Ex-Bristol City & Reading FC player lands new role - it’s in the Premier League with Sunderland | OneFootball

A former EFL star has landed a new coaching career in the Premier League following a remarkable playing career spanning 23 years.

Former EFL star Leroy Lita has landed a coaching role in the Premier League, following a remarkable playing career which took in 24 clubs and 23 years.

Lita, who is 40 years of age, will be going to the Stadium of Light to join Sunderland as a coach, the next step on a journey which has seen him play in the Premier League and Championship, as well as numerous other lower divisions.

Sunderland are expanding their coaching department following promotion to the Premier League after beating Sheffield United in last season's Championship play-off final to book their place. They have made an exceptional start to their return to the top-flight, and are currently in fourth place in the table with ten matches played.

Sunderland announce the arrival of Leroy Lita as an addition to their coaching team

A post on the official Sunderland AFC website has confirmed that Leroy Lita will be joining their coaching staff, in a role that looks to be catered to the club's under-21 players mainly.

"Leroy will primarily be working with the Club’s Professional Development Phase (PDP) players, supporting their ongoing growth both on and off the pitch," the Wearside outfit confirmed via their official site.

They confirm that Lita will be joining their staff as part of the Premier League’s Professional Player to Coach Initiative. This initiative is a joint programme led by the PFA, Premier League and EFL designed to increase the number of Black, South Asian and Minority Ethnic players who transition into full-time coaching roles in the professional game.

It is Lita's first notable coaching role, having spent much of the last seven years still plying his trade in the lower reaches of the English game for teams such as Barwell, Ilkeston Town, Nuneaton Borough and Hednesford Town.

That followed on from a good playing career in England's top two divisions, where he played 65 Premier League matches for Reading FC and Swansea City, as well as 170 appearances in the Championship.

The underrepresentation of non-white former players in coaching at the top end of the professional game in this country was an issue for many years. The first black manager of a club in England was Tony Collins, who was appointed at Rochdale in 1960 and took them to the first League Cup final two years later, where they lost 4-0 on aggregate to Norwich City.

He remained in that position until 1967 and later worked as a scout for the England national team. The first non-white manager in the League, Frank Soo (who was also the first non-white player to be capped by England), had been appointed at Scunthorpe United a year earlier.

But it speaks volumes for this underrepresentation that when Keith Alexander died in 2010 while managing Macclesfield Town that he was routinely described as "the first full-time black manager of a professional football club in England", having started his own managerial career with Lincoln City in 1993.

Leroy Lita certainly isn't wanting for experience as a player. He started his career in the Chelsea academy in 1999, but signed his first professional contract with Bristol City in 2001 and would go on to play for, among many others, Reading, Middlesbrough and Swansea City before going into the non-league game.

His final season was 2024-25, by which time he was playing for Barwell FC in the Southern League Premier Division Central. He also made nine appearances for the England under-21s, scoring six goals.

If he can pass the benefit of that experience on to the academy players at Sunderland, his appointment could prove to be a win for both the club and the player.