Ledley King

King was born in Bow, London, in 1980. As a youth footballer, he played for Senrab F.C. and the Tower Hamlets district representative team. He attended the Blessed John Roche RC School, which is now closed. King joined Tottenham as a trainee in July 1996 and progressed through the youth system. Whilst a trainee, he was identified as having qualities and instincts similar to Bobby Moore.

1999–2001

His debut came in May 1999 at Anfield ending in a 3–2 defeat to Liverpool. When breaking into the first team under former manager George Graham he was often used as a midfielder. It was with a performance in central midfield during Tottenham's 2–1 win over Liverpool in November 2000 that he established himself as a regular in the Spurs side. His first goal for Tottenham came in December 2000 in a 3–3 draw away to Bradford City after just ten seconds, setting a new Premier League record for the quickest goal. This record stood for over 18 years, finally beaten by Shane Long, scoring for Southampton on 23 April 2019 after only 7.69 seconds.

2006–2012

After injuring his knee in training before the start of the season, King did not start his season until mid-September. Then after breaking his metatarsal again, he did not feature for Spurs from Boxing Day until the UEFA Cup quarter-final clash with Sevilla in mid-April. Spurs played 59 games in all competitions that season, but King featured in less than half of them. Tottenham only managed 3 clean sheets against top flight opposition without King in the side. In a Premier League clash with reigning champions Chelsea at White Hart Lane, Spurs went on to win the game 2–1, meaning King had captained Tottenham to their first league win over Chelsea since 1990, and the first at White Hart Lane since 1987. King underwent surgery in the summer, meaning he would miss the start of the season. Manager Martin…

King's England debut came in a 1–2 loss to Italy in March 2002. He was called into the England squad for the friendly against Portugal on 18 February 2004, and netted his first goal on his third appearance. King received his England call-up for Euro 2004 deputising for the injured John Terry in the opener against France in Portugal. He also made a substitute appearance in midfield in the final group game against Croatia.

After featuring regularly in the qualifiers, King looked a likely participant in the England 2006 World Cup squad before fracturing a bone in his foot on 15 April 2006. Although not as bad as a similar injury affecting David Beckham, Gary Neville and Steven Gerrard, King's injury prevented him from being named in Sven-Göran Eriksson's squad. "Ledley King is injured and he can't train. If you talk about centre-halves we are very well covered, so taking another one half-injured when we have so many good ones it is not a good idea." King played in the Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia on 6 June 2007. King played 90 minutes and England won 3–0. Although he featured in Fabio Capello's first squad, he had to pull out through injury. Due to the chronic knee condition which preventing him holding down a regular place in the club side he was also not selected for England games for the rest of 2007 and during the whole of 2008. On 22 March 2009, King was given a recall by head coach Fabio Capello to the team to play Slovakia and Ukraine. However, two days later he…

On 26 July 2020, Tottenham Hotspur manager José Mourinho confirmed King's appointment as an assistant coach for the club. On 6 August 2020, Tottenham announced that King, who had previously been a club ambassador, would be a first-team assistant coach. Following the sacking of Jose Mourinho, King returned full time to his club ambassador duties.