James Gibbons will leave Cambridge United this summer after turning down the club’s offer of a new contract, choosing instead to move closer to his young family in the north of England.
The 28-year-old leaves as the reigning Player of the Season and after making 88 appearances since joining from Bristol Rovers in 2023. He also played a critical role in Cambridge United’s push back to Sky Bet League One, a campaign in which his performances became central to the team’s success.
Neil Harris said the club understood Gibbons’s decision and would support him as he makes the move north. “It’s with a very heavy heart that today we say goodbye to James Gibbons,” he said. Harris added that what Gibbons helped the club achieve this year, through his level of performance, leadership qualities and determination to win matches and drag the side over the line to promotion, had been hugely appreciated.
The departure closes a short but influential spell at Cambridge United. Gibbons arrived in 2023 and quickly became a key figure for the U’s, combining consistency with a work rate that carried him through the club’s promotion run and into the end-of-season honours.
Cambridge United thanked him for his contributions to both the club and the wider community during his time there, underlining how deeply he had settled into life at the Cledara Abbey despite the family circumstances pulling him away. Harris said the club fully understood and supported the decision, and that Gibbons would always be welcome back at the ground.
For Cambridge, the loss is more than a routine summer exit. It removes a player who has already delivered at the level they needed most, and who leaves with the club’s strongest endorsement after helping to bring League One football back. For Gibbons, the next step is shaped less by football than by family, and the timing means Cambridge must start filling a gap created by one of its most trusted performers.
The club has not said who it will turn to next, but Gibbons’s departure ensures this summer will begin with a search for both a replacement and a way to move on from a player who had become part of the team’s recent rise.
