Chris Long

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Chris Long joined the Everton Academy as a five-year-old in 2000 and has worked his way up through the ranks. He has also represented Huyton at schoolboy level.

He made his debut for the Toffees' youth team in a 2–1 Premier Academy League defeat to Bolton Wanderers on 5 February 2011, coming on as a late substitute for Hallam Hope. He broke into the Everton youth team on a regular basis during the 2011–12 season, impressing after scoring 9 goals in 17 games. Long also made his reserve team debut during the season, scoring one goal in seven Premier Reserve League appearances. 

He signed a two-year professional contract in July 2013. After steady progress in the reserves, on 8 January 2014, Long signed for Milton Keynes Dons on a one-month loan. He made his professional debut on 11 January 2014 in a Football League One win over Shrewsbury Town, starting the game and scoring once. Long's loan was not extended and returned to Everton in February, having tallied four appearances and one goal for MK Dons. 

He joined the senior squad for pre-season training in July 2014 and went to Thailand to play in the friendly against Leicester City but did not really impress in his role as striker. However, he scored  a goal for the first team in a 3–1 pre-season friendly defeat to Paderborn in August 2014.

Long received his maiden call into the senior squad for Everton's dead rubber Europa League group stage match versus Krasnodar on 11 December. Awarded the number 41 shirt, he made his Everton debut when he came on for Conor McAleny after 80 minutes of the 1–0 defeat.

Entering the final six months of his contract in January 2015, Long stated that he hoped to earn a new deal with his performances on loan away from Goodison Park. He spent three months on loan with Brentford in the Championship, where he scored four goals in 11 appearances but with only two starts.

But the prospect of playing full time at the lower level was appealing and he rejected a new contract from Everton, choosing instead to join Burnley in the Championship for an undisclosed fee at the end of July 2015.

He later spoke of differences in training under Martinez:

"After every training session (at Burnley) you felt like you were getting somewhere whereas under Roberto Martinez at Everton there wasn’t as much running.

"It was nothing at Everton compared to what we do here and I think that’s why we bring what we do into the game, because we train as we play."

Long made only one start for Burnley, however, going out on loan to Fleetwood and then Bolton during the 2016-17 season.

He would have a succesful spell on loan at Northampton in 2017-18, before joining Feetwood on a free transfer for just 6 months. He had better luck at Blackpool for the next 6 months, before agreeing to join Motherwell in 2019.

But despite scoring 17 goals for the sScottish side over the next two years, he was relased in May 2021.