Lee Cowling is an English former professional

Professional

A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...

 footballer who played in the Football League

The Football League

The Football League, also known as the npower Football League for sponsorship reasons, is a league competition featuring professional association football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest such competition in world football...

 as a defender

Defender

Defender usually refers to a position in association football .Defender or The Defender may also refer to:-Film and television:* The Defender or The Bodyguard from Beijing, a film starring Jet Li...

 for Nottingham Forest

Nottingham Forest F.C.

Nottingham Forest Football Club is an English Association Football club based in West Bridgford, Nottingham, that plays in the Football League Championship...

 and Mansfield Town.

Playing career

Born in Doncaster

Doncaster

Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, England, and the principal settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster. The town is about from Sheffield and is popularly referred to as "Donny"...

, Cowling started his career as a trainee at Manchester United, after they spotted him playing junior league football in Doncaster, beating Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Wednesday F.C.

Sheffield Wednesday Football Club are a football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, who are currently competing in the Football League One in the 2011-12 season, in England. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world and the fourth oldest in the...

 and Arsenal

Arsenal F.C.

Arsenal Football Club is a professional English Premier League football club based in North London. One of the most successful clubs in English football, it has won 13 First Division and Premier League titles and 10 FA Cups...

 to his signature. A regular in their youth teams and the England schoolboy setup alongside players such as Paul Scholes, Phil and Gary Neville and David Beckham, Lee never appeared for their first team before moving to Nottingham Forest in 1995, where he also represented England at U-18 level.

After a brief stint at Mansfield Town, the club at which his father, Dave Cowling

David

David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...

 started his career, a reoccurring knee injury forced him to retire in his early twenties. He later signed for non-league Kettering in 2000, where he made 32 appearances in two seasons with the club, before being released on a free transfer.

Coaching career

Lee is a UEFA A qualified coach who also holds The FA Youth Coaches Award and the Futsal Coaching qualification.

Lee has previously worked as an academy coach at Championship side Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...

, and now coaches at two football development colleges in the north of England.

External links

1. http://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=1708
2. http://www.clubwebsite.co.uk/soccerplanet/club_bespoke.pl?page_select=3082