Lee Peltier

Lee Anthony Peltier (born 11 December 1986) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for Championship club Rotherham United.

While he has played in positions in both defence and midfield, he primarily plays as a right-back or centre-back.

Peltier joined the Liverpool Academy in 1997 at the age of ten and signed his first professional contract with the club in 2004.

Initially playing as a centre-back, he converted to right-back and also featured as a midfielder for the club's youth sides before settling into a full-back role after being promoted to the senior side.

He is also a former England under-18 International, winning three caps in 2004.

Born in Toxteth, Liverpool, Peltier attended St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Primary School and Campion High School in his hometown.

Peltier first attended football matches at Tranmere Rovers and later Liverpool after joining the club's academy.

He started his career with his hometown club Liverpool, making his professional debut as a teenager in 2006.

In August 2006 he was named in the first-team squad, as an unused substitute for a UEFA Champions League qualifier against Maccabi Haifa.

He made his professional debut in a League Cup tie against Reading on 25 October 2006.

Two months later, he made his Champions League debut for Liverpool against Galatasaray.

With Liverpool already guaranteed to progress to the next round, he played the full 90 minutes at right-back as Liverpool lost 3–2.

He made his debut in a 4–0 victory against Southend United and went on to make seven appearances for the club in the final two months of the 2006–07 season.

On 16 March 2007, Peltier was subject to an emergency loan cover agreement, and subsequently joined Championship side Hull City until the end of the season in order to gain first team experience.

In order to gain further first team opportunities, manager Rafael Benítez loaned Peltier to League One club Yeovil Town on 31 July 2007 until 31 December.

Peltier agreed to join the club following encouragement from his mother.

Eleven days later, he made his debut in a 1–0 defeat against Huddersfield Town.

Although a right-back, Peltier played as a midfielder during an FA Cup match against Torquay United in November, but switched back to his original position for the club's following fixture against Gillingham a week later.

He made 21 appearances in all competitions during his loan spell without scoring.

After loan spells with Hull City and Yeovil Town he signed for the latter on a permanent basis in 2008.

On 21 January 2008, he joined Norwich City on trial, featuring in a reserve team fixture against Colchester United, but was not offered a contract by manager Glenn Roeder.

On 31 January 2008, he returned to Yeovil on a permanent basis for a minor fee, signing a three-year contract.

He ended the season having made 38 appearances in all competitions, including his original loan spell, and won the club's Young Player of the Year award.

In his second season with Yeovil, Peltier made 39 appearances in all competitions, scoring his only goal for the club in a 3–2 victory over Swindon Town on 20 December 2008.

His performances attracted attention from several clubs and Yeovil assistant manager Nathan Jones confirmed that the club would not "stand in his way [...] if the price was right."

Despite this, Peltier admitted to suffering from homesickness having moved away from Liverpool for the first time in his career, commenting "I was quite happy with my football but [...] I struggled a bit and got quite homesick."

In 2009, he joined Huddersfield Town, where he made over 100 appearances and reached the 2011 Football League One play-off final, before signing for Leicester City.

A year later, he moved to Leeds United, where he was appointed club captain on arrival.

He fell out of favour in his second season at the club and, after a brief loan spell with Nottingham Forest, he rejoined Huddersfield Town.

On 30 June 2009, he joined fellow League One side Huddersfield Town on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee.

Peltier had previously impressed manager Lee Clark during his brief trial spell with Norwich, where Clark was serving as assistant manager.

He made his debut in a 2–2 draw against Southend United at Roots Hall on 8 August 2009.

He was switched from right-back to left-back for Huddersfield's game against Millwall due to the usual left-back Dean Heffernan suffering from a dead leg.

He was Huddersfield's first choice left-back keeping the position for the remainder of the regular season.

Peltier helped the side to reach the play-offs in League One playing at left-back for the first leg at home to Millwall, but was forced to return to his usual position of right-back for the second leg at the New Den due to an injury to Tom Clarke in the first leg of the play-off semi final.

Peltier was voted the Players' Player of the Season, in his first season with Huddersfield, after making a total of 50 appearances in all competitions as Huddersfield finished sixth in the regular season before losing 2–0 to Millwall in the Play-Off semi-final second leg on 18 May 2010.

In July 2010, Peltier was linked with a £3 million pound move to Queens Park Rangers managed by Neil Warnock.

However, in August 2010, he signed a new contract at Huddersfield to extending his deal until 2014.

Peltier remained first choice full back the following season.

In 2015, he signed for Cardiff City, where he made 163 appearances and helped the club win promotion to the Premier League after finishing as Championship runners-up during the 2017–18 season.