• English / United States: Clay
• Japanese / Japan: ヤーコン
• Japanese (Romanized) / Japan: Yācon
• Japanese (TL) / Japan: Yacon

Clay is one of the Gym Leaders of the Unova region, specializing in the Ground type. He runs the Driftveil Gym, and those that defeat him receive the Quake Badge. He is a miner and a hyper-capitalist, known for being very greedy about money and not wasting time earning that money. Clay is the father of Lacey, who attends the Blueberry Academy. He also may be a descendant of Lian, but this has not been officially confirmed.

Pokémon the Series

When Ash Ketchum first arrived in Driftveil City, he met Clay at the entrance to the Driftveil Gym but Clay didn't have any time for Gym match at that moment as he had to go out and examine a new vein in a mine that he manages at the outskirts of town. Clay was a bit annoyed with Ash Ketchum as he arrived at to have Gym match and didn't even know that. Ash Ketchum told Clay he'd wait for him at the Pokémon Center till he called which he did just after the training with Chili had finished up.

After Nurse Joy (Unova) informed Ash Ketchum that Clay had returned to the gym, Ash Ketchum went to the gym but Clay was leaving again because he had no more Revival Herbs and he I didn't have time for any Gym matches. Clay was a bit annoyed by Ash Ketchum as he had come to his gym for a match without knowing anything about Revival Herbs. Clay told Ash Ketchum that he wasn't worth the bother as he figured he wasn't a very good trainer for not knowing what a Revival Herb was. Clay then told Ash Ketchum that they could have a battle if he brought some Revival Herbs to him and until then the Gym was closed.

Gym Battle against Ash

Ash Ketchum returned to the Driftveil Gym with a bag of Revival Herbs and Clay kept his promise and they went farther underground in the mine to begin the battle. Half way through their battle, Clay thought that Ash Ketchum was still naïve about become a Pokémon Master. Clay explained to Ash Ketchum that when he was about his age he began excavating the mine they were in with his Doryuzu and his pickax, expanding it to its current form. Clay complained that by contrast, the youngsters like Ash Ketchum were immediately talking about being Pokémon Masters and ignoring the fact that it takes a lot of work to get that far. Clay also said to Ash Ketchum that as he is someone who's made it so far that he's called "Miner King" with a single pickax, he could teach him how hard it is to work one's way up. Ash Ketchum proved to Clay though that he was working hard towards his goal and he defeated Clay to get his fifth badge in the Unova region, the Quake badge.