Charlie Lakin

Charlie Lakin (born 8 May 1999) is an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for EFL League One club Burton Albion. He joined Birmingham City as a nine-year-old, went on to make his senior debut for the club in the 2017–18 FA Cup, and played ten times in the 2018–19 Championship. Despite missing two months with injury, Lakin managed 25 appearances on loan at League Two club Stevenage before the 2019–20 season ended prematurely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He spent the 2020–21 season on loan to Scottish Premiership club Ross County, before leaving Birmingham on a permanent basis for Burton Albion in August 2021.

Club Career

Birmingham City

Lakin was born in Solihull where he attended Langley School. He joined Birmingham City's Academy from Walsall's under-nine team, and took up a scholarship with the club in July 2015. In his first season, he featured regularly for Birmingham's under-18 team. Speaking in January 2017, Academy manager Kristjaan Speakman described Lakin as "a left-sided midfielder [who] has played in a more central position for the Under-18s over the course of this season. He has real box-to-box energy. He can be creative with the ball but also really robust defensively." He finished the season with two goals from 13 appearances in the under-23 team, and signed his first professional contract, of one year, at the end of the 2016–17 season. Lakin was a regular in the under-23s in the 2017–18 season, and was one of two players selected to train with UE Cornella's first team in October 2017 as part of a proposed relationship between Birmingham City and the Spanish Segunda Division B (third-tier) club.

His involvement with Birmingham's first team increased, and on 27 January 2018, he was given a squad number and included among the substitutes for the FA Cup fourth-round visit to Premier League club Huddersfield Town. He remained unused as Birmingham drew the match, but made his senior debut in the replay ten days later. Use of a fourth