Matt Gilks

Matthew Gilks (born 4 June 1982) is a professional footballer who plays for League One club Bolton Wanderers as player-goalkeeping coach. He is a goalkeeper. He has previously played for Blackpool, Burnley, Norwich City, Rochdale, Rangers, Wigan Athletic, Shrewsbury Town, Scunthorpe United, Lincoln City, Fleetwood Town and the Scotland national team.

Although born in England, he qualifies to represent Scotland. He was first selected for the Scotland national football team in August 2010 and made his international debut in August 2012.

Club Career

Rochdale

Born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, where he started out with Heyside Juniors, Gilks joined Rochdale at the age of 13. He was promoted from their youth team in 2001. After being coached by Fred Barber, he eventually replaced Neil Edwards in the first team, becoming a regular starter. He made a total of 198 appearances for the club in league and cup competitions, and by the time he was 24, he was the longest-serving player at Rochdale. Being an Oldham Athletic fan growing up, and living about a mile from Boundary Park, he states Andy Rhodes and Jon Hallworth as his heroes.

Norwich City

On 1 July 2007, Gilks signed a two-year contract with Championship club Norwich City, moving on a free transfer due to his contract with Rochdale having expired. He was though, unable to break into the Canaries first team, spending most of the 2007–08 season sitting on the substitutes bench, which also included a spell out of action with ligament damage after twisting his ankle in November 2007 in training.

Blackpool

In the summer of 2008, and without having made a first-team appearance for the Canaries, Gilks signed for fellow Championship club Blackpool as makeweight in a part-exchange deal which saw Wes Hoolahan go in the opposite direction. He made his debut on 12 August 2008 in a 2–0 League Cup defeat by Macclesfield Town.

After failing to break into

This page also has a version in other languages :  Мэттью Джилкс (russian)