Steve Vickers (footballer)

Stephen "Steve" Vickers (born 13 October 1967), is an English former association footballer who played as a central defender. He made nearly 600 appearances in the Football League and the Premier League, the majority of which were for Tranmere Rovers and Middlesbrough. While with Middlesbrough he played in the 1997 FA Cup Final.

Life and career

Vickers was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and played football for local non-League club Spennymoor United. He began his professional career at Tranmere Rovers, where he forged a reputation as one of the classiest defenders in England's lower leagues. He subsequently played in the Premier League with Middlesbrough, whom he joined in 1993, winning the club's Player of the Year Award for the 1993–94 season. He was loaned to Crystal Palace in 2001, then to Birmingham City later that year. Whilst at Middlesbrough he played in the 1997 FA Cup Final.

This deal was then made permanent for £400,000, and Vickers helped Birmingham gain promotion to the Premier League in the 2001–02 season. He scored his only goal for the club that season, against Stockport County. Vickers retired from playing at the end of an injury-plagued 2002–03 season, which included a knee operation before the start of the season, a broken rib in his first game back, a badly-gashed ankle following a two-footed challenge from Everton's Wayne Rooney which resulted in Rooney's first senior red card, and a succession of minor problems.

After his retirement from playing, he went into property development in his native north-east of England. In 2010, he was employed as head of youth recruitment for the sports management division of a north-east-based law firm.