Matt Mills

Matthew Claude Mills (born 14 July 1986) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a defender. He spent most of his career in the English EFL Championship, in which he played for Leicester City, Reading, Bolton, Nottingham Forest, Doncaster Rovers and Barnsley. He retired from professional football in 2020.

Born in Swindon, Mills started his youth career with the academy of Swindon Town before switching to the Southampton Academy in 1999. He turned professional in 2002 and had loan stints with Coventry City and AFC Bournemouth during his time with Southampton. In 2006, Mills signed with Manchester City. However, his playing time was limited due to injuries.

After loan deals with Colchester United and Doncaster Rovers, he signed permanently with the latter in 2008. After one season, Mills joined Reading for a fee believed to be around £2 million. In May 2011, he captained the club in the Championship play-off final defeat against Swansea City, where he also found the net. After rejecting an offer from Wolverhampton Wanderers, Mills signed with Leicester City in the same year and was appointed as the club captain. In 2012, he switched to Bolton Wanderers. Mills finished third in voting for the club's player of the 2014–15 season. He switched to rival Nottingham Forest in 2015. After having spent three seasons with Forest, he joined Barnsley, Pune City and Forest Green Rovers before announcing his retirement from professional football.

Mills has been capped at the national youth level and featured eight times for the England under-19. His younger brother Joseph Mills plays for Forest Green Rovers. In February 2009, football pundit and former Leicester City player Steve Claridge described Mills' style of play as that of "an old-fashioned centre-half who relishes the physical side of the game". Provided by Wikipedia