Ryan Bertrand

Chelsea

Bertrand was signed by Chelsea in July 2005 from Gillingham for an initial £125,000, which was set by a tribunal and was subject to increases depending on progress.

Loan spells

During the 2006–07 season, he was twice sent on loan to AFC Bournemouth, at the same time as Chelsea teammate Jack Cork. He suffered a ruptured spleen in a youth team match against Arsenal that ruled him out of the later part of that season. In August 2007, Bertrand joined Oldham Athletic on loan until January 2008. On 4 January 2008, a matter of days after his spell at Oldham came to an end, Bertrand joined Norwich City on loan for the rest of the 2007–08 season. He put in a number of impressive displays playing at both left-back and on the left wing, and admitted he would welcome a longer stay with the club. Bertrand became popular with the Carrow Road crowd earning him the nickname 'Plastic' in reference to the Belgian singer Plastic Bertrand. On 4 July 2008, he rejoined the club on loan until January 2009, with an option to extend to the end of the season. On 17 July 2009, Bertrand joined Reading on a season-long loan. He scored his first professional goal against Derby County on 10 March 2010. He came third in the voting for Reading's player of the season, behind Gylfi Sigurðsson and Jimmy Kébé. On 5 August 2010, Bertrand signed on loan with Championship club Nottingham Forest in an initial six-month deal. He made his debut for Forest as a substitute in a 1–0 away…

England youth

Bertrand has represented England youth teams at under-17, under-18, under-19, under-20 and under-21 levels. He was part of the U19 squad at the 2008 European Championship. He was promoted to the U21s and called up for several 2009 European Championship qualifiers, but missed out of the squad for the final tournament. On 14 November, Stuart Pearce selected him at left-back for an under-21 match against Portugal at Wembley in Group 9 of the qualification process, and helped the team keep first clean sheet since 29 June 2009. He was named in the England under-21 squad for the 2011 European Championship and played all matches.

Great Britain Olympic

On 2 July 2012, Bertrand was named in Stuart Pearce's 18-man squad for the 2012 Summer Olympics. He played his first match for Great Britain on 20 July 2012 in a friendly match against Brazil. He played three matches during the Olympic tournament.

Senior team

On 10 August 2012, Bertrand was called up to the senior England team for the first time, for a friendly match against Italy. He made his international debut coming on for Leighton Baines in the 78th minute and cleared a shot off the line minutes later from Manolo Gabbiadini which eventually led to England's winning goal as England won the match 2–1. On 11 September 2012, Bertrand came on after 73 minutes in the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Ukraine and crossed the ball that led to the penalty that Frank Lampard…

Bertrand has been described as a modern-day full-back who gives assistance in attacking down the flanks, keeping and retaining possession as well as defending and reclaiming possession, making quick runs into the box and often does one-two's with his teammates. Bertrand was described by Glenn Roeder, his manager at Norwich, as a defender who "likes to bomb forward and is tenacious in the tackle when defending." In a 2018 ESPN FC article about the state of left-backs in England, Michael Cox said that the "only real star is Ryan Bertrand, a truly excellent full-back defensively and offensively".

Bertrand was born in Southwark, London. He joined Gillingham aged nine, progressing through their youth system. Bertrand attended The Robert Napier School in Gillingham, Kent. He is of Dominican and Irish descent.