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Ross Turnbull
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Ross Turnbull
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Ross Turnbull (born 4 January 1985) is an English football goalkeeper who plays for Chelsea after signing for them on 2 July 2009. He was born in Bishop Auckland, England.
Ross attended Byerley Park Primary School and Woodham Community Technology College. He played as a midfielder for his hometown team Newton Aycliffe Youth Centre AFC but was turned into a goalkeeper by coach Arthur Vickerstaff. He had trials with North-East sides Darlington and Sunderland but instead joined Middlesbrough's Academy.
After coming through the club's youth ranks, Turnbull signed a professional contract with Middlesbrough in 2002. He represented England U20 in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship.
In July 2007, it was announced that Turnbull had signed a season long loan deal at Football League Championship side Cardiff City. He was signed as a replacement for long-serving Neil Alexander, who left the club after a contract dispute, and began the season as first choice goalkeeper for the club but due to some errors in his opening games he was replaced for the 2–2 draw with Preston North End by Michael Oakes and spent the remainder of his loan spell on the bench before he was recalled by Middlesbrough on 5 October 2007 following an injury to second choice keeper Brad Jones. The recall was made by mutual consent between the teams. After being recalled, Turnbull played in two of Middlesbrough's games in the absence of first choice goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer who had broken his thumb in training. One was Boro's win over Arsenal at the Riverside Stadium on the 9 December 2007, the score being 2–1.
After more than 11 years with Middlesbrough, Mark Schwarzer left the club during the summer of 2008 to join Fulham. Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate decided not to buy a new keeper and allow Turnbull and Jones to fight it out for the number one position. Although Jones played the first game of the season, Turnbull was in goal for Middlesbrough's 2–1 defeat at Liverpool the following week, when Jones injured himself in the warm-up.
In June 2009 Turnbull rejected a contract offer from Middlesbrough, and informed the club that he would leave when it expired at the end of the month.
Chelsea
On 2 July 2009, Turnbull joined Chelsea on a free transfer, signing a four-year contract. On the 4 July 2009 Turnbull announced that he would not sit by as a permanent second place keeper to regular starting Goalkeeper Petr Cech and that he would fight for his own first team place. Ross was left out of Chelsea's community shield game against Manchester United, sparking rumours that Ross was signed as a third choice goalkeeper. However, he was on the bench for Chelsea's first game of the 2009-2010 season against Hull City at Stamford Bridge, which finished 2-1 in favour of Chelsea. This sparked another rumour that manager Carlo Ancelotti is happy with both keepers on being a second choice in giving them each a game on the bench and a call up when needed. Turnbull had a Chelsea reserves debut to forget when he made a series of blunders as the Blues lost 4-0 to Aston Villa. He made his first team debut against Bolton Wanderers in the League Cup coming for injured Henrique Hilario, a game which Chelsea won 4-0.
Turnbull is married to Nicola. They have a daughter, Maisy, born in 2008.
