Darren Harris to be inducted into National Football Museum Hall of Fame
Induction will take place during the 2025 Para Sport Awards in Manchester
The National Football Museum has announced that Darren Harris, England's most capped and decorated blind footballer, will join its Hall of Fame this December.
Harris will be officially inducted during the 2025 Para Sport Awards, held at the museum in Manchester on Friday 5th December 2025.
Tim Desmond, CEO of the National Football Museum, praised Harris’s legacy: “Darren Harris is a remarkable athlete, and role model. His achievements on the pitch were extraordinary, but it is his impact off the pitch—challenging perceptions, empowering others and championing inclusion—that truly sets him apart.
“We are honoured to welcome him into the Hall of Fame and to celebrate a career that has inspired so many.”
Darren Harris’s story
Born in Wolverhampton on 20th June 1973, Harris was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma, a type of cancer that caused gradual vision loss, when he was around 15 months old. He later attended New College Worcester, a secondary school for visually impaired individuals, where sport played a key role in his upbringing and development.
Pursuing football as a career, Harris debuted for the England blind football team in 1996, became captain in 2002, and contributed to earning England a place at the Athens Paralympic Games in 2004. However, due to other Home Nations not sanctioning a Great Britain team, Harris and his teammates were not able to compete.
Changing focus to judo, Harris trained full-time and represented Great Britain at the Beijing Paralympics in 2008. Although returning to football a few years later, Harris became a Dual-Paralympian by competing at the London Paralympic Games in 2012.
Over a 23-year football career, Harris earned 157 international caps for England as their blind football team’s striker. He scored 34 goals and claimed ten World and European medals between 1997 and 2019. He also enjoyed great domestic success, triumphing in League and Cup competitions three times each and winning the Golden Boot five times.
Darren’s enduring impact
Since retiring from competitive football, Harris has become an influential motivational speaker, performance consultant, and inclusion advocate. He has worked extensively with schools, businesses, governing bodies, and young para-athletes, championing accessibility and promoting positive change in sport and beyond.
Harris will join a stellar list of National Football Museum Hall of Fame inductees in 2025, which includes fellow England internationals Eni Aluko, Ashley Cole, and the Women’s European Championship winning squad of 2022.