Future England international Zat Knight had a youth trial with Exeter City in August and September 1996. Later playing adult football for Rushall Olympic, he moved on to Fulham, Aston Villa and Bolton Wanderers and won two England caps in May 2005.      

Aged sixteen, and not long out of school, he had not been offered a traineeship by any of the West Midlands clubs in the same way that Lee Sharpe, an earlier future England player and later Exeter City player, had moved from the Midlands to become an apprentice with Torquay United. Arriving at City, Zat went on a youth team trip to Dorset and also made one appearance in the South West Counties Youth League in August 1996. 

With no training contract on the table, Zak returned home to Solihull and moved into adult football with Rushall Olympic before signing for Fulham in 1999. Making 150 league appearances for the West London club, and playing twice for England against the United States and Colombia in 2005, he returned to the Midlands with Aston Villa in a £3.5 million deal in 2007.

Enjoying less success at Villa Park he made no more than forty league appearances before a 168-league game stint with Bolton Wanderers between 2009 and 2014.

Zat finished his career with Colorado Rapids in the United States and with two final games for Reading late in the 2014/15 season.