Mike England
 England playing for Tottenham Hotspur in 1974 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Harold Michael England[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 2 December 1941 | ||
| Place of birth | Holywell, Flintshire, Wales | ||
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) | ||
| Position(s) | Defender | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1959–1966 | Blackburn Rovers | 165 | (21) |
| 1966–1975 | Tottenham Hotspur | 300 | (14) |
| 1975–1979 | Seattle Sounders | 106 | (6) |
| 1975–1976 | → Cardiff City (loan) | 40 | (1) |
| 1979–1980 | Cleveland Force (indoor) | 11 | (0) |
| Total | 622 | (42) | |
| International career | |||
| 1962–1974 | Wales | 44 | (4) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1980–1988 | Wales | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Harold Michael England MBE (born 2 December 1941) is a Welsh former footballer and manager.
Playing career
Playing as a central defender, England began his career at Blackburn Rovers in 1959, before moving to Tottenham Hotspur in July 1966, ultimately winning four major trophies: the FA Cup in 1967, the UEFA Cup in 1972, and the League Cup in 1971 and 1973.
He made 44 international appearances for Wales over twelve years, scoring 4 goals.[2] He was the youngest ever Wales permanent captain for many years, until superseded by Aaron Ramsey in 2011.[3]
Management career
He later managed the Wales national team from March 1980 to February 1988. His reign as manager was marked by a series of frustrations, as a team of limited resources, but with talented players such as Neville Southall, Ian Rush, Mark Hughes and Mickey Thomas, very narrowly missed out on qualification to a series of major tournaments, including the 1982, and 1986 FIFA World Cups. Perhaps most agonisingly, Wales only missed out on qualification for the UEFA Euro 1984 by minutes when an injury-time winning goal by Ljubomir Radanović for Yugoslavia in the final game of qualifying group 4 against Bulgaria eliminated Wales.
England was sacked as Wales manager on 3 February 1988 after another initially promising attempt to qualify for UEFA Euro 1988 ended in failure. That was to be the final job he would ever have in football. He later managed a nursing home in North Wales, and then owned two nursing homes and ran his own timber business.[4]
Honours
Tottenham Hotspur
- 1972
- 1967
- League Cup: 1970-71, 1972-73
Individual
- Rothmans Golden Boots Awards: 1970[5]
References
- ISBN 1-85291-665-6
- ^ "A Cymru inspired by Mike England | FC Cymru Magazine". magazine.faw.cymru. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
- ^ Wathan, Chris (14 June 2016). "Ramsey upset as he misses son crawl for the first time". Wales Online. Retrieved 19 October 2019.
- ^ Bevan, Chris; Fletcher, Paul (6 October 2004). "Football – Internationals – Yesterday's men". BBC Sport.
- ^ "1969-1970 British Team of the Season". BigSoccer. 31 July 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2024.
- ^ "Steve Dimitry's NASL Web Page". www.oocities.org.
External links
- Mike England at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Transfer Database
- 1976 Seattle Sounders player profile
- 1979 Sounders profile – with stats
- American stats