Damien Francis became Norwich City's second signing of the 2003 summer when he completed his move to Carrow Road on 22nd July 2003.

The 24-year-old passed his medical the previous day and joined City on a three-year contract from Wimbledon for a fee in the region of £260,000. Assigned the number 20 shirt, Damien said "I know David Nielsen from when he was at Wimbledon and spoke to him when I came up here to have a look around. He told me Norwich is a good club and I could see that for myself as well. Another one of the reasons why I picked Norwich is that they are a good passing team and I like to pass. I also like to get box to box and tackle, and to score goals, and that's something I'm hoping to continue. I'm flattered to have been described as the new Robbie Earle because Robbie was a very good player and scored a lot of goals in his career, but I'm a different player to him – and if I can score as many goals as he did then I'll be very happy."

The transfer gave Francis the chance to get away from the uncertainty at his previous club, which was then in administration and in the middle of an on-off move to Milton Keynes. However these difficult circumstances probably made it easier for him to leave the club that he had been with since the age of 9. He made his debut against Arsenal during 1997/98 and had gone on to 117 appearances in the following seasons. Many Wimbledon managers played Damien out of position but Terry Burton gave him a chance and he exploded into the Dons midfield. In 29 appearances he scored 8 goals and his hard tackling and box-to-box play won him plaudits from many opposition managers. Dominating the central midfield he out played and out thought many more experienced players and was attracting interest from a number of Premiership managers including Glenn Hoddle. An ligament injury sustained by Ugo Ehiogu meant Damien missed many games but returned to the Wimbledon first team in the Spring of 2002.

Damien made his first appearance in a Norwich shirt in the 3-0 home defeat by Spurs on July 22nd in a pre-season friendly. His league debut came in the 2-2 draw with Bradford on the opening day of the season and his first Man of the Match award came for his performance in the 2-0 defeat of Rotherham the following Saturday. He ended the season with 43 appearances and 7 goals.

On 5th March 2005, Damien was linked with a £3million move to Charlton according to The Sun. In June 2005, Portsmouth were said to be preparing a £1.5million bid although Fulham and West Ham were also linked to him according to The Daily Mirror. The next club to be linked with him were Middlesbrough on 30th June 2005 with the Daily Express suggesting that Damien would be a replacement for Liverpool-bound Bolo Zenden. Portsmouth were then reported in the first week of July 2005 to have submitted a £1.75m "take it or leave it" bid. Damien was dropped from the pre-season friendly with Colchester with rumours reporting that he had "gon on strike" or that he was in talks with Portsmouth. When Pompey didn't back up their interest, Wigan stepped in and agreed a £1.5m fee with Norwich. Damien made his debut for Wigan in their opening game of the 2005/6 Premiership season which they narrowly lost 1-0 to Chelsea. As the season progressed, Damien struggled to hold down a regular place in the side and made it clear he wanted to leave.

On 23rd May 2006, the Independent reported that Francis was offered, along with £7million, by Wigan to Crystal Palace in return for striker Andy Johnson. Two days later and it was claimed that Cardiff chairman Sam Hamman had approached Wigan manager Paul Jewell about signing Francis. Two days after rejecting a move to Stoke City, Damien signed for Watford on 12th July 2006 for a fee that could rise to £1.5m. Watford boss Adrian Boothroyd said: "I knew Damien from my time at Norwich and he's a professional right to the end. Things have not happened for him at Wigan and that sometimes happens at some clubs, but I think we're right for him and he's right for us. He's a £2m player, and the fact we've got him for the money we have is a real coup for us."

Watford boss Paul Jewell said: "We didn't want to sell him because we do not have the biggest squad here. But I respect him too much as a person to stand in his way, and he goes to Watford with our best wishes."

On 3rd October 2008, it was announced that Francis had to retire from the professional game due to a serious knee injury. He damaged his cruciate knee ligament in the 1-1 draw with Manchester City in April 2007. Francis made the decision to retire on strong medical advice following a series of setbacks whilst trying to regain complete fitness. "I'm devastated to have to accept the decision to announce my retirement," he told the club website. "But I have been strongly advised by my surgeon that I cannot continue to put my knee through such trauma."

In February 2024 Damien revealed that he was targetting a career as a Sporting Director. He had worked in coaching, media and football agency work since retiring but had enrolled on a course to gain a qualification that would allow him to become a sporting director - with the hope of improving the level of diversity around the decision making tables inside the game.  “It’s a two-year course with the University of East London. It’s based in Manchester though and we have to be there for two days a month. I came here with my study group to do an audit on AFC Wimbledon. The purpose of the module I’m on at the moment is to go into an organisation. It’s focused on high performance and what this particular organisation defines as high performance within its various departments. We’ve done a series of interviews with the heads of departments here. We then go away and write a report on our findings, which we’ll present to Wimbledon.” It is a similar course to that from which Norwich Sporting Director Ben Knapper graduated.