Andrew Crofts

Andrew Lawrence Crofts (born 29 May 1984) is a former professional footballer who is currently a first team coach for Brighton & Hove Albion.

He made 29 appearances for Wales at international level.

He started his career with Gillingham, for whom he made his Football League debut at the age of 16, and made over 190 appearances for the Kent-based club.

In September 2000, Crofts joined Gillingham as a trainee and was a regular in the club's youth and reserve teams during the 2000–01 season.

Although he returned to action in early 2002, his next appearance for the first team did not come until October, when he came on as a substitute in a League Cup match against Stockport County.

This was to be his only senior appearance of the 2002–03 season.

He finally secured a regular first team place towards the end of the following season, featuring regularly during March and April 2004.

Crofts was a first team regular in the 2004–05 season, making 27 Football League appearances, and scoring his first senior goal for the club in a defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion on 26 December.

A tough-tackling midfielder, Crofts represented Wales, where one of his grandparents was born, at under-19 and under-21 level and won his first senior cap in 2005.

In January 2005, he signed a new contract designed to keep him at the club until 2009.

He was omitted from the team for most of March and April, but was recalled for the last match of the season, in which a draw with Nottingham Forest led to the "Gills" being relegated from the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football, to Football League One, the third tier.

In the 2005–06 season, he made the most appearances of any player in the Gillingham squad, missing only one of the team's 46 matches in League One.

Although the team struggled in the league, finishing in the lower half of the table, they defeated Premier League team Portsmouth in the League Cup, with Crofts scoring the winning goal.

The following season, he again made over 40 appearances and also scored eight goals, his best total for an individual season, but Gillingham again finished the season in the bottom half of the table.

He made his 100th start for the club on 18 December 2006 in a match against AFC Bournemouth, and marked the occasion with a goal.

At the end of the season, he won four awards at the club's Player of the Year event and was dubbed Mr Gillingham by then-manager Ronnie Jepson.

He took over as team captain in the 2007–08 season, but it was an unsuccessful season for the team, who were relegated from League One.

The following October he was stripped of the captaincy, which was instead given to Barry Fuller.

Manager Mark Stimson stated that he felt that the captaincy might have been too much of a burden for Crofts, and had a negative effect on his form.

Soon afterwards, the club made Crofts available for transfer.

He had loans at Peterborough United and Wrexham during the 2008–09 season and joined Brighton & Hove Albion in 2009.

In 2008, he won his 12th cap, breaking the record for the most international caps received by a Gillingham player.

He became the head coach for Brighton U23s in June 2021 after spending a year as a player-coach of the academy.

In September 2022, Crofts was made the interim head coach of the first team after the departure of Graham Potter.

After the appointment of the new head coach Roberto De Zerbi, Crofts stayed on the first team as a coach.

Crofts was born in Chatham, Kent, and began playing competitive football at the age of six for a club in nearby Rainham.

Between the ages of 10 and 15 he attended weekly training sessions organised by Premier League club Chelsea.

He also tried out on two occasions for the English Schools Football Association's national schoolboy team, but was unsuccessful.

In November 2008, he joined Peterborough United on loan.

Shortly after returning to Gillingham the following January, he went on a second loan period, this time to Wrexham until the end of the season.

He made his debut on the same day in a 2–1 defeat to Burton Albion.

Upon his return to Gillingham from his loan spell, he was released from his contract.

On 29 June 2009, Crofts agreed to join League One club Brighton & Hove Albion on a two-year contract.

He made his debut for Brighton during the 1–0 home defeat to Walsall on 8 August 2009 and scored his first goal for Brighton during the 2–2 draw at Yeovil Town on 10 October 2009.

Crofts was given the role of captain by new manager Gus Poyet before the 3–1 away victory at Southampton.

After a successful season at Brighton he transferred to Norwich City in 2010, before moving back to the South Coast club in 2012.

Crofts was later confirmed as permanent captain at the beginning of January 2010.

On 21 May 2010, Norwich City announced the acquisition of Crofts from Brighton, for an undisclosed fee, believed to be in the region of £300,000.

At the end of the season, shortly before his 17th birthday, he was a surprise inclusion in the first team squad for a match at home to Watford, and made his Football League debut as a late substitute, replacing Marlon King.

The following season, he suffered a broken leg during a reserve team match and missed several months of the season.