Ryan Shawcross

Manchester United

Shawcross progressed through the youth teams at Manchester United and made his first-team debut on 25 October 2006 as a substitute for fellow debutant Michael Barnes in a 2–1 League Cup third round win away at Crewe Alexandra. He also came on in the final minute of a 1–0 defeat to Southend United in the next round. In January 2007, he was sent on loan to Belgian club Royal Antwerp, where he appeared regularly, and helped Antwerp to make it into the Belgian Second Division play-offs, scoring three goals, before returning to Manchester in the summer.

Stoke City

On 9 August 2007, Shawcross was sent on loan again, this time to Championship club Stoke City, for six months. He scored his first two goals for Stoke during his first two matches, one on his debut during a 1–0 win on the opening day of the season, against Cardiff City, with the other during a League Cup match against Rochdale in which Stoke lost on penalties. After Stoke's 2–1 win over Charlton Athletic Shawcross expressed his delight at Stoke's early season form. Shawcross was named as the Championship's player of the month for October 2007. Stoke made advances to make Shawcross' loan permanent during the January 2008 transfer window, and the move was finally completed on 18 January 2008, with Stoke paying Manchester United an initial £1m, which eventually rose to a club record £2m due to Shawcross' appearances for Stoke and the team achieving promotion the following May.…

In January 2008, Shawcross won his first call up to the England under-21 squad for a 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification match against the Republic of Ireland. Shawcross previously played for the Wales under-15 team, against Belgium and the Republic of Ireland. Following Shawcross' fine form in his debut Premier League season, Tony Pulis, his manager at Stoke, tipped Shawcross to break into the England senior team. In September 2009, it was announced that changes have been proposed to the eligibility criteria for British players, which would make Shawcross eligible to play for Wales. Wales under-21 coach Brian Flynn commented that "People who grew up in Wales often can't represent the country they've lived in most of their life because their nearest maternity hospital is in England". In October 2009, FIFA ratified the changes to allow players with five years of compulsory education in a country before the age of 16 to represent that country. Despite this, Shawcross was named in an England squad for the first time for their match against Egypt in March 2010. He was named in the matchday squad but was an unused substitute. Shawcross has been backed by his defensive partner, Robert Huth to earn an England call-up. In July 2011 Shawcross confirmed that he will not consider playing for Wales. On 11 July 2012, Wales national team manager Chris Coleman said he would consult Arsenal and Wales team ex-captain Aaron Ramsey regarding the possibility of Shawcross…

Shawcross began coaching in 2022, joining Inter Miami's MLS Next Pro affiliate Inter Miami II as an assistant coach. Shawcross returned to England in May 2023. In June 2023 he became academy coach with Stoke City U18s, moving up to the under-21s a year later. On 16 September 2024, after Steven Schumacher was sacked, Shawcross and Alex Morris became caretaker managers, overseeing one game against Fleetwood Town in the EFL Cup before Narcís Pèlach was announced as Stoke's new manager on 18 September 2024. Pèlach left Stoke in December 2024 and Shawcross took caretaker charge. In January 2025 Shawcross was appointed first-team-coach to new manager Mark Robins.

Born in Chester, Cheshire, Shawcross grew up in the Welsh town of Buckley, Flintshire where he attended Mountain Lane Primary School and Elfed High School. While living in Buckley, Shawcross played in the youth team at Cymru Alliance club Buckley Town. During his primary school days, Shawcross played representative level football for Flintshire Boys; this team counts Gary Speed, Michael Owen and Ian Rush amongst its former players. When Shawcross was 15 years old, he and a number of Flintshire Boys players had a trial at Football League club Wrexham who offered contracts to some players but not to Shawcross. However, just three weeks later, he had a trial at Manchester United and was offered a contract at their academy.