Daniel George Ballard was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, on this day in 1999.
At the age of eight, he joined Arsenal’s academy and, despite being released twice by the Gunners, was accepted for a scholarship at sixteen following an impressive appearance away at Bayern Munich in a friendly.
He signed his first professional contract in June 2018 and, following another year in the development sides at Arsenal, Ballard was loaned to Swindon Town in July 2019. However, an impressive start, during which
he scored in an EFL Trophy tie against Chelsea, was cut short after only three games due to a bad knee injury that would see him spend five months in recovery and rehabilitation.
The following October saw another loan spell, this time to League One side Blackpool, initially only until January, with the Tangerines extending his stay until the end of the season. He made thirty appearances and scored twice in a campaign that would see Blackpool finish third and gain promotion to the Championship by winning the play-offs.
July 2021 saw Ballard once again loaned out, this time to Championship side Millwall.
A reasonable season would unfold here, with Ballard making thirty-three appearances as the Lions finished ninth but actually only missed out on a play-off place on the final day. Maybe things might’ve turned out differently if they’d made the end-of-season knockouts and been promoted, but in League One, Sunderland were winning the play-offs to join Millwall in the Championship.
On 30 June 2022, Big Dan made the best decision of his entire twenty-two years and joined a sleeping giant on the rise.
After four years in League One, Sunderland were back in the Championship and about to continue a once-in-a-lifetime journey. Although both clubs reported an undisclosed fee, it’s widely understood that an initial £2 million was paid to Arsenal.
Ballard made his debut at centre-back in the opening fixture of the season at home to Coventry in a 1-1 draw on 31 July 2022 – not the last time Coventry feature in this story.
Unfortunately, a foot fracture sustained in the 2-2 draw against QPR in only the fourth game of the new season would rule him out for the next four months. Sunderland’s season would end with a sixth-place finish and a play-off semi-final loss, with Ballard having been involved twenty-two times.
The following season was less successful as a whole, but Ballard – mostly injury-free – was almost an ever-present, recording forty-two appearances in the league as Sunderland stumbled to a sixteenth-place finish.
The summer of 2024 brought yet another change in the dugout as Régis Le Bris was appointed, becoming the fifth manager or coach to have taken charge in the two seasons Ballard had been at the club.
Ballard had missed most of the build-up and the start of the new season, having picked up an injury in a pre-season friendly, and wouldn’t feature until he recovered from minor surgery on a knee problem.
Once recovered, he only played three games before an ankle injury forced him out again, missing another seven games before suffering a muscle strain that caused him to miss another nine games during January and February… before a hamstring injury nearly ended his season.
After such an injury-plagued season, it was a big call from Le Bris to bring in Ballard for the play-off games, but what a good decision it turned out to be.
Having started in the first leg away at Coventry, it was in the second leg that Ballard wrote his name into the history of the club – his goal in injury time of extra time, with the game level on aggregate, has the potential to be the defining moment of a generation.
In a moment that became synonymous with the club’s motto of ‘Til The End, Ballard sparked one of the most delirious celebrations ever seen at the Stadium of Light. The resulting win at Wembley saw him become a Premier League footballer for the first time.
If that had been the end of the story, we could be forgiven for holding Ballard in high regard for his contribution, but on the opening day of the new Premier League season, he became a Premier League player, scoring his first Premier League goal and helping Sunderland to three precious points with a superb 3-0 win against West Ham.
He would go on to make twenty appearances during 2025/2026, scoring a wonderful goal in a 2-2 draw versus Arsenal, but again missing out for a period due to injury.
His fearless defending coupled with the odd goal has made him an absolute asset for the club, and the story isn’t finished yet. A seventh-place finish brought European football, and now Ballard is not only a Premier League player, a Northern Irish international with thirty-three caps and five goals, but a Europa League player too.
Happy birthday, Dan. You’re big, and you’re f***ing hard.
121.59.
