Lee Camp

Lee Michael John Camp (born 22 August 1984) is a former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

He is currently a youth coach at Blackpool.

Camp started his professional career with Derby County in 2002, having progressed through the club's youth ranks.

He made his first appearance with Derby County during the 2002–03 season, and joined Burton Albion on loan in January 2003.

At the end of the same season, he went to Queens Park Rangers for the last few games also on loan, where he helped the club reach promotion to Division One.

In Derby's end-of-season awards, he won both the Sammy Crooks Young Player of the Year award and the Brian Clough Player of the Year award.

During a five-year spell at the club, he made 89 league appearances for Derby, and also went on loan to three clubs: Burton Albion in 2003, Queens Park Rangers in 2004 and 2007, and Norwich City, in 2006.

Camp joined Norwich City on 7 September 2006, on a three-month loan with effect from 8 September, covering an injury to Joe Lewis.

Camp made his first Norwich City full debut on 28 November 2006 against Leicester City.

He kept his place for the following match against Sheffield Wednesday where he scored an own goal in a 2–1 defeat.

He switched to Queens Park Rangers in July 2007, and made 50 league appearances for the club in a two-season spell, taking his total number of QPR appearances to 73.

Camp joined Queens Park Rangers ("QPR") on a three-month loan deal on 12 February 2007, having helped the club achieve promotion in 2004 in a similar loan deal.

He returned to Derby early, on 25 April 2007, after a suspension to Stephen Bywater left the Rams short of goalkeepers.

Camp was transferred to QPR on 27 July 2007, after long negotiations, for a fee of £300,000.

He agreed a three-year deal with the club.

Camp was the only QPR player to start in every league fixture of the 2007–08 season.

Between October 2008 and January 2009, Camp was loaned to Nottingham Forest, signing permanently for the club in July 2009.

On 20 October 2008 Camp joined Nottingham Forest on a three-month loan.

He played a pivotal role in helping the club climb out of the bottom three and also saved two penalties; one against his former club Derby, and one against Bristol City.

Both were in the final minutes of the games.

He returned to QPR when Colin Calderwood was sacked and replaced by Billy Davies, his former manager at Derby County.

On 2 July 2009 it was announced on Forest's official website that a transfer had been agreed and, subject to a medical examination, Camp was to complete his signing by 4 July 2009.

The fee was reported to be around £100,000 but with additional payments.

He made his first start as a permanent Forest player on 10 August 2009 in their league opener against Reading where they were unlucky to come away with only a 0–0 draw.

Camp conceded only one goal in his first six games and kept a clean sheet for over 10.5 hours of football.

He won the December Championship Player of the Month Award.

Camp was an ever-present in the Forest goal the following season, featuring in every match of the 2010–11 season and keeping a total of 12 clean sheets.

When Club Captain Paul McKenna was injured, Camp stepped in as the Nottingham Forest Captain.

Nottingham Forest manager Billy Davies spoke of his delight at having a goalkeeper with the class of Camp, saying "You talk about positives and negatives in players, but his performances have been first-class – simply outstanding."

Camp kept a clean sheet in the first leg of the 2010–11 EFL Championship playoff semi-final against Swansea City where he was forced to make numerous saves.

Camp finished second in the club's player of the season award to Luke Chambers.

In the summer 2011 transfer window, Forest rejected three bids from Swansea City – the highest of which was a £1.8 million bid – for the services of Camp.

In total, he made 182 league appearances for Nottingham Forest before returning to Norwich City in January 2013.

He made three appearances in his second spell at the club, before being released on a free transfer in May 2013.

Camp joined West Bromwich Albion in September 2013 and spent two months on loan at AFC Bournemouth.

He was released by West Brom in January 2014 and subsequently joined Bournemouth on a two-and-a-half-year deal, but left after one year for Rotherham United, where he was a regular for 18 months until an injured knee kept him out for the rest of his contract.

He then joined Cardiff City, but never played, and spent time on loan at Sunderland before signing for Birmingham City, where he spent two seasons as first choice.

He had a short non-playing spell at Coventry City as injury cover before spending the last two months of the 2020–21 season with Swindon Town.

He had brief spells with non-league clubs Clitheroe and Wrexham in 2022.

Camp was born in England, and played for the England under-21 team; at senior international level, he made nine appearances for Northern Ireland, for which he was eligible through his Northern Ireland-born grandfather.