Lee Clark

Lee Robert Clark (born 27 October 1972) is an English football manager and former professional footballer, who was most recently the manager of Al-Merrikh in the Sudan Premier League.

As a player, he was a midfielder and played in the Premier League for Newcastle United, Sunderland and Fulham.

Clark scored a hat-trick for England schoolboys at Wembley Stadium in 1988 in a 4–1 win for England.

He represented England at international level playing for the England under-21s, making 11 appearances between 1992 and 1993 during his time playing for Newcastle.

He won promotion to the top flight with all three clubs he played for, winning out right the Football League First Division title in 1993, 1999 and 2001.

He was also part of the Magpies squad under Kevin Keegan that finished runners-up in the top flight in consecutive seasons.

In 1993, he was part of the Newcastle side promoted to the Premier League as champions and then helped them finish runners-up two seasons in a row.

During the 1995-96 Premier League season Newcastle United were pipped to the title by Manchester United.

After a game where Newcastle United drew 3–3 away at Manchester City, Newcastle United purchased defensive midfielder David Batty to shore up the team defensively and Clark, more of an attacking midfielder, lost his place in the side.

Clark reasons that this was a mistake that hurt the team dynamic that was working, and that this decision may have cost Newcastle United the title.

To back up his claim, Clark cited and compared the form of Newcastle United from January 1996 until he was dropped for defensive midfielder Batty; against the form of Newcastle United in the remaining 11 games when Clark was absent.

Clark made nearly 200 appearances scoring 23 goals for Newcastle in his first spell at the club.

He was capped 11 times by the England under-21 team and was called up to the full England squad for the World Cup warm up tournament the 1997 Tournoi de France, but he was only named a substitute and never went on to earn a full international cap.

Clark moved to Newcastle's local rivals, First Division club Sunderland, in 1997, and was part of the side promoted to the Premier League in 1999 as champions with a (then) professional league record of 105 points.

A year earlier, he had been a key player in the side that reached the First Division play-off final, only to suffer a penalty shoot-out defeat to Charlton Athletic after a 4–4 draw at Wembley.

In 1997, he was a member of England's squad for Le Tournoi de France but did not play.

However, at the 1999 FA Cup final he was spotted with the Newcastle fans wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Sad Mackem Bastards".

He was immediately dropped from the team, and never played for Sunderland again.

Clark moved to Fulham in 1999.

He collected another Division One title medal with in 2001, enabling him to experience Premier League football for the first time since the 1996–97 season.

During that season he opened the scoring as Fulham beat Manchester United 3–1 at Old Trafford in October 2003.

In 2004, he helped Fulham secure what was, at the time, their highest final position – ninth in the top flight.

Clark left Fulham in 2005 to return to former club Newcastle United, after making 149 league appearances and scoring 20 goals for the West London club.

Clark was allowed to leave Fulham after his contract expired in the summer of 2005 despite being club captain during the 2004–05 season.

At the time of his departure, he was Fulham's longest-serving player.

He subsequently returned to Newcastle, coaching and playing on a month-by-month contract.

Clark scored one goal for Newcastle in the 2005–06 season, an equaliser in a 2–2 draw with Middlesbrough.

Following his retirement from playing in 2006, he later returned to Newcastle as reserve team manager, before becoming a first team coach at Norwich City.

He later became first team manager at Huddersfield Town and had similar spells in charge of Birmingham City, Blackpool, Kilmarnock, Bury and Blyth Spartans.

He played his final professional game on 7 May 2006, coming on as a substitute at home to Chelsea.

In total he played 265 times for Newcastle, scoring 28 goals.

On 1 June 2006, the newly appointed Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder installed Clark as a first team coach and reserve team manager following Tommy Craig's departure while Clark was still playing for Newcastle.

He remained as first team coach and as reserve team manager after retiring in 2007 until Roeder parted company with the club and Clark followed shortly afterwards in November.

In November 2007, Clark left his post at Newcastle to become assistant manager to Roeder at Championship club Norwich City.

After League One club Huddersfield Town had dismissed manager Stan Ternent on 4 November 2008, The Terriers were reported to be interested in then Norwich assistant manager Clark.

On 12 December 2008, Clark was officially unveiled as the new manager of Huddersfield, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract.

Clark replaced Gerry Murphy, who had been caretaker manager for the League One side following the departure of Ternent.

In 2020 he joined non-league side Newcastle Blue Star as director of football, before moving to Sudan to manage Al-Merrikh.

Born in Wallsend, Northumberland, Clark started his career at the club he supported as a boy, Newcastle United coming up through the youth system at the club.

Clark joined Newcastle Blue Star in July 2020 as director of football to temporarily oversee the youth section of the football club.