Ben Marshall

Early career

Ben Marshall started his career at Manchester United's youth team as a seven-year-old in 1997. He remained there until he was 14 in 2005 before he joined Dario Gradi at Crewe Alexandra's academy in 2005, he spent a total of 4 years at Crewe Alexandra.

Stoke City

Marshall signed for Stoke City on 8 July 2009 along with fellow youngster Matthew Lund from Crewe both after progressing through the youth system at the Alexandra Stadium. After an impressive pre-season for Stoke, he joined Northampton Town on loan for 3 months on 7 August to gain some first team experience and he earned praise from Cobblers boss Stuart Gray. Marshall returned to Stoke on 4 November 2009 following a successful loan spell. On 13 November 2009, Marshall signed on a month's loan with Cheltenham Town. He made his debut on 14 November 2009 in a 1–1 draw with Lincoln City.

On 1 February 2010, Marshall moved on loan again, this time to League One side Carlisle United. He made his debut for the Cumbrians in a 2–1 defeat to Colchester United. He played twenty games and scored three goals for Carlisle.

He returned to Carlisle on a six-month loan on 31 August 2010. Marshall stated that he was 'excited' about rejoining Carlisle United on loan. He extended his loan until the end of the season. His performances earned the praise of Carlisle manager Greg Abbott. He won the Football League Trophy with United however he played just 23 minutes of the final against Brentford after being injured by Adam Reed. The tackle by Reed resulted in a broken leg for Marshall.

Following his return from injury Marshall joined Sheffield Wednesday on a five-month loan. Wednesday's manager Gary Megson stated that he wanted to try and sign Marshall on a permanent basis. Marshall was offered a new three-year contract with Stoke. However Marshall failed to sign the contract before the end of his loan spell and so returned to Stoke. He rejected Stoke's contract offer and joined Leicester City. Marshall failed to make an appearance for Stoke.

Leicester City

Marshall joined Leicester on transfer deadline day on 31 January 2012 for a fee of £750k, possibly rising to £1 million based on promotion and appearance clauses. He scored his first competitive goal for the club in a 5–2 FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Chelsea on 18 March 2012 and scored his first league goal 6 days later against Hull City. Marshall's fine form continued with goals in both of Leicester's victory over the Easter weekend against Doncaster Rovers and Ipswich Town. Marshall scored his first goal of the 2012–13 season in a 1–0 home win over Blackpool.

Blackburn Rovers

It was announced on 28 August 2013 that Marshall had signed for Blackburn Rovers on a four-year deal. He scored his first goal for the club on 14 December 2013 in a 3–2 home victory against Millwall Marshall had just started to establish himself as starter for the club, putting in a number of impressive displays, when he suffered an ankle ligament injury in a game against Derby on 25 January 2013. Scans revealed that Marshall would be ruled out for 'several months' and would therefore likely miss the remainder of the season. On 26 September 2016, after bids from Fulham and Wolves had been turned down over the summer, Marshall was offered a new contract by Blackburn, with his deal at the time set to expire at the end of the season. However, Marshall turned the contract down and was made unavailable for the first-team by then Blackburn manager Owen Coyle on 19 January 2017 following another bid by Wolves. His last appearance for the club came in a 3-2 defeat at Ipswich Town on 14 January 2017.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

On 31 January 2017 Marshall signed for fellow Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers on a three-and-a-half year deal for an undisclosed fee, reported to be around £1.2m. Marshall was reunited with his former manager Paul Lambert, who had managed him at Blackburn during the 2015-16 season. Marshall said: "Wolves is a massive club which looks like it is going in the right direction... Obviously I have worked under the gaffer as well at Blackburn and we got on well. I enjoyed my time working with him and so getting another opportunity to do that here is something I am really looking forward to. So the move ticked all the boxes and it is something that feels right. It looks like Wolves are going to be strong moving forwards." Wolves then head coach Paul Lambert had this to say about Marshall: "He is a really good footballer and will be a welcome addition. He will know with the results that are happening that he will have to fight to get in the team. I think the fans will love him."

Marshall's Wolves debut came the following game on 4 February 2017 in a 2-1 loss against Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium, coming off the bench for Andreas Weimann in the 80th minute. Marshall was revealed to have been assigned the shirt number 64. Marshall made his first start and home debut for the club ten days later in 1-0 home defeat by Wigan Athletic. His first Wolves goal came on 4 March 2017 at Reading, though the team still lost 2-1. This was Wolves' fifth consecutive defeat. Despite this losing run, Marshall urged them to remain positive, saying "Since I’ve come to the club it’s been brilliant - we've been playing some good football and the lads are a good group, the team spirit is there and once we get a win I think we will kick on." Wolves went on to win their next five games in a row, with Marshall recording 3 assists during this seqeunce. On 17 April 2017, Marshall recorded another assist, setting up Nouha Dicko for the only goal in 1-0 away win at Leeds United that mathematically secured Wolves' Championship status.

International career

Marshall made his debut for the England U21s in a European U21 Championship qualifier against Azerbaijan at the Dalga Arena, coming on as a 61st-minute substitute for Wilfried Zaha. England went on to win the game 2-0.

Career statistics

Honours