The most travelled players in The Journeyman

Football Trivia UK · 24 October 2026

The Journeyman has 716 careers in it, and between them those players had 5,273 spells at clubs, an average of 7.4 each. Around one spell in five (1,003 of them) was a loan. A handful of players go far beyond that. These are the longest club lists in our database, and the reason The Journeyman can be so hard.

The longest careers in our database

The table shows the 15 players with the most clubs. Every spell counts, including loans, non-league clubs and clubs abroad, because that is how the game reveals them. A player who returned to an old club counts that club once.

Steve Claridge: the record holder

No one in our database played for more clubs than Steve Claridge. His record starts at Fareham Town in the early 1980s and runs through Bournemouth, Cambridge United, Birmingham City, Leicester City, Portsmouth, Millwall and a long list of others. Almost every one of those moves was permanent rather than a loan. He is best remembered for the extra-time goal that won Leicester City promotion in the 1996 play-off final, but in The Journeyman he is a test of patience: you can see six or seven clubs and still have no idea who it is.

The midfield wanderers

Neil Redfearn and Peter Barnes both reach 20 clubs. Redfearn's career is a tour of the Football League, from Bolton Wanderers and Lincoln City to Barnsley, where he spent seven seasons, before a long run in non-league football. Barnes is the more surprising name. He was an England winger who played for both Manchester City and Manchester United, but his record also includes Real Betis in Spain, Farense in Portugal, Hamrun Spartans in Malta and the Tampa Bay Rowdies in the United States. If a Journeyman starts at Manchester City and then jumps abroad in the early 1980s, think of him.

Goalkeepers who kept moving

Goalkeepers usually stay put longer than outfield players, which makes the exceptions memorable. Neville Southall spent 17 years at Everton, yet still has 18 clubs in our database, because he started in Welsh non-league football and finished with a run of short spells at clubs including Stoke City, Doncaster Rovers, Torquay United, Bradford City and York City. Andy Marriott (14 clubs), Kasper Schmeichel (12) and Dave Beasant (11) are the other keepers to remember. Schmeichel's list starts with five loans from Manchester City before he settled at Leicester City and won the Premier League.

The loan generation

Modern careers often begin with a string of loans. Andros Townsend is the clearest example: nine loans away from Tottenham Hotspur, at Yeovil Town, Leyton Orient, MK Dons, Ipswich Town, Watford, Millwall, Leeds United, Birmingham City and Queens Park Rangers, before he played for Newcastle United, Crystal Palace and Everton. Chris Wood followed a similar path, with five loans from West Bromwich Albion before his Premier League years at Burnley, Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest. In The Journeyman, a run of loans to lower-league clubs in the first few clues usually means a young player from a big club, so think about which academy he came from.

Careers that went abroad

Some of the hardest players to guess spent the second half of their careers outside England. Lomana LuaLua went from Newcastle United and Portsmouth to Olympiacos and a long spell in Turkey. Eiður Guðjohnsen played for Chelsea and Barcelona, then Monaco, Stoke City, AEK Athens and both Bruges clubs. Henri Camara, Kaba Diawara and Benito Carbone all have 17 clubs. When the clues mention Greek, Turkish or Cypriot clubs after a Premier League spell, you are probably looking at one of these players.

How to use this in the game

The first club is worth 5 points, so the biggest gains come from recognising a journeyman early. Three habits help:

• Read the years, not just the clubs. A first club in the late 1970s or early 1980s rules out most of the players you are thinking of.
• Look for the pattern of loans. Several short loans in a row from one parent club almost always means an academy player at a Premier League side.
• Buy the decade clue when you're stuck. It costs a point, but knowing the decade he started in narrows a long list very quickly.

You can browse every career in our list of journeyman careers, or go straight to today's Journeyman.