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Scottish Sun
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Scottish Sun
Former Premier League star heading into 32ND season as he registers himself as a player ahead of 50th birthday
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A FORMER Premier League star is set to lace up his boots for his 32nd season as a professional. And he'll end the campaign as a 50-YEAR-OLD man. 3 Jamie Cureton took charge of Cambridge City in May Credit: THE TIMES 3 The former Premier League striker has registered himself as a player-manager of the Non-League side Credit: PA Jamie Cureton has registered himself as player-manager for IL Division One North side Cambridge City for the upcoming season at the ripe old age of 49. And ahead of City's FA Cup extra-preliminary round clash with Kirkley & Pakefield, the former Norwich star is adamant he will take to the pitch after he turns 50. He told The BBC: "I've just registered myself as a player for the 2025-26 season and would like to make at least one appearance after my birthday." Cureton, who made his Prem debut for the Canaries as a fresh-faced 19-year-old in November 1994, has played for a whopping 22 clubs in his career. READ MORE SPORTS NEWS Wrex bomb ITV confirm first free-to-air matches of new season including Wrexham opener His love of the beautiful game hasn't waned, despite having played for the best part of five decades. He said: "Football is all I have ever known. "I grew up in an area where trouble was around. Maybe I would have fallen into the wrong sort of crowd. "Luckily, I had football. Anything outside football is a bit alien to me. SUN VEGAS WELCOME OFFER: GET £50 BONUS WHEN YOU JOIN 3 "I'd be quite lost without it. Being involved in the game keeps me happy and sane." Cureton was given the Cambridge City reins in May following spells in charge of Bishop's Stortford and Enfield. Man Utd & Newcastle in £40M Tug-of-War for Bundesliga Wonderkid! After bagging the gig, he said: "I am thrilled to be appointed as the new manager of Cambridge City Football Club. This is a fantastic opportunity, and I am eager to start this new chapter. "I believe in a strong team ethic, hard work, and dedication, both on and off the field. "My goal is to build on the solid foundation already in place, bringing fresh ideas and strategies to help the club achieve our ambitions."
The Irish Sun
10 hours ago
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Former Premier League star heading into 32ND season as he registers himself as a player ahead of 50th birthday
A former Premier League star is set to lace up his boots for his 32nd season as a professional. And he'll end the campaign as a 50-YEAR-OLD man. Advertisement 3 Jamie Cureton took charge of Cambridge City in May Credit: THE TIMES 3 The former Premier League striker has registered himself as a player-manager of the Non-League side Credit: PA Jamie Cureton has registered himself as player-manager for IL Division One North side Cambridge City ahead of the upcoming season at the ripe old age of 49. And ahead of City's FA Cup extra-preliminary round clash with Kirkley & Pakefield, the former He told Cureton, who made his Prem debut for the Canaries as a fresh-faced 19-year-old in November 1994, has played for a whopping 22 clubs in his career. Advertisement READ MORE SPORTS NEWS His love of the beautiful game hasn't waned, despite having played for the best part of five decades. He said: "Football is all I have ever known. "I grew up in an area where trouble was around. Maybe I would have fallen into the wrong sort of crowd. "Luckily, I had football. Anything outside football is a bit alien to me. Advertisement Most read in Sport SUN VEGAS WELCOME OFFER: GET £50 BONUS WHEN YOU JOIN 3 "I'd be quite lost without it. Being involved in the game keeps me happy and sane." Cureton was given the Cambridge City reins in May following spells in charge of Bishop's Stortford and Enfield. Advertisement Man Utd & Newcastle in £40M Tug-of-War for Bundesliga Wonderkid! After bagging the gig, he said: "I am thrilled to be appointed as the new manager of Cambridge City Football Club. This is a fantastic opportunity, and I am eager to start this new chapter. "I believe in a strong team ethic, hard work, and dedication, both on and off the field. "My goal is to build on the solid foundation already in place, bringing fresh ideas and strategies to help the club achieve our ambitions." Advertisement
The Sun
10 hours ago
- Sport
- The Sun
Former Premier League star heading into 32ND season as he registers himself as a player ahead of 50th birthday
A FORMER Premier League star is set to lace up his boots for his 32nd season as a professional. And he'll end the campaign as a 50-YEAR-OLD man. 2 Jamie Cureton has registered himself as player-manager for IL Division One North side Cambridge City for the upcoming season at the ripe old age of 49. And ahead of City's FA Cup extra-preliminary round clash with Kirkley & Pakefield, the former Norwich star is adamant he will take to the pitch after he turns 50. He told The BBC: "I've just registered myself as a player for the 2025-26 season and would like to make at least one appearance after my birthday." Cureton, who made his Prem debut for the Canaries as a fresh-faced 19-year-old in November 1994, has played for a whopping 22 clubs in his career. His love of the beautiful game hasn't waned, despite having played for the best part of five decades. He said: " Football is all I have ever known. "I grew up in an area where trouble was around. Maybe I would have fallen into the wrong sort of crowd. "Luckily, I had football. Anything outside football is a bit alien to me. "I'd be quite lost without it. Being involved in the game keeps me happy and sane." Cureton was given the Cambridge City reins in May following spells in charge of Bishop's Stortford and Enfield. After bagging the gig, he said: "I am thrilled to be appointed as the new manager of Cambridge City Football Club. This is a fantastic opportunity, and I am eager to start this new chapter. "I believe in a strong team ethic, hard work, and dedication, both on and off the field. "My goal is to build on the solid foundation already in place, bringing fresh ideas and strategies to help the club achieve our ambitions."
BBC News
14 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
'I'd be lost without football' - the ex-Premier League striker playing at 49
As he nears his 50th birthday, Jamie Cureton is not in any hurry to call it a day after a playing career spanning 22 clubs, three promotions and three relegations."I've just registered myself as a player for the 2025-26 season and would like to make at least one appearance after my birthday," says Cambridge City's player-manager as he prepares his team for Saturday's FA Cup extra preliminary round tie at Kirkley & was 19 when he made his Premier League debut for Norwich City against Everton, external in November 1994. Back then, Oldham Athletic and Swindon Town had just been relegated from the top flight, Neville Southall was Everton's goalkeeper and Blackburn Rovers were on their way to being crowned champions of will make it a remarkable 32 successive seasons as a player across nine tiers of English football, from the Premier League to the Essex Senior League, should he turn out for Cambridge City this list of clubs he has represented is Bournemouth (loan), Bristol Rovers, Reading, Busan I'Cons (South Korea), QPR, Swindon Town, Colchester, Barnsley (loan), Shrewsbury (loan), Exeter, Leyton Dagenham & Redbridge, Farnborough, Eastleigh, St Albans City, Bishop's Stortford, Enfield, Hornchurch, Maldon & Tiptree and now Cambridge City, where he is about to start his second season in charge."Football is all I have ever known," Bristol-born Cureton tells BBC Sport."I grew up in an area where trouble was around. Maybe I would have fallen into the wrong sort of crowd. Luckily, I had football. "Anything outside football is a bit alien to me. I'd be quite lost without it. Being involved in the game keeps me happy and sane." Coaching Saka & joining Xavi in the 1,000 club Cureton cannot remember exactly how many appearances he has made over the past 31 years. "I lost count when I reached 1,000," he years have passed since that extraordinary milestone which placed him in an elite group of players, alongside Barcelona legend Xavi and Real Madrid legend Raul, who have also achieved this to Wikipedia,, external Cureton has clocked up 1,075 games and is 25th on the list of male footballers with 1,000 or more official of those games involved a can of hairspray from a joke shop, when the then-20-year-old dyed his hair green for Norwich's game with fierce rivals Ipswich in most recent competitive appearance was on 26 April, when the 49-year-old came on as a 68th-minute substitute in Cambridge City's 1-0 win away to Basildon Town in front of 123 fans in the eighth-tier Isthmian League North was 24 years older than team-mate Junior Mubiayi, who scored City's winner."In terms of goals, in my head and from what people have told me, I'm either four or six away from 400," he says. "I'd like to finish on 400 or above."Since his last professional appearance aged 41, Cureton has moved into management in non-league, with player-manager roles at Bishop's Stortford, Enfield and now Cambridge City."It wasn't something I had in my mind," adds Cureton, who played under the likes of Martin O'Neill, Ian Holloway, Alan Pardew and the late Glenn Roeder before dropping into non-league."I stumbled into management. I got offered a role at Bishop's Stortford and it just snowballed. I thoroughly enjoy it."Cureton also enjoyed a two-year stint as an academy coach at Arsenal between 2017 and 2019, where players under his watch included a 16-year-old Bukayo Saka."It's no surprise to see him doing what he's doing to be honest," he says of Saka, who has 44 England caps at the age of 23. "He's a very nice guy, humble, no airs and graces about him. He just came in and worked hard. A clever boy as well, he was good at school."Working for a club like Arsenal was unbelievable. I learned so much and it was a wonderful opportunity for me." 'I'm older than most of their dads!' Cureton turns 50 on 28 August, two days before his team's home game with he gift himself an appearance in that game and achieve his target of playing at 50?"I won't ever put myself above players who I feel need the opportunity and need to be playing," says Cureton, who scored four times in 17 Premier League appearances in his first season at Norwich in 1994-95."I won't pick myself over them. I've registered for this season in case I'm needed, in case I need to rest players."Towards the end of last season we'd lost a few players and had a few injuries, and there was an opportunity where I felt I could play."Cambridge City, founded in 1908, finished 11th in 2024-25 and Cureton is targeting a top-five finish and a play-off place in his second season in are exciting times for the Lilywhites, who moved to a brand new 3,000-capacity ground about seven miles south of Cambridge last November. A crowd of 1,459 watched them play Tilbury in their first competitive game at the FWD-IP Community Stadium, after 10 years of this month, 2,640 turned out at the venue to watch a friendly against neighbours Cambridge United., external"We've got a young squad and I'm older than most of their dads!" adds Cureton."If I can help any of them with their game, or even with their life, then I think I am doing my job."Cambridge City's game at Lowestoft-based Kirkley & Pakefield is one of 222 FA Cup extra preliminary round ties scheduled for this weekend, 11 weeks after Crystal Palace beat Manchester City in the final at Lilywhites reached the second round in 2004, their best run in the competition, when Cureton was playing in the Championship for helped Bristol Rovers reach the last-16 in 1998-99 and would, if circumstances allow, like to make one final FA Cup appearance before he hangs up his boots for good."I never thought I would still be playing on the verge of 50," he says. "I'm very grateful. The drive to keep on playing is what has pushed me to this point. "Football has been good to me and hopefully I can stay in the game for another 10 or 15 years as a manager or a coach, and then go and play some golf or go fishing."
Telegraph
19-06-2025
- Telegraph
Why Cambridge's £75m tourism revamp risks stripping the city of its charm
Souvenirs. Harry Potter. Vapes. Perhaps too simple a summation of the modern-day experience of Cambridge city centre, but it is certainly how the Cambridge Gift Shop on Market Passage has found success, as detailed by its hanging sign. Inside, shoppers, some independent, some clearly part of an organised trip, peruse trinkets and tat, University swag and Union Jacked future landfill. Within a stone's throw are similar stores: the House of Wonders, the House of Wizard… It is just before lunch on a Bank Holiday Monday and the city, small by modern standards with the population just 146,000 (Slough has 166,000), strains under the weight of daily visitors. By most recent estimations, Cambridge welcomes some 8.1 million visitors a year, or just over 22,000 a day. The city itself is 16 square miles but there's no escaping the fact that these tens of thousands do not stray far from a handful of streets. St John's Street into Trinity and onto Kings Parade is the classic drag. To walk the length is to navigate scores of meandering walking tours, student groups and oblivious selfie-takers, not to mention Cambridge's famed bicycle traffic, e-scooters and occasional hop-on, hop-off sightseeing buses. But it is also Cambridge's appeal in a nutshell. Once you've reached the bottom, you've seen the city in microcosm: the up-market shopping of Trinity Street – Reiss, Cubitts, Sweaty Betty – dotted with the academic, Cambridge's famed Heffers bookshop and the more inaccessible University Press shop further down. The strip is punctuated, too, with some of the University's most impressive colleges (Trinity College, founded by Henry VIII, boasts a Great Gate akin to a time-travel portal in its medieval splendour). By the time you're outside King's Parade and its peerless skyline you may as well go home. Indeed, many do. 'The problem for Cambridge tourism is that we don't provide proper advice and information for tourists,' says Naomi Bennett, a Green Party councillor on the Labour-run Cambridge City Council. 'The people only come here for short day trips. They spend a few hours in a tiny and crowded historic centre and rush off to catch their coach or train home.' Over-tourism in the city is reaching boiling point. From aggressive and very public Punt Wars – where rival touts employed unsavoury tactics to win passing business – to coach jams on the Backs and a failed tourist tax, which hotels voted against last year, Cambridge has wrestled with the same challenges as the likes of Venice, Edinburgh and Dubrovnik. The city is at a crossroads. While there's no sign of the council's long-awaited and long-overdue Destination Management Plan, the city is pushing ahead with its £75million Civic Quarter Project, revitalising three key areas: the Guildhall, the Corn Exchange and the Market Square. The council says the plan is 'to improve the experience of everyone visiting the city centre by creating more inclusive and accessible buildings, and better public spaces where people can meet and enjoy cultural events', but locals are concerned revamping – but reducing – the seven-day market area will see Cambridge lose some of its charm. Amid doubts about the plans, the architect behind the project, Cartwright Pickard, last year told a council meeting that the area would not be turned into a 'modern monstrosity'. Some of the area used for stalls will become an event space, though in the latest iteration of the plans, released in May, the council scrapped a proposal to turn the Guildhall into a hotel after a tepid reaction during consultations. 'The character could be lost for good,' says Glenys Self, a jewellery trader on the market. 'The developers don't understand the value of what they have here. The new market is not traditional. We need to preserve it. A way of life is disappearing.' Glenys, who has been on the market for 20 years, says her stall is popular with tourists but has survived through the support of loyal locals. She is concerned the new plans favour tourist-focused weekend traders, leaving the square empty Monday to Thursday. 'It's becoming a playground for tourists,' she says. Another trader, Tom Wells, is also concerned the revamp will prioritise the needs of tourists over locals, with 'more hot food stalls' replacing other wares. 'We see people take stalls for the summer then disappear,' he says. 'They pop up and then they're gone.' He points to the absence of a plaque celebrating the history of the market, which dates back to the Middle Ages, as a lack of appreciation of its value to the city. Councillor Rosy Moore, Cabinet Member for Climate Action and Environment, says the city is 'not pursuing mass tourism', and that the Civic Quarter Project is about enhancing the city-centre experience and 'investing in our historic civic spaces to ensure they remain relevant, resilient and welcoming for future generations'. There is no mistaking two things: one, the market could do with a refresh, and two: Cambridge still hums with charm and character. Its curious passageways provide that Potter-esque intrigue, academia and the buzz of students is in the air and on its flyer-covered railings, and there are still plenty of cutesy independent shops and restaurants. But it is also easy to see that big business has seen an opportunity and begun the process of homogenisation. Skirting the market square today are the likes of Franco Manca, Five Guys, and the universal signifier of gentrification, Gail's; an American burger outfit, ShakeShack, is opening soon in the opposite corner. It is easy to see, then, how the market, scruffy in a quaint way, must feel like the walls are closing in. In that sense, it is perhaps the last bastion of Cambridge before the tourists arrived; before its city centre was marketed not at those who live here, but those just passing by.
