STILL GOT A BIT: LEE TRUNDLE AND FOOTBALL’S GREATEST JOURNEYMEN

Lee Trundle is still scoring goals. Not in a testimonial, or on some legends’ five-aside tour where everyone’s in Joma kits and nobody tracks back. No. He’s still playing, and scoring, at the top level. Well, sort of. He’s now turning out for Trefelin BGC in Cymru South, the second tier of Welsh football, and was named the league’s Player of the Month in March after scoring six goals in four games. And he’s 48 years old. Forty-eight.

In a game increasingly obsessed with data, peak ages and expected goals, there’s something refreshing about a player who just keeps going because they love it. And Trundle is part of a rare, stubborn group of footballers who simply do not stop. Players who’ve dipped into every corner of the British football pyramid, shrugged off retirement rumours like Sunday league defenders, and kept turning up for the next game, next contract, next new town.

So who are football’s greatest journeymen? Not just one-club legends, and not your average pros either. We’re talking about the ones who’ve seen it all. Championship playoffs and League Two dogfights. Conference away days and midweek games in the Welsh hills. Here’s a few who, like Trundle, have made the long road look like home.

Lee Trundle

Let’s stay with Trundle a moment. He was never a Premier League star, but in the lower leagues – especially during his time at Swansea – he was box office. The stepovers, the volleys, the celebrations that looked like they’d been choreographed at Butlins. He brought swagger to League football in an era when players still wore black boots and didn’t have Twitter accounts or set-piece coaches. Unlike the archetypal journeyman, Trundle is also a flash player. He had five-star skills on Fifa and his highlight reels are as good as anyone’s.

After his EFL peak, Trundle bounced around non-league, popping up at Neath, Llanelli, Mumbles Rangers and now Trefelin. He’s technically retired several times, taken up ambassador roles, and worked with Swansea’s academy. But he always ends up back in some starting XI, ready to drop a shoulder and hit one in top bins. He’s not chasing money. He just loves football.

Jefferson Louis

If you ever played Football Manager in the mid-2000s, you might remember Jefferson Louis. Then again, unless you support one of the 40+ clubs he’s turned out for (some pro, some semi-pro), we’ll forgive you if his name has slipped from your memory. Louis has played for just about everyone: Oxford United, Wrexham, Weymouth, Lincoln, Havant, Darlington, Gainsborough Trinity… the list goes on, like the credits to a very niche documentary.

In late 2002, Louis scored the winning goal in an FA Cup game against Swindon that put Oxford into the third round. However his crowning moment came not on the pitch, but in the dressing room as the draw was being made for the third round. Louis was a lifelong Arsenal fan and, in the aftermath of Oxford’s win, the BBC had the smart idea of sticking cameras in their dressing room and beaming their live reaction to the world. When Oxford were drawn away at Highbury, Louis was so excited that he jumped up and bared his naked behind to everyone watching.

Not bad for a man who had spent six months in prison on a drink-driving charge less than a year earlier. These days he plays for Thame United in the Southern League Division One Central.

Jamie Cureton

Cureton might be the best finisher you never quite saw enough of. He scored over 350 career goals, turning out for more than 20 clubs across every level of English football. He won the Golden Boot in the Championship with Colchester in 2007 at age 31, but — except for a debut season with Norwich in ’94-95, when he scored four goals — never got the proper Premier League run many felt he deserved.

Instead, he just kept scoring. Conference, Isthmian League, Hellenic League, whatever. Into his 40s, he was still taking up clever positions and chipping keepers like it was second nature. His goal record at Bishops Stortford (47 in 82) speaks for itself, so much so that he even ended up doing a stint as player-manager there.

He retired officially at 46, but has made a few appearances for Cambridge City this year, just months from his 50th birthday.

Kevin Ellison

Kevin Ellison was still playing professional football in League Two when he was 42. His career started in 1996 and, after spells at Stockport, Lincoln, Chester, Morecambe, and Newport County, is still going now. He’s never been flash, but he was consistent, a physical, left-sided attacker who plays with intensity and never seems to age.

He became something of a cult hero late on, especially after scoring in the playoffs for Newport and cupping his ears to a manager who’d previously frozen him out. It was classic Ellison: emotional, defiant, sharp when it mattered. Just last month his current side Vauxhall Motors were narrowly beaten in the Division One West playoff semis, having been tipped for relegation by many. You can’t keep a good man down (for long).

Adebayo Akinfenwa

Akinfenwa became more famous for his size and strength than his actual performances, but that undersells him. He played over 700 professional games, scored more than 200 goals, and was a key figure in Wycombe’s rise up the leagues.

He was 40 when he retired in 2022, but he’d been labelled “too big” for football since his twenties. In reality, he had great feet, a sharp football brain, and knew how to use his body better than anyone else in the lower leagues. For a while, he was an annual viral hit for the “strongest player in Fifa” tag, but those who watched him regularly knew he was more than that. He loved the game, and it showed. Since retiring he’s turned out in a friendly for YouTube-friendly semi-pro side Hashtag United and appeared in the autobiographical documentary Beast Mode On.

James Milner

Alright, this is bending the rules somewhat. Milner hasn’t exactly been plugging away at Tiverton Town at 43, and he’s only ever played in the top flight. But if you’re talking about longevity, consistency, and racking up air miles between clubs, then Milner deserves at least a mention in this conversation.

He made his Premier League debut for Leeds in 2002 at 16 and soon became the Prem’s youngest ever goalscorer (although he was later usurped by James Vaughan). Since then, he’s played for Newcastle, Aston Villa, Manchester City, Liverpool, and now Brighton. He’s played under 13 different permanent managers, covered just about every outfield position except centre-back, and is still capable of running a midfield press at 39.

He’s not flash. He doesn’t have a podcast. But he is, quietly, one of the most reliable players English football has ever produced. And even if you take the glamour of his clubs into account, there’s something deeply journeyman-ish about how he’s navigated the game: always available, always useful, always moving on when needed.

If Trundle is the five-a-side wizard who refuses to fade, Milner is the office workhorse who’s outlasted four CEOs and still gets to work before everyone else.