between for Ward. He played two League Cup games, but made only one substitute Premiership…

Following his retirement, Ward remained at Chelmsford as their academy assistant manager. In March 2022, Ward returned to West Ham as an under-14's coach.

As of match played 22 April 2019

He is the brother of Scott Ward and Hemel Hempstead Town defender Darren Ward, who turned down the opportunity of joining West Ham and the Premiership, at the start of the 2005–06 season, instead opting for Championship side Crystal Palace, claiming he did not want to keep his brother out of the team.