Players who played in all four divisions of English football

England has the deepest professional league system in world football, boasting four fully professional divisions (and even the fifth tier almost exclusively comprises full-time clubs these days).

Some players manage to play in all four of them – whether they begin their career at the bottom rung of the ladder and work their way all the way up to the glitz and glamour of the Premier League, or do it the other way round and wind down in the lower tiers.

Not counting loan spells (everyone here had at least one permanent stint in each of the top four divisions), we take a look at some of the stars to experience the English game more extensively than most.

Dean Whitehead began his career with local club Oxford United, turning out in the bottom two tiers of English football.

In 2004, the midfielder got a big move to Championship Sunderland; he helped the Black Cats to promotion in his first campaign and was named Player of the Season in his second – his first as a Premier League player.

Whitehead also appeared in the top flight for Stoke and Huddersfield.

A key midfield cog in Chris Wilder’s 2018/19 Championship promotion-winning Sheffield United team, John Lundstram went from League Two to the Premier League in the space of barely three years.

He helped Oxford United go up from League Two as runners-up in 2015/16, having signed his first professional contract at Everton – only to never make a first-team appearance.

Strongly suspected of being the player behind the ‘Secret Footballer’ column and book series, Dave Kitson featured for a string of clubs across the top four divisions.

In 2001/02, he won promotion from the Third Division to the Second Division with Cambridge United; five seasons later, the striker scored 18 goals as Reading reached the Premier League – where he also appeared for Stoke.

Tommy Mooney burst onto the scene with 13 goals in 27 games in his first campaign as a professional, starting out with Scarborough in the old Fourth Division.

But the Durham-born frontman is best-known for his long association with Watford, for whom he played third-tier, second-tier and Premier League football in the late 90s.

A Fulham youth product, midfielder Sean Davis played for the Cottagers in each of the top four divisions – in the space of just five years.

Capped 12 times by England at U21 level, Davis played a pivotal role in Fulham’s 2000/01 First Division title triumph and later also featured in the Premier League for Tottenham, Portsmouth and Bolton.

Born in Truro, Cornwall, Matthew Etherington got his big break at Peterborough United after being spotted by then manager Barry Fry.

Having debuted in the third tier, the winger caught the attention of Spurs with some impressive displays in the division below.

He also played in the top flight for West Ham – with whom he had earlier ticked off his ‘missing’ division, the second tier.

One of the game’s ultimate journeyman, Steve Claridge shouldn’t come as a surprise inclusion on this list.

The striker – whose career lasted three decades – won promotion from the third tier with Birmingham in 1995 and the second with Leicester the very next year, scoring a number of Premier League goals for the latter.

Claridge got his first taste of League football Aldershot in the old Fourth Division in the late 80s.

Unique among the players on this list, Tony Cottee began his career at the very highest level – with West Ham, where he notched 92 First Division goals between 1983 and 1988.

Capped seven times by England thanks to that prolific form, Cottee went on to play top-flight football for Everton, West Ham again and Leicester – before spells in the second, third and fourth tiers with Norwich, Millwall and Barnet respectively in the 2000/01 season.

Bolton favourite Kevin Davies was one of Sam Allardyce’s main men as the Trotters firmly established themselves in the Premier League during the 00s.

The one-cap England frontman had previously played third- and fourth-tier football for Chesterfield and briefly turned out in the second tier for one of Bolton’s rivals, Blackburn.

Among the most clinical marksmen in modern Football League history, Billy Sharp has represented hometown club Sheffield United in the Premier League, Championship and League One.

Following stints with the LA Galaxy and Hull, Sharp completed the four-division set by re-joining League Two Doncaster Rovers – who he had previously played for in the second tier – ahead of the 2024/25 season.

Signed by manager Jan Molby in the summer of 2002, Ian Ashbee captained Hull all the way through their remarkable journey from the fourth tier to the Premier League.

The former England U18 midfielder was one of four Hull players to be with the Tigers for the whole of their rise up the pyramid – the others being goalkeeper Boaz Myhill, defender Andy Dawson and winger Ryan France.

Born in Limerick, Ireland, Steve Finnan made his professional breakthrough at First Division Birmingham in the mid-90s.

After dropping to the second tier then third tier with Notts County, the right-back – who represented his country at the 2002 World Cup – helped Fulham win two promotions in three years to reach the Premier League – where he later notably starred for Liverpool, also winning the 2004/05 Champions League with the Reds.

A prolific centre-forward in his prime, Rickie Lambert enjoyed 20-goal seasons in the fourth, third and second tiers of English football for Rochdale, Bristol Rovers and Southampton respectively.

In the early 2010s, he spearheaded the Saints’ charge from League One to the Premier League in successive years – before bagging 28 goals in his first two to-flight campaigns, earning a big move to Liverpool and a spot in England’s 2014 World Cup squad.

A great ‘Barclaysman’, Matt Taylor is fondly remembered for some cracking Premier League goals from distance – the best of which he scored for Portsmouth.

The midfielder – who also played top-flight football for Bolton, West Ham and Burnley – starred in Pompey’s 2002/03 First Division promotion-winning campaign, having previously featured in each of the bottom two tiers for Luton.

Midfielder Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu made history when he reached the Premier League with Luton in 2023.

A Luton player since 2014, Mpanzu became the first player to play for the same club in the top five tiers of the English game – making his Hatters debut against Alfreton Town in the National League.

Robert Earnshaw’s Premier League hat-trick for West Brom against Charlton in March 2005 was notable for a couple of reasons: first, he had only come on as a substitute midway through the second half; second, and more significantly, it made him the first player to hit a hat-trick in all four professional divisions in England.

The somersaulting striker had already scored hat-tricks for Cardiff in tiers four to three (also doing so for Nottingham Forest in the second tier) – as well as the FA Cup and League Cup.

And in case that wasn’t enough, he notched one for Wales too.