Ryan Taylor, England footballer: Profile, Career, News & Videos

Ryan Taylor is an English former professional footballer who is now an academy coach at EFL Championship club Preston North End. A versatile player and former England under-21 international, he could play as a full-back or across the midfield and had excellent free-kick-taking ability.

Taylor began his career at Tranmere Rovers in 2002 and made 122 league and cup appearances in three full seasons with the club, being voted as Tranmere's Player of the Year and onto the PFA Team of the Year in 2004–05. He was sold to Premier League club Wigan Athletic in July 2005 for a fee of £750,000. Injuries restricted his appearances, though after scoring in four consecutive matches against Newcastle United, he joined the club in a trade deal in January 2009. After Newcastle dropped out of the top flight, Taylor helped the club to win promotion as champions of the Championship in 2009–10. However, he then faced a catalogue of injuries, firstly fracturing a metatarsal and then breaking a leg in the 2010–11 season, and then picking up a serious cruciate knee ligament injury in August 2012.

Taylor played 106 matches for Newcastle, though he featured 18 times in his final three seasons. Newcastle released him in May 2015 and spent the 2015–16 campaign at Hull City, where he made only occasional cameo appearances. He signed with Port Vale in October 2016 and again in March 2017. He signed with Indian Super League club ATK in December 2017. He returned to England and signed with Fleetwood Town in September 2018. He ended his 17-year career in the English Football League at the end of the season, scoring 42 goals in 350 competitive appearances. He came out of retirement in October 2020 to play for non-League side Colne and moved on to Buxton in January 2022.