Ben Burgess

Early career

Burgess began his career with spells as a youth at Oldham Athletic, Stoke City, Everton and joined Blackburn Rovers at age 16, where he stayed until 2002, but made just two league appearances for the club. On 3 October 2000 he went on loan to North Sydney based Northern Spirit in Australia. He scored 16 goals in 27 appearances for the club. In the 2001–02 season he went on loan to Brentford, before moving to Stockport County on 16 July 2002. He had a two-month loan spell at Oldham Athletic from January to March 2003, before signing for Hull City on 27 March.

Hull City

Burgess became the first Hull City player to score a hat-trick at the KC Stadium on 26 April 2003, in a match against Kidderminster Harriers. He was City's top scorer in their 2003–04 promotion campaign, scoring 18 goals and forming a partnership with Danny Allsopp. However, he suffered a serious cruciate ligament injury late in the season in a match against Huddersfield Town and did not appear in Hull's 2004–05 League One campaign until promotion had already been secured, showing sportsmanship by declining to accept any promotion award. He soon returned to scoring despite playing two levels higher in the Championship, scoring one of two goals in the Tigers' first win of the 2005–06 season at home against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Blackpool

Burgess joined Blackpool on 31 August 2006, for an initial fee of £25,000, with a further £75,000 paid after he had played 30 games.…

Although born in England, Burgess qualified to play for both England and Republic of Ireland. Burgess chose to represent Ireland and won caps for the U18 and U21 teams.

Burgess is a Manchester City supporter. He studied for degree at Staffordshire University in Professional Sports Writing and Broadcasting, gaining a First Class Honours degree in 2009 whilst still playing and completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Education to become a qualified teacher. After the end of the 2007–08 season, he spent time at the Blackpool Gazette as a trainee journalist on work experience. In August 2012, after he had retired from playing football he started writing a weekly column about former club Blackpool for the newspaper. In his first column he revealed that he would be studying for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, with a view to becoming a primary school teacher. He also began working for BBC Radio Lancashire as a summariser for Blackpool home games. Burgess began working as a teacher in September 2013, but continues some of his media work. In 2026 Burgess is now a head teacher at a primary school.

Blackpool

Football League Championship play-offs: 2010 Football League One play-offs: 2007 Individual

National Soccer League U21 Player of the Year: 2000–01