DANNY SONNER 

Date and Place of Birth 9th January 1972 - Wigan   Transfers to and from Burnley from Wigan Athletic - July 1990 released - May 1993   First and Last Burnley Games Scunthorpe United (a) - 13th April 1991 sub: replaced John Francis   Port Vale (h) - 15th September 1992 sub: replaced Steve Davis   Other Clubs Wigan Athletic, Bury (loan from Burnley) ---------------------------------------- SC Viktoria 04 Köln, BFC Preussen, Erzgebirge Aue, Ipswich Town, Sheffield Wednesday, Birmingham City, Walsall, Nottingham Forest, Peterborough United, Port Vale, Walsall, Wrexham

Burnley Career Stats

Profile by Tony Scholes

Danny Sonner's career has been a long one, and when he looks back on it Burnley are hardly likely to feature too highly in the memories after three years with the Clarets that saw him make very few first team appearances.

He first joined his home town club Wigan Athletic but failed to make the breakthrough at Springfield Park. He jumped at the chance to join Burnley in the summer of 1990 at the age of 18.

Nothing changed for him at Turf Moor for the then centre forward and despite scoring goals regularly in the reserves he wasn't able to win a place in the first team until April when he replaced John Francis in a 3-1 win at Scunthorpe.

With Ron Futcher suspended for the last match of the season, a home game against Wrexham, he won his first start but it proved to be his only league start in three years at Burnley although he retained his place in the squad for the play offs and was used as a substitute in the first leg at Torquay.

After watching from the sidelines as Burnley won the Fourth Division Championship in the following season he started 1992/93 with a goal after coming on as a sub in a heavy League Cup defeat at Carlisle. Another appearance from the bench in September proved to be his last appearance in Burnley colours.

He spent a month on loan at Bury in November and proved a point with three goals in five games but his hopes of a recall at Burnley when he returned were false ones and at the end of his contract in the summer of 1993 he was released and headed out to Germany to play his football.

That was the last I thought I'd ever hear of Danny Sonner. He played for SC Viktoria 04 Köln, BFC Preussen and Erzgebirge Aue and then was plucked from third tier football in Germany by George Burley who took him to Ipswich in 1996.

That was the beginning of six very good years for Sonner. He won himself a place in the Northern Ireland side in 1997 and went on to win thirteen caps for his adopted country but after two seasons at Ipswich he left after a fall out with manager Burley.

That saw him move to Hillsborough and two years Premiership football with Sheffield Wednesday before a further two years with Birmingham which culminated in them winning promotion in 2002 via the end of season play offs. It was during this time that he made a return to Turf Moor against Burnley when he was booed by the home crowd.

After Birmingham he played for Walsall, Nottingham Forest, Peterborough and Port Vale but despite being offered a new deal by Vale in the summer of 2007 he decided not to sign it and returned for a second spell at Walsall. That ended very quickly and he left the club and looked as though he had hung his boots up.

On 11^th January 2008, just two days past his 36^th birthday he signed for League Two's bottom club Wrexham as part of Brian Little's massive overhaul to try and keep them in the league.

He's had a far better career than any Burnley fan would have predicted fifteen years ago when he was released by Jimmy Mullen and he's now gone past 350 games in English football since that debut at Aldershot back in 1991.