Tommy Smith is back to English football

The New Zealand international Tommy Smith is back to Europe, exactly to the same country he reached the peak of his carrer: England. The central defender was born in England and lived his youth in New Zealand, holding dual citizenship and representing the All-Whites for 38 times so far.

Smith made most of career in traditional Ipswich Town, mostly playing at English second-tier, but also represented teams as Stevenage and Brentford before moving to the Major League Soccer in 2018. The defender represented the Colorado Rapids in United States top football league for 60 times and scored seven times.

Smith departed from MLS since the end of the previous season and now is disclosed the next step in the career of the 29-year-old player: he is back to England, this time to defend the also traditional Sunderland that is currently at Football League One, the third tier of English football.

The new club of Smith currently sits 5th in the table of the League One and their biggest goal for the season is to be back to the Championship, the second-tier in England. In recent years, Sunderland played for several season at the most important league of Europe, the English Premier League, but recently they were relegated twice – being now in the 3rd tier – and they hope the experience of Tommy Smith can help them to bounce back in the English league system.