Amari'i Kyren Bell (born 5 May 1994) is a professional footballer who plays as a left back for club Luton Town and the Jamaica national team.
Bell joined Birmingham City's Academy in 2011 and turned professional the following year. He spent time on loan at Conference Premier club Nuneaton Town in the first half of the 2013–14 season before making his Football League debut for Birmingham in January 2014. Later that season he returned to the Conference Premier with Kidderminster Harriers. After a loan spell at League Two club Mansfield Town at the start of the 2014–15 season was cut short, Bell spent three months with League One club Swindon Town before joining another League One club, Gillingham, also on loan, in March 2015. He was released by Birmingham at the end of the 2014–15 season and signed for Fleetwood Town of League One. He spent two-and-a-half seasons with Fleetwood, making 137 appearances, before moving on to Blackburn Rovers in January 2018. After three-and-a-half seasons, 99 appearances, and a promotion to the Championship, he signed for Luton Town in 2021 and helped them gain promotion to the Premier League in 2023.
Bell was born in England and has played international football for Jamaica, for which he qualifies by descent. He represented Jamaica at the 2021 and 2023 CONCACAF Gold Cups.
Life and club career
Early life and career
Bell was born in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, and raised in the Quinton district of Birmingham, where he attended Four Dwellings High School. As a youngster he was in the youth system at West Bromwich Albion before moving on to Solihull Moors, and he joined Birmingham City's academy in 2011. In June 2012, Bell signed a one-year professional contract. He played regularly for the development squad during the 2012–13 season, and was rewarded with another one-year contract, with the option of a further year.
In July 2013, Bell joined Conference Premier club Nuneaton Town on loan until the following January. He made his debut in the opening match of the season, a 1–0 win at Macclesfield Town, playing at left wing-back. According to the local newspaper, he "shone", though the player himself was more critical, recognising the need to minimise errors such as "a bit at the end where I took a poor touch and they could have scored from it." He kept his place in the starting eleven as Nuneaton went unbeaten for the first nine matches, apart from one match missed with a dead leg, but was suddenly recalled by his parent club on 20 September.
First-team debut with Birmingham City
Bell was given a squad number, and was considered for a defensive role ahead of Birmingham's third round League Cup match against Swansea City on 25 September, with Kyle Bartley ineligible and David Murphy rested after returning only recently from long-term injury. He played no part in the match, not even as an unused substitute, and returned to Nuneaton a couple of days later. Bell re-established himself at left back, playing a further eleven times in the Conference Premier and once in the FA Cup, before Birmingham recalled him again on 9 December after starting left-back Mitch Hancox damaged a knee and with Murphy again unfit.
He was included among the substitutes for Birmingham's next match, a 2–0 win away to AFC Bournemouth, but remained unused. Bell made his first-team debut on 28 January 2014, starting at left back against Championship leaders Leicester City as a late replacement for Hancox who had injured an ankle. He played the whole of the 2–1 defeat.
More loan spells
That was his last first-team appearance before he joined Conference Premier club Kidderminster Harriers on 6 March 2014, on a youth loan until the end of the season. For the second time that season, he made his club debut in a win against Macclesfield, on this occasion as a stoppage-time substitute as Kidderminster held on to a 2–1 lead. On 15 April, he scored his first goal in senior football to open the scoring in a 2–0 win against Cambridge United.
Ahead of the 2014–15 season, Bell signed for League Two club Mansfield Town on loan until January 2015, but was recalled only three matches into the campaign having failed to get any playing time. On 26 September 2014, he joined Swindon Town of League One on a youth loan until 3 January 2015. He hoped to regain self-belief by playing matches as part of a confident team, and went straight into the starting eleven for Swindon's 3–0 win away to Barnsley. Bell started six matches during October, displacing Liverpool loanee Brad Smith, but then lost his place to another loanee, Harry Toffolo, and for the remainder of his time with the club was used mainly as a late substitute or not at all.