Stewart Downing’s initial years as a football player kicked off with Middlesbrough as this was the club where the English performer made his debut in the Premier League and this occurred back in April of 2002.
After making over 180 appearances with Middlesbrough, Downing opted to join a different club as he went on to make a move to Sunderland on a loan deal before eventually signing a permanent deal with Aston Villa.
From there on out, Downing went on to perform with Liverpool and West Ham United as the English player made his way through various clubs but the experienced performer has made his return to Middlesbrough.
This is an ideal moment for the English player to get back to Middlesbrough as the club has recently been promoted back to the Premier League and are preparing themselves to compete in the top tier English League where they used to compete in some years ago.
The veteran player has recently talked about the last time when he performed with Middlesbrough which was back in 2009 before he eventually made his way through a number of clubs and Stewart Downing said:
‘’The last time I played for Middlesbrough at the Riverside (against Aston Villa, 1-1 draw, May 2009), I left the ground on crutches and it was a sour note to be relegated with my home-town team.”
“I only had one hour’s sleep before the Brighton game because I was going through everything in my mind a million times. I was dreaming of this moment and thinking, ‘if we’re going to win promotion, it has to be now,’ because it gets harder every year’’
Now that Downing has made his return to his childhood club, he wants to help them in their journey of competing once again in the Premier League and hopefully avoid getting relegated.