- Birthdate: 22 June 1993
- Birthplace: Wrexham, Wales
- Other clubs: Wrexham (2007-12), Tamworth (loan 2011), Morecambe (loan 2015), Aberdeen (loan 2015-16), Huddersfield Town (loan 2016-17), Leicester City (2018-)
- Signed from: Wrexham
- Signed for LFC: £100,000, 30.01.2012
- International debut: 24.03.2016 vs. Northern Ireland
- International caps: 2 - 05.06.2016
- Liverpool debut: 17.04.2016
- Last appearance: 19.09.2017
- Contract expiry: 20.07.2018
- Win ratio: 33.33% W:1 D:0 L:2
- Total games/goals opposite LFC: 1 / 0
- League games / goals / assists: 2 / 0 / 0
- Total games / goals / assists: 3 / 0 / 0
Player Profile
Welsh international goalkeeper Danny Ward was born in the North Wales town of Wrexham and the young goalkeeper’s progress at his home-town club was carefully monitored by Liverpool until they made their move when the player was halfway through his nineteenth year. He never featured for Wrexham's senior side but did make one appearance for their Blue Square Bet Premier League rivals, Tamworth, in the 2010/11 season, while on loan. Ward was based at the Kirkby Academy for the remainder of the 2011/12 season but was quickly moved up to the club’s reserve team and made three appearances when Hungarian-born Peter Gulacsi was on loan at Hull City. Once Gulacsi returned early from Hull in April 2012, Ward became his understudy for the remainder of the season.
Ward was one of a number of younger players taken by new manager Brendan Rodgers on the pre-season tour to North America in the summer of 2012. He was named as one of the substitutes for the second match against Roma. Although he did not appear in that match, he was allocated a first-team squad-number for the coming season but with Reina and Jones the senior goalkeepers (Gulacsi was subsequently sold to an Austrian club in June 2013) he had to be content with appearing in the Under-21 team, although he did make a senior match-day squad for the first time when Liverpool’s defence of the League cup began and ended against Swansea at Anfield on the last day of October 2013.
The goalkeeper was given the final dozen minutes of a first-team friendly at Preston in July 2013 coming in for Simon Mignolet but Mignolet and Brad Jones shared the goalkeeper duties for the remainder of the warm-up matches although Ward was on the bench for a match in Thailand for which Mignolet played the entire ninety minutes. Ward’s reward for consistent performances for the Under-21 team was to be named instead of Brad Jones for the Premier League match at Stoke in the middle of January 2014. He has also represented Wales at both Under-19 and Under-21 level.
Apart from that brief taste of the big-time at Stoke in January, Ward was not named in the squad for any more first-team matches during 2013/14, although Rodgers did include him in the squad that travelled to Dublin to play Shamrock Rovers in a post-season friendly. Twenty players were named in the matchday squad but Ward was one of three who did not take any part in the match at all with Liverpool's manager deciding to give Brad Jones the full 90 minutes as well as the captain's armband. Ward made 10 appearances for Liverpool's Under-21 team during the season. Ward moved on loan for a month to League Two club Morecambe at the end of the third week in March 2015. He played in five League Two matches for the Lancashire club and conceded six goals in those five matches. This did at least give him a taste of first-team action after sitting on Liverpool's substitutes' bench over twenty times before this loan-spell with Morecambe was agreed.
The young Welsh goalkeeper seemed quite unfazed by the imminent arrival of Adam Bogdan in the summer of 2015 even though it appeared to push him further down the pecking order. Only days after the Hungarian's arrival was announced Ward signed a long-term extension to his Liverpool contract. Only three days after signing this new deal it was announced that Ward would be spending the 2015/16 on loan with Scottish club Aberdeen. After Bogdan's struggles as Liverpool's reserve keeper, Ward's loan was called off early in January 2016 to be a deputy to Simon Mignolet. However, despite a number of cup games Ward had to be patient and made his international debut for Wales against Northern Ireland on 24 March 2016 before he appeared for Liverpool. On 17 April 2016, Ward made his full debut in a Premiership game at Bournemouth as Mignolet and several other players were rested. After making one appearance for Wales in Euro 2016, Ward signed a new five-year deal with Liverpool on 11 July 2016 before promptly being loaned to Championship club Huddersfield Town for the 2016/17 campaign in which David Wagner´s side was promoted to the Premier League.
Ward was back at Anfield and found himself third choice for 2017/18, playing just one League Cup game. He joined Leicester City on 20 July 2018 as back up to Kasper Schmeichel. Although he had to be content with a place on the bench for every league game, Ward did play in all five of the club's domestic cup ties. It was the same in 2019/20 when he again failed to make a single league appearance and in the domestic cups, played in four of Leicester's ties but was benched for the other six. 2020/21 was the third consecutive season when Ward failed to make a single league appearance. He was restricted to five in the cups, two of them in the Europa League. He remained first choice keeper for Wales, playing in all four of their Euro 2020 games. He finally made his Premier League debut for Leicester on 15th May 2022, keeping goal in a 5-1 win at Watford.
Appearances per season
A more detailed look at the player's appearances
Apps |
Minutes |
Opponent |
1 |
90 |
Swansea City |
1 |
90 |
Leicester City |
1 |
90 |
Bournemouth |
Total |
Started/substitutions |
3 |
Started |
53 |
On the bench |
0 |
Substitute |
0 |
Substituted |
Milestone Appearances
# |
Date |
Against |
Stadium |
Competition |
1 |
17.04.2016 |
Bournemouth |
Dean Court |
League |
Other Clubs
Club |
Season |
Club rank |
League apps |
League goals |
Total apps |
Total goals |
Tamworth |
2010-2011 |
England Conference Premier |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
Morecambe |
2014-2015 |
League Two |
5 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
Aberdeen |
2015-2016 |
Scotland 1 |
21 |
0 |
29 |
0 |
Huddersfield Town |
2016-2017 |
Championship |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Leicester City |
2018-2019 |
Premier League |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
Leicester City |
2019-2020 |
Premier League |
0 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
Leicester City |
2020-2021 |
Premier League |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
Leicester City |
2021-2022 |
Premier League |
1 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
Total |
28 |
0 |
54 |
0 |