Mark Draper

This article is about the English footballer. For other people, see Mark Draper (disambiguation).

Mark Draper

Personal information
Full name	Mark Andrew Draper [1]
Date of birth	(1970-11-11) 11 November 1970 (age 53)
Place of birth	Long Eaton, England
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) [2]
Position(s)	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1988–1994	Notts County	222	(41)
1994–1995	Leicester City	39	(5)
1995–2000	Aston Villa	120	(7)
2000	→ Rayo Vallecano (loan)	4	(0)
2000–2003	Southampton	24	(1)
2009	Dunkirk
Total		409	(54)
International career
1991	England U21	3	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Mark Andrew Draper (born 11 November 1970) is an English football coach and former professional footballer.

As a player, he was a midfielder from 1988 to 2003, notably in the Premier League for Leicester City, Aston Villa and Southampton. He also played in Spain for Rayo Vallecano and in the Football League with Notts County. He represented England at under-21 level. In 2009, he briefly came out of retirement for non-league side Dunkirk.

Since retiring Draper had a spell as kit man for former side Notts County but has since moved into coaching and runs a football training centre for children in Nottingham.

Playing career

Draper began his career as a product of the youth system at Notts County, making his professional debut in December 1988. A talented midfielder, he became recognised by County supporters as one of the most gifted young players ever developed at the club. ^[3] After attracting the attention of a number of bigger clubs, Draper was finally sold during the 1994 close season to Leicester City for £1.25 million – a record fee for the club at the time.

Draper spent the entire 1994–95 season at Filbert Street, playing 39 times in the Premier League (to which they had just been promoted) and scoring five goals, although it was not enough to prevent relegation for a side who were never out of the bottom two after November. Despite this he was called up to the England squad by Terry Venables. ^[4]

His form attracted the attention of Aston Villa, who paid £3.25 million to keep him in the Premier League. Over the next four seasons Draper became a regular in the Aston Villa starting line-up, helping them to a League Cup win in 1996. He received another call up to the England squad, this time by Glenn Hoddle for a World Cup qualifier against Moldova. ^[5] However, he stayed on the bench and was ultimately never capped for the senior team.

Draper fell out of favour in the 1999–2000 season, appearing in only one game to bring his Villa total up to 120 league appearances (7 goals), and was loaned to Rayo Vallecano in Spain. He was sold during that close season to Southampton for £1.5 million. By then approaching veteran stage, Draper added another 24 top flight appearances (with one goal against Middlesbrough) ^[6] for the Saints before leaving the game.

Later career in non-league football

Draper made a brief playing comeback in 2009, signing for non-league side Dunkirk. ^[7]

Draper was enticed back into the local non league game by Paul Rawden who took Draper to East Midlands Counties Football League side Radford as coach and the pair saved the club from relegation, Draper then followed Rawden to Arnold Town for the 2012–13 season for a brief spell before they both left the club.^{[ citation needed ]}

Personal life

He is currently involved in property development. ^[8] In 2009, he rejoined his old club Notts County as their kit man. ^[9]

He currently works with ex-Aston Villa footballer Dave Norton at their soccer school "Draper Norton Football", based in Nottingham. ^{[10] [11]}

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		League Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Notts County
	1988–89 [12]	Third Division	20	3	0	0	1	0	3 [lower-alpha 1]	0	24	3
	1989–90 [12]	Third Division	34	3	1	0	2	0	3 [lower-alpha 1]	1	40	4
	1990–91 [12]	Second Division	45	9	4	0	4	0	5 [lower-alpha 2]	1	58	10
	1991–92 [12]	First Division	35	1	2	1	1	0	2 [lower-alpha 3]	1	40	3
	1992–93 [12]	First Division	44	11	0	0	3	1	2 [lower-alpha 4]	0	49	12
	1993–94 [12]	First Division	44	14	3	1	4	1	8 [lower-alpha 4]	2	59	18
	Total		222	41	10	2	15	2	23	5	270	50
Leicester City	1994–95 [12]	Premier League	39	5	2	0	2	0	—		43	5
Aston Villa
	1995–96 [12]	Premier League	36	2	5	2	8	1	—		49	5
	1996–97 [12]	Premier League	29	0	0	0	2	0	2 [lower-alpha 5]	0	33	0
	1997–98 [13]	Premier League	31	3	4	0	1	0	7 [lower-alpha 5]	0	43	3
	1998–99 [14]	Premier League	23	2	1	0	1	1	4 [lower-alpha 5]	0	29	3
	1999–2000 [15]	Premier League	1	0	0	0	0	0	—		1	0
	Total		120	7	10	2	12	2	13	0	155	11
Rayo Vallecano (loan)	1999–2000 [16]	La Liga	4	0	0	0	0	0	—		4	0
Southampton
	2000–01 [17]	Premier League	22	1	4	0	1	0	—		27	1
	2001–02 [18]	Premier League	2	0	0	0	1	0	—		3	0
	Total		24	1	4	0	2	0	0	0	30	1
Career total			409	54	26	4	31	4	36	5	502	67

Notes

1. Appearances in Associate Members' Cup
2. Appearances in Full Members' Cup (2 appearances, 1 goal) and play-offs (3 appearances)
3. Appearances in Full Members' Cup
4. Appearances in Anglo-Italian Cup
5. Appearances in UEFA Cup

Honours

Aston Villa

• Football League Cup: 1995–96 ^[19]

Individual

• PFA Team of the Year: 1993–94 First Division ^[20]

References

1. "Mark Draper". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
2. Chalk, Gary; Holley, Duncan; Bull, David (2013). All the Saints: A Complete Players' Who's Who of Southampton FC. Southampton: Hagiology Publishing. p. 303. ISBN   978-0-9926-8640-6.
3. "Former Greats – Notts. County FC – Notts County Mad Index". Nottscounty-mad.co.uk. Retrieved 13 January 2016.^{[ dead link ]}
4. "Venables places emphasis on youth". The Independent. 19 April 1995. Retrieved 22 October 2014.
5. "Football: Le Tissier has goals to achieve under Hoddle". The Independent. 27 August 1996. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
6. "Boro downed by Saints". BBC Sport. 24 February 2001. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
7. "Notts County legend Mark Draper signs for Dunkirk". Thisisnottingham.co.uk. 24 January 2009. Archived from the original on 5 May 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
8. Archived 1 May 2006 at the Wayback Machine
9. "Notts County boss Ian McParland has told his players to stay calm in the face of huge expectation". Thisisnottingham.co.uk. 10 September 2009. Archived from the original on 24 October 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
10. "What is Mark Draper doing now". Prenier League Heroes. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
11. "Who we are". DNF Coaching. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
12. "Player search: Richards, DI (Dean)" . English National Football Archive. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
13. "Games played by Mark Draper in 1997/1998". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
14. "Games played by Mark Draper in 1998/1999". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
15. "Games played by Mark Draper in 1999/2000". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
16. "Games played by Mark Draper in 1999/2000". bdfutbol.com. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
17. "Games played by Mark Draper in 2000/2001". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
18. "Games played by Mark Draper in 2001/2002". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
19. "Milosevic gives; Villa a touch of magic". The Independent. 25 March 1996. Retrieved 2 April 2024.
20. Lynch. The Official P.F.A. Footballers Heroes. p. 150.

External links

• Mark Draper at Soccerbase
• ESPN Soccernet profile
• Aston Villa fan site profile
• Southampton fan site profile
• Aston Villa profile