Andrew Crofts

Gillingham

In September 2000, Crofts joined Gillingham as a trainee and was a regular in the club's youth and reserve teams during the 2000–01 season. At the end of the season, shortly before his 17th birthday, he was a surprise inclusion in the first team squad for a match at home to Watford, and made his Football League debut as a late substitute, replacing Marlon King. The following season, he suffered a broken leg during a reserve team match and missed several months of the season. Although he returned to action in early 2002, his next appearance for the first team did not come until October, when he came on as a substitute in a League Cup match against Stockport County. This was to be his only senior appearance of the 2002–03 season. He finally secured a regular first team place towards the end of the following season, featuring regularly during March and April 2004. Crofts was a first team regular in the 2004–05 season, making 27 Football League appearances, and scoring his first senior goal for the club in a defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion on 26 December. In January 2005, he signed a new contract designed to keep him at the club until 2009. He was omitted from the team for most of March and April, but was recalled for the last match of the season, in which a draw with Nottingham Forest led to the "Gills" being relegated from the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football, to Football League One, the third tier. In the 2005–06 season, he…

One of his grandparents was born in Wales so he was eligible to play in the Welsh national team, and after representing the country at under-19 and under-21 levels he won his first senior cap, in 2005. In 2008, he won his twelfth cap, breaking the record for the most international caps received by a Gillingham player. Crofts was selected for the Welsh national U-19 team in 2002. He made his debut team appearance in the Milk Cup tournament in Northern Ireland, but was forced to return home after suffering an ankle injury in the first match. In total he made eight appearances at under-19 level, including appearing in a second Milk Cup in 2003. After moving up to the under-21 level Crofts was selected for the national U-21 team for the first time in a match against Germany in February 2005. He went on to gain 12 caps at this level, scoring one goal. He made his debut in the Welsh national team against Azerbaijan on 12 October 2005, coming on as a substitute for Carl Fletcher. At the end of the 2005–06 season, as part of manager John Toshack's policy of introducing young players to the team, Crofts gained two further caps, both as a substitute, against Paraguay and Trinidad & Tobago, and also played in an unofficial international match against a Basque Country XI. He was included in the starting line-up for an international for the first time in August 2007 when he played the full 90 minutes of a match against Bulgaria, but was back on the substitutes' bench for the UEFA Euro…

Brighton & Hove Albion

Crofts spent the 2020–21 season as a player-coach in Brighton's academy before, on 5 June 2021, becoming the head coach of the academy and ending his playing career. His first professional match as a manager came on 14 September, in a 1–0 away loss to Walsall in the EFL Trophy group stage. Crofts earned his first competitive victory as a manager on 2 November, in a 2–1 away win at Northampton Town in the EFL Trophy. On 8 September 2022, he was appointed interim head coach of the Brighton first team after the departure of Graham Potter. After Roberto De Zerbi was appointed to replace Potter as manager, Crofts was appointed to the first team coaching staff. On 23 August 2024, Crofts was promoted to the position of assistant head coach, working under head coach Fabian Hürzeler.

Tottenham Hotspur

On 21 July 2026, he joined Tottenham Hotspur as assistant head coach, reuniting with Roberto de Zerbi after having spent time together at Brighton.

Wales

In August 2024 Crofts was appointed as assistant coach to Wales national team manager Craig Bellamy.

Crofts was born in Chatham, Kent, and began playing competitive football at the age of six for a club in nearby Rainham. Between the ages of 10 and 15 he attended weekly training sessions organised by Premier League club Chelsea. He also tried out on two occasions for the English Schools Football Association's national schoolboy team, but was unsuccessful.