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Jamie Cureton (born 28 August 1975) is an English semi-professional footballer who plays as a striker; his most recent employment was player-manager of Cambridge City.
He began his career at Norwich City in 1994, and after the club's relegation from the Premier League at the end of the season, has spent the majority of his career in England's lower leagues, apart from a season at South Korean side Busan I'Cons in 2003. One of the only eight English outfield footballers to have made over 1,000 competitive appearances, his career has spanned nine tiers of the football pyramid from the Premier League to the Essex Senior League, and has seen him score over 350 goals.
He has played professionally in the Football League for AFC Bournemouth, Bristol Rovers, Reading, Queens Park Rangers, Swindon Town, Colchester United, Barnsley, Shrewsbury Town, Exeter City, Leyton Orient and Cheltenham Town, as well as in non-league for Dagenham & Redbridge, Farnborough, Eastleigh, St Albans City, Bishop's Stortford and Hornchurch. He represented England at under-18 level.
He failed to make his mark in his first spell at the club and subsequently joined Colchester United on loan. He then briefly returned to Swindon Town as they failed to avoid relegation to League Two. After Swindon's relegation, Cureton activated a clause in his contract that allowed him to leave Swindon on a free transfer, and rejoined Colchester on a permanent basis. His first full season with the U's proved to be hugely successful as the Essex club managed a 10th-place finish in the Championship, partnering Chris Iwelumo.
One of Cureton's main highlights in a Colchester shirt was the hat-trick he scored in the 3–0 away win against Essex rivals Southend United on 7 April 2007.
His 23 goals in the 2006–07 season gave him the Championship Golden Boot as the league's top scorer, and made him the first Colchester United striker since Tony Adcock to score 20 league goals in a season; the first for 22 years.
On 5 June 2007, due to agent demands, Cureton handed in a transfer request to Colchester United, citing Colchester's ambitions differing from his own. This inevitably fuelled speculation that Cureton might return to Norwich City, the club where he began his career. Cureton himself stated that he would like to return to the club.
Colchester initially rejected the transfer request, saying that Cureton was an important part of the club's future and that they wanted to keep him, though Norwich City manager Peter Grant confirmed that he would like to sign Cureton. Cureton moved to Norwich City for £825,000 on 29 June 2007. He was signed as a replacement for Robert Earnshaw, Norwich's top scorer of the 2006–07 season, who left for Derby County in a £3.5 million deal the same day.
He scored his first goals for Norwich since re-signing against King's Lynn at The Walks. This was followed up by another goal on Norwich's pre season tour of Holland against AGOVV Apeldoorn.
He then scored two in the League Cup against Barnet and two on his league debut for Norwich against Southampton.
Cureton continued to play very much a bit part during the season and one of his few goals came during the Canaries' 1–0 win at Scunthorpe United, a victory that lifted Norwich clear of the relegation places ahead of the Christmas and New Year fixtures.
Due to lack of first team football, on 27 November 2008, Cureton joined Barnsley on a 3-month loan deal, but on 14 January 2009, he was recalled to Norwich City after Glenn Roeder's termination as manager.
When Norwich played Barnsley on the following weekend, the Canaries were 4–0 victors with Cureton scoring their second. Cureton played his 100th game for Norwich City against Coventry but put in a bad performance and was dropped for the rest of the season.
The following season, newly appointed manager Paul Lambert started Cureton for the first three games, only to drop him to the bench for the next two games, leaving him an unused sub for both.
Cureton scored his first two goals of the season, against Leyton Orient and Bristol Rovers, both in which he came on as a late sub. Cureton scored the winning penalty in a Football League Trophy match against Swindon. However this was to be his last appearance for Norwich as after this he failed to even secure a place on the bench. After being loaned out to Shrewsbury for the remainder of the season Cureton was released by Norwich City.
Cureton joined Shrewsbury Town on loan until the end of the 2009–10 season on 16 February 2010 from Norwich. After a number of starts and a number of unimpressive performances, he was sent back to Norwich prematurely.
On 7 October 2023, Cureton, after announcing his retirement from senior football, joined fellow Isthmian League side Maldon & Tiptree as a coach and was part of the coaching staff for his first game against former club Enfield. He came out of retirement as a player in March 2024, appearing as a late substitute in Maldon & Tiptree's 1–0 defeat to Wroxham on 2 March.
During the 2024–25 season, Cureton again returned from retirement while manager of Cambridge City, making his début for the club, aged 49, on 5 April 2025, as a late substitute in a 1–2 loss to Ipswich Wanderers. As player-manager he played the full 90 minutes in their 1–0 win vs Sporting Bengal on 21 April 2025 in the last home game of the season.
Following the resignation of Adam Flint in September 2018, Cureton became manager of Bishop's Stortford alongside club owner Steve Smith, as an interim to begin with. They guided Stortford to a seventh-place finish in the Isthmian Premier that season. In October 2019 he took sole charge of the position.
In September 2020, he was appointed manager while still an active player at Enfield, becoming player-manager. During the 2022–23 season, Cureton guided Enfield to the Essex Senior League title and promotion to the eighth tier. He departed the club on 11 September 2023.
On 7 October 2023, Cureton
joined fellow Isthmian League side Maldon & Tiptree as a coach and was part of the coaching staff for his first game against former club Enfield.
On 17 May 2024, Cureton was appointed manager of Isthmian League North Division club Cambridge City.
On 17 September 2025, Cureton was relieved of his position at Cambridge City owing to the clubs poor start to the season. The club sat 18th in the Isthmian League North Division with 4 points from a possible 21 and out of the FA Cup after being beaten by lower level club Mulbarton Wanderers F.C..
| + Appearances and goals by club, season and competition | |||||||||||
| Norwich City | 1994–95 (1995). 9780747278238, Headline Publishing Group. ISBN 9780747278238 | Premier League | 4 | ||||||||
| 1995–96 (1996). 9780747277811, Headline Publishing Group. ISBN 9780747277811 | First Division | 2 | |||||||||
| AFC Bournemouth (loan) | 1995–96 | Second Division | 0 | ||||||||
| Bristol Rovers | 1996–97 | Second Division | 11 | ||||||||
| 1997–98 | Second Division | 14 | |||||||||
| 1998–99 | Second Division | 29 | |||||||||
| 1999–2000 | Second Division | 24 | |||||||||
| 2000–01 | Second Division | 1 | |||||||||
| Reading | 2000–01 | Second Division | 30 | ||||||||
| 2001–02 | Second Division | 16 | |||||||||
| 2002–03 | First Division | 9 | |||||||||
| Busan I'Cons | 2003 | K League | 4 | ||||||||
| Queens Park Rangers | 2003–04 | Second Division | 2 | ||||||||
| 2004–05 | Championship | 5 | |||||||||
| Swindon Town | 2005–06 | League One | 7 | ||||||||
| Colchester United (loan) | 2005–06 | League One | 7 | ||||||||
| Colchester United | 2006–07 | Championship | 24 | ||||||||
| Norwich City | 2007–08 | Championship | 14 | ||||||||
| 2008–09 | Championship | 2 | |||||||||
| 2009–10 | League One | 2 | |||||||||
| Barnsley (loan) | 2008–09 | Championship | 2 | ||||||||
| Shrewsbury Town (loan) | 2009–10 | League Two | 0 | ||||||||
| Exeter City | 2010–11 | League One | 20 | ||||||||
| Leyton Orient | 2011–12 | League One | 1 | ||||||||
| Exeter City (loan) | 2011–12 | League One | 1 | ||||||||
| Exeter City | 2012–13 | League Two | 21 | ||||||||
| Cheltenham Town | 2013–14 | League Two | 11 | ||||||||
| Dagenham & Redbridge | 2014–15 | League Two | 20 | ||||||||
| 2015–16 | League Two | 9 | |||||||||
| Farnborough | 2016–17 | SL Division One Central | 9 | ||||||||
| Eastleigh | 2016–17 | National League | 1 | ||||||||
| Farnborough | 2016–17 | SL Division One Central | 1 | ||||||||
| St Albans City | 2016–17 | National League South | 5 | ||||||||
| Farnborough | 2016–17 | SL Division One Central | 6 | ||||||||
| 2017–18 | SL Premier Division | 13 | |||||||||
| Bishop's Stortford | 2017–18 | SL Premier Division | 9 | ||||||||
| 2018–19 | Isthmian League Premier Division | 25 | |||||||||
| 2019–20 | IL Premier Division | 18 | |||||||||
| Enfield | 2019–20 | Essex Senior League | 0 | ||||||||
| Hornchurch | 2019–20 | IL Premier Division | 2 | ||||||||
| Enfield | 2020–21 | Essex Senior League | 2 | ||||||||
| 2021–22 | Essex Senior League | 6 | |||||||||
| 2022–23 | Essex Senior League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Maldon & Tiptree | 2023–24 | Isthmian League | 0 | ||||||||
| Cambridge City | 2024–25 | Isthmian League | 0 | ||||||||
Queens Park Rangers
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