Full name Lee John Payne Years Team Name Lee Payne | Playing position Role Footballer | |
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Date of birth (1966-12-12) 12 December 1966 (age 49) | ||
Lee payne in love again
Lee John Payne (born 12 December 1966) is an English former professional footballer and currently a football agent. He played as a left-winger in both England and the Netherlands.
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Payne joined Luton Town as a schoolboy, but was later released as an eighteen-year-old. His first senior appearance in football came with Hitchin Town in 1985 and after a successful spell there he moved on to Barnet, for whom he played twice in the Conference as they finished in second place at the end of the 1987-88 season.
After three more appearances for Barnet the following season, Payne was sold to Newcastle United for a non league record transfer fee of £125,000 and in October of that season made his football league debut against Middlesbrough in a 3-1 victory at St James Park. He went on to make seven appearances for the Magpies before moving to Reading in March 1989 for a transfer fee of £60,000.
After making 36 appearances and scoring 3 goals Payne moved to the Netherlands to play for Eerste Divisie (second-tier) club BV Veendam in 1990. In his first season, he became BV Veendam's player of the year making 32 appearances and scoring 12 goals. In 1991/92 Payne was transferred for a sum of around £100,000 to rival Dutch club FC Emmen where he spent three seasons before returning to BV Veendam for a further season only to be forced to end his professional playing career in 1995/6 through a serious knee injury after a short spell back in England in 1993, during which he played once in the Conference for Gateshead - although Payne continued playing for another few years back in amateur football in the Netherlands.
After fully retiring, he subsequently became a scout for a number of clubs throughout Europe, including West Ham, before later becoming a football agent, holding a FIFA agent's license and represents a number of high-profile footballers in England for the sports agency Full Contact. Payne's father was a manager in non-league football in England, notably Wealdstone.