‘I’d be lost without football’ – the ex-Premier League striker playing at 49

As he nears his 50th birthday, Jamie Cureton is not in any hurry to call it a day after a playing career spanning 22 clubs, three promotions and three relegations.

“I’ve just registered myself as a player for the 2025-26 season and would like to make at least one appearance after my birthday,” says Cambridge City’s player-manager as he prepares his team for Saturday’s FA Cup extra preliminary round tie at Kirkley & Pakefield.

Cureton was 19 when he made his Premier League debut for Norwich City against Everton in November 1994.

Back then, Oldham Athletic and Swindon Town had just been relegated from the top flight, Neville Southall was Everton’s goalkeeper and Blackburn Rovers were on their way to being crowned champions of England.

Cureton will make it a remarkable 32 successive seasons as a player across nine tiers of English football, from the Premier League to the Essex Senior League, should he turn out for Cambridge City this campaign.

The list of clubs he has represented is endless.

Norwich, Bournemouth (loan), Bristol Rovers, Reading, Busan I’Cons (South Korea), QPR, Swindon Town, Colchester, Barnsley (loan), Shrewsbury (loan), Exeter, Leyton Orient.

There’s more.

Cheltenham, Dagenham & Redbridge, Farnborough, Eastleigh, St Albans City, Bishop’s Stortford, Enfield, Hornchurch, Maldon & Tiptree and now Cambridge City, where he is about to start his second season in charge.

“Football is all I have ever known,” Bristol-born Cureton tells BBC Sport.

“I grew up in an area where trouble was around. Maybe I would have fallen into the wrong sort of crowd. Luckily, I had football.

Cureton cannot remember exactly how many appearances he has made over the past 31 years. “I lost count when I reached 1,000,” he adds.

Six years have passed since that extraordinary milestone which placed him in an elite group of players, alongside Barcelona legend Xavi and Real Madrid legend Raul, who have also achieved this feat.

According to Wikipedia, Cureton has clocked up 1,075 games and is 25th on the list of male footballers with 1,000 or more official appearances.

One of those games involved a can of hairspray from a joke shop, when the then-20-year-old dyed his hair green for Norwich’s game with fierce rivals Ipswich in 1996.

His most recent competitive appearance was on 26 April, when the 49-year-old came on as a 68th-minute substitute in Cambridge City’s 1-0 win away to Basildon Town in front of 123 fans in the eighth-tier Isthmian League North Division.

Cureton was 24 years older than team-mate Junior Mubiayi, who scored City’s winner.

“In terms of goals, in my head and from what people have told me, I’m either four or six away from 400,” he says. “I’d like to finish on 400 or above.”

Since his last professional appearance aged 41, Cureton has moved into management in non-league, with player-manager roles at Bishop’s Stortford, Enfield and now Cambridge City.

“It wasn’t something I had in my mind,” adds Cureton, who played under the likes of Martin O’Neill, Ian Holloway, Alan Pardew and the late Glenn Roeder before dropping into non-league.

“I stumbled into management. I got offered a role at Bishop’s Stortford and it just snowballed. I thoroughly enjoy it.”

Cureton also enjoyed a two-year stint as an academy coach at Arsenal between 2017 and 2019, where players under his watch included a 16-year-old Bukayo Saka.

“It’s no surprise to see him doing what he’s doing to be honest,” he says of Saka, who has 44 England caps at the age of 23.

“He’s a very nice guy, humble, no airs and graces about him. He just came in and worked hard. A clever boy as well, he was good at school.

Cureton turns 50 on 28 August, two days before his team’s home game with Wroxham.

Will he gift himself an appearance in that game and achieve his target of playing at 50?

“I won’t ever put myself above players who I feel need the opportunity and need to be playing,” says Cureton, who scored four times in 17 Premier League appearances in his first season at Norwich in 1994-95.

“I won’t pick myself over them. I’ve registered for this season in case I’m needed, in case I need to rest players.

“Towards the end of last season we’d lost a few players and had a few injuries, and there was an opportunity where I felt I could play.”

Cambridge City, founded in 1908, finished 11th in 2024-25 and Cureton is targeting a top-five finish and a play-off place in his second season in charge.

These are exciting times for the Lilywhites, who moved to a brand new 3,000-capacity ground about seven miles south of Cambridge last November.

A crowd of 1,459 watched them play Tilbury in their first competitive game at the FWD-IP Community Stadium, after 10 years of ground-sharing.

Earlier this month, 2,640 turned out at the venue to watch a friendly against neighbours Cambridge United.

“We’ve got a young squad and I’m older than most of their dads!” adds Cureton.

“If I can help any of them with their game, or even with their life, then I think I am doing my job.”

Cambridge City’s game at Lowestoft-based Kirkley & Pakefield is one of 222 FA Cup extra preliminary round ties scheduled for this weekend, 11 weeks after Crystal Palace beat Manchester City in the final at Wembley.

The Lilywhites reached the second round in 2004, their best run in the competition, when Cureton was playing in the Championship for QPR.

Cureton helped Bristol Rovers reach the last-16 in 1998-99 and would, if circumstances allow, like to make one final FA Cup appearance before he hangs up his boots for good.

“I never thought I would still be playing on the verge of 50,” he says. “I’m very grateful. The drive to keep on playing is what has pushed me to this point.