Matthew Clarke (footballer, born 1996)
English association football player, born 1996
Matthew Edward Barkell Clarke (born 22 September 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as a central defender for EFL Championship club Derby County.
Clarke started his career at Ipswich Town, before joining Portsmouth initially on loan in 2015, making the move permanent in 2016. In 2019, Clarke joined Premier League Brighton & Hove Albion, but failed to make an apperenace, he had two loan spells at Derby County in the 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons and one at West Bromwich Albion in 2021–22. Clarke joined Middlesbrough on a permanent deal in August 2022, before rejoining Derby County in January 2025.
Club career
Ipswich Town
Born in Barham, Suffolk, Clarke joined Ipswich Town academy as an U7 and signed a scholarship with the club in the summer of 2013. He was included in the main squad for the pre-season in the following year.
Clarke made his professional debut for the club on 12 August 2014, starting as a left back in a 1–0 Football League Cup away loss against Crawley Town. On 11 September he signed a two-year professional deal with the club.
Portsmouth
In July 2015, Clarke went on a trial at Portsmouth, signing a six-month loan deal with the club on 3 August.
On 2 September 2015, Clarke signed a new two-year contract at Ipswich Town, contracting him to the club until June 2017.
“Matthew Clarke (footballer, born 1996)” enters the record as english association football player, born 1996. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Matthew, Clarke and footballer can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Matthew Clarke (footballer, born 1996)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Matthew, Clarke and footballer provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17505056. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996, 2015, 2016 and 2019.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Matthew Clarke (footballer, born 1996)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Matthew Clarke (footballer, born 1996) primary sources, Matthew Clarke (footballer, born 1996) archive and Matthew research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Matthew Clarke (footballer, born 1996)”?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Matthew Clarke (footballer, born 1996)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.