BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY
Demarai Gray
Gray pictured in August 2014
| |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Demarai Ramelle Gray[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 28 June 1996 [2] | ||
| Place of birth | Birmingham, England[1] | ||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[3] | ||
| Playing position | Winger | ||
| Club information | |||
Current team
| Birmingham City | ||
| Number | 7 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| – | Cadbury Athletic | ||
| 2006–2013 | Birmingham City | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2013– | Birmingham City | 52 | (7) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 2014 | England U18 | 3 | (0) |
| 2014– | England U19 | 4 | (1) |
| 2015– | England U20 | 3 | (1) |
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 09:04, 30 August 2015 (UTC).
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 09:04, 30 August 2015 (UTC)† Appearances (Goals). | |||
Demarai Ramelle Gray (born 28 June 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays for Birmingham City. A winger, he made his Football League debut in October 2013. He has represented England at under-18, under-19 and under-20 levels.
Club career
Gray was born in Birmingham,[1] where he attended Frankley High School and played for Cadbury Athletic's junior teams. He joined Birmingham City's Academy as an under-11,[2] and took up a two-year scholarship in July 2012.[4] In a 2013 interview, Gray described his strengths as "pace, dribbling and technique", felt he needed to "score more goals", and named Nathan Redmond as the biggest influence on him since joining the club.[2]
After impressing Birmingham manager Lee Clark in training, he was named in the squad for the Championship match againstMillwall on 1 October 2013,[5] and made his senior debut as a 91st-minute substitute for Jesse Lingard in a 4–0 win.[6] He made his first start on 2 November, in a 1–0 league defeat at home to Charlton Athletic.[7] Gray signed his first professional contract, of two-and-a-half years, on 9 December.[8]
Days after his inclusion together with academy teammate Reece Brown in a "Top 10 Football League stars of tomorrow" feature on the FourFourTwo website,[9] Gray scored his first senior goal. Entering the League match at home to Blackburn Rovers on 19 April 2014 as a second-half substitute with Birmingham 4–1 down, Gray received a pass from Federico Macheda and shot low into the corner to score the final goal of the game.[10] His performance over the season earned him the Academy Player of the Season award for 2013–14.[11]
Gray performed well in 2014–15 pre-season, and the management suggested he was showing increased maturity.[12] He started the first two matches of the season, but for the remainder of Clark's tenure as manager, Gray was used more as substitute than starter.[13] Against Leeds United in September, he was denied a penalty and booked for diving when apparently fouled byGiuseppe Bellusci; both managers thought it the wrong decision.[14] The following week, his first goal of the season gave Birmingham a 2–0 lead at top-of-the-table Norwich City, but he became unwell in the second half. Norwich scored while Birmingham were attempting to substitute him, and the match ended 2–2.[15]
He made his first start under new manager Gary Rowett in the 1–0 win at Rotherham United on 22 November,[16] and soon established himself as the left-sided wide midfielder in a 4–2–3–1 formation as Rowett regularly named an unchanged starting eleven.[17] On his tenth league start, Gray scored three times in the first half of the match at home to Reading on 14 December, which ended 6–1. It was his first hat-trick since his under-14 days,[18][19] and Rowett praised not only his clinical finishing but also his work off the ball and tracking back to cover in defence.[20] His performances during December earned him the Football League Young Player of the Month award.[17]
Clark had expressed concern that the club's financial difficulties would force the sale of players such as Gray,[21] and the player was offered a two-year contract extension.[22] A £500,000 bid from Premier League club Crystal Palace was rejected in September,[21] scouts regularly watched the player,[23] and media reports linked him with clubs including Liverpool, Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur.[19] The club turned down a series of offers, the highest reported as £5 million, from Championship club AFC Bournemouth in the January 2015 transfer window. In a statement issued when the window closed, they said that "none of [those offers] reflected the ability and potential of the player", and expressed their pleasure at having retained his services.[24]
With loanee Lloyd Dyer available as an alternative, Rowett used Gray more sparingly, suggesting that his reduced effectiveness was a normal part of a young player's learning curve: the player needed to learn how to impose himself on a game despite increased attention from the opposition.[25] The Birmingham Mail suggested that Gray's potential as a matchwinner should not be ignored.[26] His solo goal on 11 April, in which he ran the length of the pitch to score the winner against Wolverhampton Wanderers, was his first since the Reading match and earned him the club's Goal of the Season award.[27] According to the Guardian, "It was not so much the 18-year-old's pace that impressed as his persistence in running at and then pressurising Wolves full-back Scott Golbourne into error, and the certainty with which he then slid the ball past the Wolves goalkeeper".[28] He finished the season with 43 appearances in all competitions, of which two-thirds were as a starter, and won the club's Young Player of the Season award.[27]
After many months of negotiation,[22][29] Gray signed a new three-year contract with the club in July 2015.[30] He went into the new season feeling "stronger as a player, physically and mentally".[31]
International career
Gray was called up for an England under-18s training camp in November 2013.[32] He made his debut at that level on 18 February 2014, playing the whole of a 4–0 win against their Belgian counterparts in a friendly match at St George's Park.[33] Two weeks later, he was involved in England's goal as they lost 2–1 to Croatia in the first match of a double-header.[34] He received his first call-up to the under-19s for a friendly against Germany in September 2014,[35] and made his debut as a second-half substitute.[36] An ankle injury forced Gray's withdrawal from the squad for the 2015 European Under-19 Championship first qualifying round,[37] but he was able to play his part in the elite round. He started the first match, against Denmark, and was involved in England's second goal in a 3–2 win, when his near-post flick was deflected over the line by a Danish player. The Football Association credit Gray with the goal, although UEFA record it as an own goal.[38] A substitute in the second group match, a win against Azerbaijan,[39] he returned to the starting eleven for the final group match against France, but a 2–1 defeat meant England failed to qualify for the finals.[40]
After taking part in a joint training camp for the under-20 and under-21 teams,[41] Gray was included in Aidy Boothroyd's under-20 squad for the 2015 Toulon Tournament. Starting the opening match on the left of a three-man attack, Gray gave England an 8th-minute lead with a shot from 12 yards (11 m), but Morocco twice took the lead beforeChuba Akpom secured a 3–3 draw for England.[42] Gray was a second-half substitute in the next match, a win against Ivory Coast.[43] He took no part in the third group game or the third place play-off,[44][45] and later admitted he had felt tired after a full season of league football and had not been at his best.[31] He was called up for the under-20s' first match of the 2015–16 season.[46]
Career statistics
- As of match played 29 August 2015
| Club | Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Birmingham City | 2013–14[47] | Championship | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 9 | 1 | |
| 2014–15[13] | Championship | 41 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 43 | 6 | ||
| 2015–16[48] | Championship | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — | 5 | 0 | ||
| Career total | 52 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | — | 57 | 7 | |||
Honours
Individual
- Birmingham City Academy Player of the Season: 2013–14[11]
- Football League Young Player of the Month: December 2014[17]
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