James Chester

With United 3–0 up at the time, Chester came on as a 67th-minute substitute for Gary Neville.

James Grant Chester (born 23 January 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back and signed for club Barrow.

Chester began his career with Manchester United but made only one appearance for the club.

At the age of eight, he joined the Manchester United Academy, and signed a trainee contract at the age of 16 in July 2005.

At the end of the season, he played in the teams for both the FA Youth Cup and Manchester Senior Cup finals.

However, the teams lost both finals, losing to Liverpool on penalties in the former and to Manchester City in the latter.

In July 2007, Chester signed his first professional contract with United.

After being named as a substitute for the first team's 1–0 win over Bolton Wanderers on 17 January 2009, Chester was again selected as a substitute for the League Cup semi-final second leg against Derby County.

Although Derby pulled two goals back, United ended up winning the match 4–2, meaning that they won the tie 4–3 on aggregate and qualified for the 2009 League Cup final.

On 2 February 2009, Chester joined League One club Peterborough United – managed by Alex Ferguson's son, Darren – on a one-month loan.

He made five appearances for the Posh before returning to Manchester United on 2 March.

Towards the end of the season, along with Tom Cleverley and Corry Evans, Chester was nominated by reserve team manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær for the Denzil Haroun Reserve Team Player of the Year award.

On 18 September 2009, Chester joined Championship club Plymouth Argyle on a three-month loan along with his Manchester United teammate David Gray.

However, in his third appearance for the Pilgrims, Chester suffered cartilage damage that would rule him out of action for 10–12 weeks, beyond the scheduled end of his loan spell.

He therefore returned to Manchester United on 13 October 2009.

On 3 August 2010, Chester joined League One club Carlisle United on loan until 3 January 2011, after impressing in a trial match against Hibernian on 1 August.

He made his competitive debut on 7 August, starting at centre-back in Carlisle's 2–0 home win over Brentford on the opening day of the league season.

Over the course of his loan spell, Chester scored four goals for Carlisle in 23 appearances in all competitions, including the winning goal in Carlisle's 3–2 FA Cup second round win over Tamworth.

On 17 December 2010, Chester expressed an interest in staying at Carlisle beyond the end of his loan contract, but the transfer window brought with it talk of Chester making a transfer to Championship club Hull City, with Hull manager Nigel Pearson going public on 3 January with his interest in the defender.

The next day, Hull had a bid believed to be worth around £300,000 accepted by Manchester United, and Chester underwent a medical on 6 January.

The transfer was completed on 7 January, with Chester signing a three-and-a-half-year contract.

Chester adjusted well to the Championship, putting in several strong performances as Hull finished the 2010–11 season in 11th position.

Chester enjoyed a strong year in his second season at Hull, playing almost every game under managers Nigel Pearson and Nick Barmby in central defence, forming a successful partnership with Jack Hobbs.

This partnership was for a long period the basis of the tightest defence in the league as they conceded 44 goals with only champions Reading conceding less.

Chester finished the season as runner-up in the club's player of the year awards.

Under new manager Steve Bruce, Chester quickly became accustomed to playing as part of a three-man defence in the team's new system, alongside a combination of Abdoulaye Faye, manager's son Alex Bruce, Paul McShane, and Jack Hobbs.

He had spells on loan at Peterborough United, Plymouth Argyle and Carlisle United before joining Hull City in January 2011 on a permanent contract.

He made his debut in the 2–0 home win against Barnsley on 15 January 2011.

Chester scored his first goal for the club in the 2–2 draw against Leeds United at the KC Stadium on 1 February 2011.

Chester scored his first goal of the season in a 3–2 victory away to Birmingham City on 17 November 2012.

He made his international debut for the Wales in June 2014.

He spent three-and-a-half years there before signing for West Bromwich Albion in 2015.

After only one year with West Brom, Chester joined Championship club Aston Villa in the summer of 2016.

Chester played at UEFA Euro 2016 where Wales progressed to the semi-final of a major international tournament for the first time in the team's history.

Chester was born in Warrington, and attended Birchwood Community High School.

He began his career with his local club, Winwick Athletic.

Chester helped Villa gain promotion to the Premier League after winning the 2019 EFL Championship play-off final.

He joined Stoke City on loan in January 2020 before making it permanent in August 2020.

He would leave Stoke in July 2022 and joined League One Derby County, however left in 2023 after an injury hit spell.

In September 2023, he signed a deal with League Two Barrow.