Alexander William Cochrane

Alex Cochrane's route into senior football ran through Scotland rather than the club that raised him. He joined the Brighton & Hove Albion academy in 2008, having started out at Chailey & Newick Colts, and stayed there until 2019. He signed his first professional contract in 2018 but did not make a senior league appearance for the club.

Instead, his early senior football came out on loan. A single appearance for East Grinstead Town in January 2018 was followed by a spell at Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium, from October 2020 to May 2021, where he played seven times.

The move that changed his career came in August 2021, when he went to Heart of Midlothian on loan. He made 32 league appearances and scored twice in that first season. Hearts made the deal permanent in June 2022 for a reported fee of about £1.3 million. In his time as a permanent player he added 64 league appearances and two more goals.

In July 2024, Birmingham City signed him from Hearts. The fee was reported as £1.3 million, and the club described it officially as a seven-figure sum.

Cochrane has played for England at youth level. He won one cap for the Under-16s in 2015 and two for the Under-20s in 2019. He has not been called up to the senior national team.