Born 5/8/89 in Southwark, London.
In his sixth year at Chelsea, Ryan is a fast, attacking left-back, converted from a winger, who was signed in July 2005 from Gillingham. A tribunal set the fee at £125,000 initially with additional amounts to be paid depending on progress.

He signed professional in August 2006 and was taken on the first team pre-season visit to America in that summer before making his England Under 19s debut in September 2006. He has since stepped up to become a regular in the Under 21s.

Loans have dominated his past two-and-a-half seasons as important first team experience has been gained extensively.

League One Bournemouth was the start in 2006/07 although Ryan missed the final two months of that season having suffered a ruptured spleen in a Chelsea reserve match.

He recovered to spend the rest of 2007 at League One Oldham and in January 2008 he moved up a division to Norwich where he spent 18 months, racking up 60 appearances, although the story ended on a down note with relegation.

Ryan spent the entirety of last season on loan at Reading, missing just two league games. He is now approaching 150 matches in the Football League, and featured in Chelsea's pre-season fixtures for the first time since 2006. In early August he signed on loan at Nottingham Forest until the new year. He was a regular for the promotion-chasing Championship side, making 19 league starts.

From January 2011 onwards, and with Patrick van Aanholt now going out on loan, Ryan remained at Chelsea to take over as Ashley Cole's understudy and made his debut as a sub in league game at home to Birmingham in April.