£3.5m ex-Sunderland, Nottingham Forest and Portsmouth man, 40, signs for 22nd club since 2001

Former Sunderland man Greg Halford has signed for his 22nd club since his career started in 2001.

Halford moved to the Stadium of Light during Roy Keane’s managerial reign, completing a £3.5million deal during the summer of 2007. Although primarily used at right-back during his short-lived Black Cats career, Halford’s versatility meant he was used in several positions during his nine appearances for the club.

After making loan moves to Charlton Athletic and Sheffield United over the following 18 months, Halford eventually made a permanent departure from Sunderland when he completed a reported £1.7m move to Wolverhampton Wanderers in July 2009.

Throughout the following decade, Halford went on to feature for the likes of Nottingham Forest, Brighton and Hove Albion, Cardiff City and Aberdeen and has moved into the non-league game over the last two years after spending time with Billericay Town, Hashtag United, Bishop’s Stortford and current club Blyth Spartans.

However, the 40-year-old has just signed for Bishop Auckland on a loan deal until the end of the season from Blyth Spartans. His new side play in the Northern Premier League Division One East, which is the eighth tier of English football.

The move to Bishop Auckland marks the 22nd club of Halford’s career which began in 2001 at Colchester United. Over the past four seasons, Halford has been playing in the non-league. The veteran making his debut for Bishop Auckland as a substitute in the final four minutes of a 1-0 win over Gartforth, which was played in front of 410 spectators. Halford's new club are now 11th and 10 points off the play-offs.

Greg Halford reveals Reading struggles before Sunderland move

Prior to his Sunderland stint, Halford made the switch to Reading from Colchester but struggled to fit in with the group and has come in for criticism from some former teammates in recent times. Halford only managed to make three Premier League appearances for Reading before being sold to Sunderland, despite being The Royals' record signing.

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"Obviously, I haven't told anyone this in the football world, but I am on the spectrum of autism so change and not knowing at that time and fitting into a new group of people," Halford told the UndrTheCosh Podcast. "Changing the way I lived, where I lived, to being away from my family, my girlfriend at the time - I found it very, very hard. It was hard to interact with people.

"After training, I never wanted to go into the training ground as I didn't really want to be around and I felt awkward, it was a weird sensation, so I would just go home. I would do my training and then go home, being on the pitch was completely different, that is my area and I can control myself there but when it is small intimate groups, I found it very difficult at that time."

Asked whether he knew he had autism at the time, Halford said: "I didn't know at the time. I only found out and got the diagnosis after I had my son when he was diagnosed as he was exactly the same as me when I was his age.

"I always knew I was different in some kind of way, I just didn't understand what it was and so it was one of them things. Football gave me a way, because I was being put into so many new situations, that I was able to grow.

"By the time I was moving to places like Portsmouth, I had already had four or five moves and every time it was a lot easier to interact with people. I learned and grew and I could go into a new club today and be comfortable."

Halford was part of the Cardiff City side that won promotion to the Premier League under Neil Warnock after a second-place finish in the Championship at the end of the 2017-18 season. Halford was sold by Sunderland to Wolves in 2009 and his other former clubs include Sheffield United, Aberdeen, Birmingham City, Rotherham United and Charlton Athletic.

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