Thomas David Heaton

Tom Heaton's route to Manchester United's first team ran through six loan spells and two other clubs before he ever kept goal for the club he joined as a boy. He arrived from Wrexham's youth ranks in 2002, but across eight years at Old Trafford he never made a senior appearance, going out instead to Swindon Town, Royal Antwerp, Cardiff City, Queens Park Rangers, Rochdale and Wycombe Wanderers. He did pick up an FA Youth Cup and a Manchester Senior Cup with the academy sides, but by 2010 he left for Cardiff permanently rather than wait any longer.

The rebuild happened away from Manchester. He was Cardiff's Young Player of the Year in 2010–11, then Bristol City's Player of the Season after a 2012 move, and it was at Burnley from 2013 that he became a genuine first-choice goalkeeper, twice picked up as the club's Player of the Year and named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year as Burnley won promotion in 2015–16. That form carried him into the England squad, and he won three caps in friendlies against Australia, Spain and France in 2016 and 2017.

Villa paid around £8 million for him in 2019, and he helped England to third place at the Nations League that year. Then, in July 2021, he returned to Manchester United on a free transfer — the club he had left without a single appearance more than a decade earlier. He finally made his United debut that December, against Young Boys, and went on to win the EFL Cup with the club in 2022–23. He was also named among England's training goalkeepers for Euro 2024.