Zak Whitbread

For other uses, see Whitbread (disambiguation).

Zak Whitbread

Personal information
Full name	Zak Benjamin Whitbread
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s)	Centre Back
Team information
Current team	Norwich City
Number	6
Youth career
1992–2003	Liverpool
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2003–2006	Liverpool	0	(0)
2005–2006	→ Millwall (loan)	25	(0)
2006–2010	Millwall	78	(3)
2010–	Norwich City	38	(1)
International career‡
2003	United States U20	5	(1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 08:19, 16 September 2011 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 21:10, 2 April 2010

Zak Benjamin Whitbread (born March 4, 1984) is an American soccer player who plays for English Premier League club Norwich City as a defender.

Early life

Although born in Houston, Texas, United States, Whitbread has spent most of his life in England and Singapore. He has lived in Runcorn for the majority of his life, except for the five years he spent in Singapore when his father, Barry Whitbread, was the coach of the Singapore national football team during the late 1990s. While in Singapore, Whitbread attended the United World College of South East Asia.

Club career

Liverpool

While growing up in Runcorn, Whitbread was a fan of Manchester United, but because Liverpool was his father's team of choice, he joined the club's Centre of Excellence at the age of eight, and eventually worked his way through the Academy from under-15s through under-19s before joining the reserve team in 2003.

His first match in a Liverpool jersey took place in 2003 in an exhibition match against Thailand during the club's Far East Tour. He came on to the pitch after the start of the second half. Whitbread made his first team debut in the 2004–05 season, and played a number of games alongside Sami Hyypiä in Liverpool's 2005–06 UEFA Champions League qualification campaign. He spent much of the season on loan at Millwall.

Millwall

After signing for Millwall permanently on a three-year contract in June 2006, he featured frequently in the team's first eleven, starting 18 games for his new club in the 2006–07 season, before injuring himself in September 2006. The injury sidelined him for the rest of that season.

Over the course of the 2008–09 season, Whitbread made 44 appearances, including the League One play-off Final at Wembley Stadium, which Millwall lost 3–2 to Scunthorpe United.

Norwich City

Whitbread signed for Norwich City on a two-and-a-half year contract on 8 January 2010, making his debut in the 5–0 win over Colchester United on 16 January as a substitute for Chris Martin, but featured little thereafter due to an injury. He played 3 games in pre-season 2010–11 before he sustained another injury, which ruled him out of the start of the new league season. Whitbread was expected to return to training near the time of the international break in September, however a further setback kept him out until the new Year. Whitbread returned to full training near Christmas 2010 along with Adam Drury

He made his long awaited return from injury in a 4–2 win over Sheffield United on 28 December 2010, coming on as an 85th minute substitute for Anthony McNamee. He made his first start of the season in a 1–0 victory over league leaders Queens Park Rangers, helping Norwich to a first clean sheet in 10 games. Due to Leon Barnett's hamstring injury, Whitbread developed a centre back partnership with Elliott Ward. He scored his first goal for Norwich in a 1–1 draw against Hull City at the KC Stadium on 19 March 2011.

Whitbread started in the Canaries' first game back in the Premier League, partnering Ritchie De Laet in a 1–1 draw at Wigan Athletic. However he picked up a knee injury in this match, meaning he was ruled out for the following match against Stoke City. He returned for the League Cup match against MK Dons, and started against Chelsea, but was withdrawn after 30 minutes with a suspected hamstring injury. Whitbread returned to training in November. He and Dani Ayala got through a practice match, improving their fitness. Zak is expected to be back in the squad in early December.

Zak made a return to the Norwich squad on 3 December against Man City, featuring as an unused substitute. In the next fixture against Newcastle United, Whitbread was given a start in a 4-2 win for Norwich, playing well apart from giving the ball away for the Demba Ba's 2nd goal. Whitbread kept his place for the following matches, performing admirably with Russell Martin in defence. He was partnered with Daniel Ayala from the New Years Eve fixture against Fulham, and this partnership has seen Norwich win 2 consecutive away matches and 3 wins out of 3 in 2012. Zak was withdrawn early in the 2-0 victory over Bolton along with Daniel Ayala after complaining of a tight hamstring, 20 minutes after Ayala was subbed due to a suspect hamstring tear.

International career

Whitbread's opportunity came in August 2003 when he traveled to Spain to join the U.S. under 20s at the L'Alcudia International Tournament, where he started three of the five matches Thomas Rongen's squad played. Owing to his solid performance he was named in Rongen's side for the 2003 World Youth Championships in December. He started every match and scored his first goal for the U.S. to help the squad reach the Quarter Finals.

His play led to his inclusion with the mostly Major League Soccer based side that unsuccessfully tried to qualify the U.S. for 2004 Summer Olympics. Unfortunately, he was only able to play in one match for Glenn Myernick due to an injury he suffered during training.

He played for the United States under 20s team in the 2003 World Youth Championship, and has since been promoted to the under 23 squad.

On 16 March 2011, Whitbread was called into the United States camp for its friendlies against Argentina and Paraguay, but was unable to feature due to sustaining an injury while on club duty.

External links

• Zak Whitbread profile at the Norwich City website
• Zak Whitbread at Soccerbase

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