Josh Thomas (footballer, born 2002)

Last updated
Josh Thomas
Personal information
Full name Joshua John Thomas [1]
Date of birth (2002-09-24) 24 September 2002 (age 22) [2]
Place of birth Bridgend, Wales [3]
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s) Forward
Team information
Current team
 Drogheda United
(on loan from Swansea City)
Number 9
Youth career
2014–2020 Swansea City
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
2020– Swansea City 1 (0)
2021 → Cardiff Met (loan) 4 (0)
2023–2024 → Port Vale (loan) 11 (0)
2024–2025 → Bromley (loan) 3 (0)
2025– → Drogheda United (loan) 2 (1)
International career‡
2017 Wales U15
2018 Wales U16 1 (0)
2018 Wales U17 5 (1)
2019 Wales U19 5 (1)
2020 Wales U20 1 (0)
2023–2024 Wales U21 10 (2)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 13:00, 26 February 2025 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 00:00, 15 October 2024 (UTC)

Joshua John Thomas (born 24 September 2002) is a Welsh professional footballer who plays as a forward for League of Ireland Premier Division club Drogheda United, on loan from EFL Championship club Swansea City. He is a Wales under-21 international.

Contents

A pacey forward capped by Wales up to under-21 level, Thomas turned professional at Swansea City in 2020. He joined Cardiff Metropolitan University (Cardiff Met) on loan in January 2021, though he suffered a serious injury later in the year. He was loaned to Port Vale for the first half of the 2023–24 season and to Bromley for the 2024–25 season.

Early life

Josh Thomas was born in Bridgend on 24 September 2002. He only started playing football at ten, having previously played rugby union. [4]

Club career

Thomas joined the youth system at Swansea City at the age of 12 and went on to sign a scholarship in 2019, having scored in the under-19's FAW Welsh Youth Cup final victory over The New Saints. [5] [3] He was nominated for the October 2019 Premier League 2 Player of the Month award. [6] He signed professional terms with the club after scoring a hat-trick for the under-23 team in 2020. [3] On 31 January 2021, he joined Cymru Premier club Cardiff Metropolitan University (Cardiff Met) on loan for the rest of the 2020–21 season, alongside Matthew Blake. [7] However, he was then sidelined for 18 months due to injury, having suffered an ankle deltoid ligament injury in a car accident. [8] He signed an 18-month contract extension in September 2022 after starting the season on a short-term deal. [9] He managed to regain good form for the under-21 team during the 2022–23 campaign, scoring 23 goals. [10]

On 2 August 2023, he joined EFL League One club Port Vale on loan for the 2023–24 season after scoring five goals for the Swans senior team in pre-season. [10] He made his debut three days later, coming on as a 56th-minute substitute for Gavin Massey in a 7–0 defeat at Barnsley. [11] He scored his first senior goal on his home debut at Vale Park, a 3–2 victory over Fleetwood Town in the EFL Cup on 8 August. [12] He tore a muscle on international duty in November 2023, which kept him out of action for close to four weeks. [13] He suffered setbacks on the injury and also became ill over Christmas, causing him to miss an extra month of action. [14] He was recalled by Swansea from his loan spell on 4 January 2024, with Port Vale's director of football David Flitcroft blaming international call-ups and injuries for restricting the player's game time to 15 appearances in all competitions, during which he scored three goals and created two assists. [15]

On 30 August 2024, Thomas joined EFL League Two club Bromley on a season-long loan after having signed a new contract with Swansea earlier in the day. [16] [17]

On 17 January 2025, he was loaned out to Drogheda United for their 2025 League of Ireland Premier Division campaign. [18]

International career

Thomas has been capped by Wales up to under-21 level. [19]

Style of play

Thomas is a pacey forward. [20]

Career statistics

As of match played 21 February 2024
Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
ClubSeasonLeagueNational CupLeague CupOtherTotal
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Swansea City 2020–21 [21] EFL Championship 0000000000
2021–22 [22] EFL Championship000000—00
2022–23 [23] EFL Championship000000—00
2023–24 [24] EFL Championship000000—00
2024–25 [25] EFL Championship100000—10
Total1000000010
Cardiff Met (loan) 2020–21 [2] Cymru Premier 4000000040
Port Vale (loan) 2023–24 [24] EFL League One 11000321 [a] 1153
Bromley (loan) 2024–25 [24] EFL League Two 3000—3 [a] 060
Drogheda United (loan) 2025 [26] LOI Premier Division 2100—2 [b] 243
Career total211003263306
  1. 1 2 Appearance(s) in the EFL Trophy
  2. ↑ 1 appearance in the President of Ireland's Cup; 1 appearance, 2 goals in the Leinster Senior Cup

References

  1. ↑ "Club List of Registered Players" (PDF). EFL. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  2. 1 2 Josh Thomas at Soccerway
  3. 1 2 3 "Josh Thomas". Swansea. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  4. ↑ "Thomas learning from mentor Trundle | Swansea". www.swanseacity.com. 21 April 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  5. ↑ "Swansea City greats helping drive Josh Thomas' development | Swansea". www.swanseacity.com. 28 August 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  6. ↑ "Josh Thomas "gobsmacked" by PL2 Player of the Month nomination | Swansea". www.swanseacity.com. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  7. ↑ "Swansea City Under-23s duo join Cardiff Met on loan | Swansea". www.swanseacity.com. 1 February 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  8. ↑ "Josh Thomas | Watching from the sidelines was tough, but it made me realise how much I want this | Swansea". www.swanseacity.com. 14 September 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  9. ↑ "Swansea City striker Josh Thomas signs contract extension through to 2024 | Swansea". www.swanseacity.com. 12 September 2022. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  10. 1 2 "Swansea City striker Josh Thomas seals loan move to Port Vale | Swansea". www.swanseacity.com. 2 August 2023. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  11. ↑ "Rampant Barnsley put seven past Port Vale". BBC Sport. 5 August 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  12. ↑ Youlson, Clive (9 August 2023). "Port Vale bounce back from opening day mauling to secure cup win". StokeonTrentLive. Retrieved 9 August 2023.
  13. ↑ Baggaley, Mike (20 November 2023). "Vale Park tour, plans and Railway questions answered". Valiant's Substack. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
  14. ↑ Baggaley, Mike (4 January 2024). "Injury and transfer window update as Port Vale prepare for Charlton". Valiant's Substack. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  15. ↑ "Josh Thomas Returns to Swansea City". Port Vale F.C. 11 January 2024. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
  16. ↑ "Bromley sign Stevenage's Ben Thompson and Swansea striker Josh Thomas on loan for the season". BBC Sport. 30 August 2024. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  17. ↑ "Josh Thomas pens new Swansea City deal and makes Bromley loan move | Swansea". Swansea City AFC. 30 August 2024. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  18. ↑ https://droghedaunited.ie/josh-thomas-loan/
  19. ↑ Williams, Aled (17 November 2023). "Ten-man Wales U21s return to top of group with win". BBC Sport. Retrieved 17 November 2023.
  20. ↑ "Josh Thomas Joins the Valiants on a Season-Long Loan". Port Vale F.C. 2 August 2023. Retrieved 2 August 2023.
  21. ↑ "Games played by Josh Thomas in 2020/2021". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  22. ↑ "Games played by Josh Thomas in 2021/2022". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  23. ↑ "Games played by Josh Thomas in 2022/2023". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  24. 1 2 3 "Games played by Josh Thomas in 2023/2024". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  25. ↑ "Games played by Josh Thomas in 2024/2025". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
  26. ↑ https://ie.soccerway.com/players/joshua-thomas/547865/
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