On this day in 2002, Trai Hume was born in Ballymena. The current Sunderland defender joined us in League One and has now played over 150 games for the club, playing a key role in getting us back into the Premier League in 2025.
Trai Hume started out playing youth football at home town club Ballymena United, before moving to Linfield in 2013. The boyhood Chelsea fan signed his first professional contract in January 2019 and he made his first team debut when he was subbed on in a 5-1 win over Cliftonville.
The full back was loaned back to Ballymena United in September 2020. He made 37 total appearances for the Braidmen and scored five goals. Hume returned to Linfield the following season and played in the qualifying rounds for both the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Conference League.
The Northern Irishman scored his first goal for the Blues in a 3-0 win against Glentoran. He was now Linfield’s first choice right back and, after playing for Northern Ireland at youth level, he was called up to his nation's senior team in March 2022.
A few months prior, in January that year, Trai had made the switch to Wearside. He signed a four-and-a-half year contract, arriving for an undisclosed fee. Reports suggest we only paid £150,000 for his signature, although there is thought to be a hefty sell-on fee. He made his Sunderland debut at the Jonny Rocks Stadium, where we lost 2-1 to Cheltenham Town in the third tier.
Despite not getting much game time in his early days at Sunderland, Hume has become a stalwart at right back. An injury to Lynden Gooch gave the then 20-year-old an opportunity during the 2022/23 season and, as you can tell, he took it with both hands. Hume became more of a fan favourite after he clattered James McClean at the DW Stadium in December 2022 in a 4-1 triumph over Wigan Athletic. During that season, to cover for injuries, he was often deployed as a left back and, despite not being a natural left-footer, he never looked out of place on the opposite flank.
In our surprising play-off run Trai even played at centre back, against arguably the most direct side in the league, Luton Town. Injuries to all of our centre backs forced manager Tony Mowbray's hand and he had to play Hume in the middle. In the first leg he actually scored the goal to put us 2-1 up. Of course, we lost the second leg 2-0 and missed out on going to Wembley but Hume's commitment to the cause deserves some praise.
He remained a regular in the team under the Mowbray/ Michael Beale/ Mike Dodds season, highlights included assisting the first goal against Southampton as we thumped them 5-0 and scoring our first goal in a 3-1 win versus Norwich City. There was one notable incident that occurred between him and Michael Beale in our former head coach's final game in charge (a 2-1 defeat away to Birmingham City). In the 82nd minute he was substituted off and attempted to high five Beale or perhaps shake his hand but he was completely blanked by his boss and this sparked outrage amongst our fans. It may have caused Beale to lose his job a bit sooner you could easily suspect, as it was clear in that moment he had lost the dressing room. Individually, it was a good season for the Northern Ireland international, even if it was a disaster for the club as a whole.
Last season, he played 48 times, missing just two regular season matches and featuring in all three of our games in our successful play-off campaign; not missing a single minute. He scored in back-to-back 1-0 wins over Millwall and West Bromwich Albion towards the end of the season. The winning goal against West Brom was a great strike, at a difficult angle, from a free kick.
This season, he's been one of our players who have made the step up to the big time, in fact he's played in every single one of our Premier League games so far, with the campaign almost over. On the international stage, he regularly plays for his country and has captained them on several occassions, often playing alongside fellow Sunderland teammate Dan Ballard in the backline.
OTD: SAFC 2-1 CHELSEA
OTD: SAFC 2-1 CHELSEA
OTD: SAFC 2-1 CHELSEA
OTD: SAFC 2-1 CHELSEA
OTD: TRAI HUME BORN
OTD: TRAI HUME BORN