Exeter City Football Club is delighted to announce that George Birch has signed a new one year deal, with a club option for an additional year.
The extension will see the midfielder remain at St James Park at least until the end of the 2026/27 season.
As an under-16 age group player, George started playing for Exeter City under-18s in the Youth Alliance in early 2023 having earlier arrived from Yeovil Town. Starting as a scholar/trainee in July 2023, George played regularly for the under-18s in league games as well as featuring in both of the club's FA Youth Cup ties in the 2023/24 season. Continuing into the following season he again appeared in the Youth Alliance and FA Youth Cup.
The start of the 2025/26 season saw him make his league debut away to Doncaster Rovers, as well as a first senior start in a first-round Carabao Cup tie against Cheltenham Town. George would go on to feature against Northampton Town and a host of Vertu Trophy matches before his three-month loan period with Weston-super-Mare in October 2025. Returning to St James' Park in January 2026, George was immediately included in the squad to face Manchester City in the FA Cup before coming on as a substitute and scoring what was widely regarded as the finest goal of the match.
George is now on loan at Chippenham Town until the end of the 2025/26 season and has featured in all of their games since joining.
Speaking about the extension, George said: “I’m really happy, it's a really proud moment to sign another deal at a place where I want to be."
Regarding his loan experiences at Weston-super-Mare and Chippenham Town, he said: "It's proper mens football. It threw me in at the deep end, but it really helped me. It's good to get minutes towards the end of the season, the other day I played 90 minutes which I haven't done for a while so it's good for me to see that I'm capable of it."
Revisiting that wonderful strike at the Etihad Stadium back in January, George summarised how important that moment was for him: "It was a really good feeling, it was nice that the fans came all that way and were able to go back home with at least something. It was surreal scoring, weeks afterwards I still felt it."
When looking into his future aims, George said: "There's a pathway for youngsters here, so there's not really a better place to be if I want to get game time. I want to be playing for the first team and getting as many minutes as I can."