Jason Steele

Jason Sean Steele (born 18 August 1990) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Brighton & Hove Albion.

Steele progressed through Middlesbrough's youth system, signing his first professional contract with the Premier League club in 2009.

He made his professional footballing debut while on loan at League Two side Northampton Town during the 2009–10 season.

In May 2009, Steele signed a new three-year contract with Middlesbrough, which was his first professional contract.

Danny Coyne was signed during Middlesbrough's first season in the Championship in the 2009–10 season, instead of promoting Steele to a permanent senior squad member.

Steele made his Middlesbrough debut in the 2010–11 season, and eventually became their first-choice goalkeeper within their Championship campaign, after being relegated from the top flight the season before last.

He was sent out on loan to Northampton Town in February 2010, to gain first team experience.

He kept four clean sheets in 13 matches.

Thanks to his impressive stint at Northampton, Steele was handed his first competitive start for Middlesbrough in a 2–1 victory over Chesterfield in the League Cup, on 10 August 2010.

He made his league debut away to Leicester City on 14 August 2010 and capped it with a clean sheet in a 0–0 draw.

With the sale of Brad Jones to Liverpool, Steele went on to establish himself as Middlesbrough's first-choice goalkeeper, ahead of Danny Coyne.

In December 2010, he signed a new contract with Middlesbrough up to 2015.

Despite impressive performances from Smith, Steele regained his first-team spot for the last two matches of the 2010–11 season, in which he kept clean sheets in both games against Cardiff City and Doncaster Rovers.

Due to a side muscle injury he picked up against Reading in March 2011, Nottingham Forest goalkeeper Paul Smith was brought in to cover for Steele.

In the 2011–12 season, he fully established himself as Middlesbrough's first-choice goalkeeper.

Despite Wolverhampton Wanderers goalkeeper Carl Ikeme being brought in on loan at the start of the season, due to a broken wrist for Steele, he quickly regained his first-team place.

Steele went on to win the Young Player of the Year award for the 2011–12 season.

Steele represented England at all youth levels; his positive performances led him to being called up to the Great Britain Olympic team for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games held in London, making a singular appearance against Brazil at the Riverside Stadium.

He started the 2012–13 season well, putting in man-of-the-match performances against Ipswich Town (in which he got an assist), Watford and Brighton & Hove Albion.

Steele's impressive form during the 2012/13 season, as well as his form in the previous season, was rewarded when he was named the North East Football Writers' Young player of the Year in February 2013.

He finished the season being the only player to have played in every minute of Middlesbrough's league campaign.

Steele also won both the Young Player and Player of the Season awards which was picked by both his teammates and staff at the club.

Steele maintained his role at Middlesbrough for three seasons, though the arrivals of Dimitrios Konstantopoulos and Tomás Mejías in the 2013–14 season saw Steele's position at the club become threatened; he left at the end of that season.

He continued his good form into 2013, saving a penalty against Blackpool when the score was at 3–2, and Middlesbrough went on to win the match 4–2.

In the 2014–15 season, Steele joined fellow Championship club Blackburn Rovers on loan.

On 1 September 2014, Steele joined Championship club Blackburn Rovers on a season-long loan.

He made his debut on 20 September 2014 in a 1–0 win away to Fulham.

Steele quickly made an impact, which included him establishing himself as first-choice goalkeeper and making 15 league appearances during his initial loan spell.

On 31 December 2014, Steele signed a permanent deal with Blackburn for an undisclosed fee, signing a three-and-a-half-year deal.

At the end of the 2014–15 season, Steele made 31 appearances.

He then signed for them on a permanent basis at the beginning of the 2015 winter transfer window.

In the 2015–16 season, Steele made 41 appearances in the Championship, it was David Raya who played the other 5 matches that league campaign.

That season saw Blackburn finish fifteenth, 15 points adrift from the relegation zone, as well as a managerial change occurring which saw heavily-experienced Premier League coach Paul Lambert replace Gary Bowyer.

He quickly established himself as their first-choice goalkeeper though in the 2016–17 season, Blackburn were relegated to League One, which culminated in Steele's departure to Sunderland, who were newly relegated to the Championship for the 2017–18 league campaign.

Steele's tenure at Sunderland was a sour note: he lost his intended role of first-choice goalkeeper to Robbin Ruiter and then Lee Camp and the club were relegated to League One at the end of the season, which meant that both Sunderland and Steele (as a player) had suffered two consecutive relegations.

The events of the season led to a Netflix documentary entitled Sunderland 'Til I Die being produced, which was released in December 2018.

He left Sunderland after one season, joining Brighton & Hove Albion of the Premier League serving as back-up, where he eventually made his Premier League debut in November 2021.

Steele was born in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

He attended Woodham Community Technology College (now named Woodham Academy), the same school as his former Middlesbrough teammate Ross Turnbull.

He came through Middlesbrough's youth academy.