Albert Geldard (11 April 1914 – 19 October 1989) was an English professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as an

outside right In the sport of association football, a forward (attacker or striker) is an outfield position which primarily plays further up the pitch than midfielders and defenders. As with any attacking player, the role of the forward relies heavily on bei ...

for

Bradford Park Avenue Bradford (Park Avenue) Association Football Club, sometimes abbreviated as BPA AFC, is an association football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The team currently competes in , at the eighth tier of the English football league ...

, Everton,

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club ( ) is a professional association football, football club based in Horwich, Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the Englis ...

and

Darwen Darwen is a market town and civil parish in the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The residents of the town are known as "Darreners". The A666 road, A666 road passes through Darwen towards Blackburn to the north, Bolton to ...

. At Everton he won the

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final is the last match in the FA Cup, Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the List of sports attendance figures, most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official attendance of 89,472 ...

1933 Events January * January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independen ...

. He made four appearances for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

during 1933–1937. At Bradford Park Avenue; he became known as the youngest player to appear in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

, a distinction shared jointly with Ken Roberts until

Reuben Noble-Lazarus Reuben Courtney Noble-Lazarus (born 16 August 1993) is an English-born Grenadian professional Association football, footballer. On 30 September 2008, he became the youngest player to debut in the The Football League, English Football League, at 1 ...

took the record in 2008.

Playing career

Bradford Park Avenue

Geldard was born at

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, Yorkshire and played his youth football with Bradford Schools and Manningham Mills. Magic was one of Geldard's hobbies, with ''toffeeweb'' referring to the winger as "a real wizard, both on and off the pitch. His hobbies included magic tricks and he was one of the trickiest right wingers ever seen: he was devastatingly fast and he had a trick-bag that seemingly never ran out." He joined

as a professional in 1928. His debut came at

The Den The Den (previously The New Den) is a football stadium in Bermondsey, south-east London, and the home of Millwall Football Club. The Den is adjacent to the South London railway originating at , and a quarter-of-a-mile from the Old Den, whic ...

on 16 September 1929 against

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

to become the youngest player to appear in the

at just 15 years and 158 days old. He left Bradford Park Avenue having scored six goals in 34 games; signing for Everton on 14 November 1932 for a then record fee of £4,000.

Everton

Joining Everton, his debut came against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

where he scored a goal. Geldard formed a duet with striker

Tommy Lawton Thomas Lawton (6 October 1919 – 6 November 1996) was an English football player and manager. Born in Farnworth and raised in Bolton, he played amateur football at Rossendale United, before he turned professional at Burnley on his 17t ...

, by producing good crosses for him to head home. Tony Matthews described Geldard as; "Geldard was a slippery customer who possessed an exceptional turn of speed, could shoot with both feet and enjoyed taking on opponents, either on the outside or inside." Taking part in the ''cup-tie of the century'' on 30 January 1935, Geldard scored two goals to help Everton progress into the fifth round of the 1935 FA Cup after the 6–4 defeat of

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

. Geldard was part of the Everton side that won the 1933 FA Cup Final with a 3–0 win over

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

with goals from Jimmy Stein,

Dixie Dean William Ralph "Dixie" Dean (22 January 1907 – 1 March 1980) was an English footballer who played as a centre forward. Dean holds the record for the most goals scored in a single season in top-flight English football, with 60. He is regarded as ...

and James Dunn; with Geldard crossing in for the third goal.

was disappointed at the trade of Geldard saying; "He was the fastest thing on two legs over ten yards. We had other wingers like Torry Gillick, Wally Boyes and Jimmy Caskie, but Albert had played for England only the season before, when he'd kept Stan Matthews out of the team. I thought we'd miss him." In total Geldard had made 140 appearances for Everton scoring 38 goals.

Bolton Wanderers

signed Geldard for £4,500 in July 1938, and his debut came against

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Charlton, south-east London, England. The team compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Their home ground is ...

on 27 August 1938 and scored his first goal for ''The Trotters'' on 18 February 1939 against his former club Everton. He enlisted in the

53rd (Bolton) Field Regiment, Royal Artillery 53rd (Bolton) Field Regiment was a Royal Artillery (RA) unit of Britain's part-time Territorial Army (TA) during World War II. It was descended from the Bolton Artillery, first formed in the Lancashire town of Bolton in 1889. It served in the B ...

, in May 1939 to fight in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

along with 14 of his Bolton teammates.

Darwen

He returned from the war with an agreement with Bolton for him to play on semi professional terms for

and played a few games for the Lancashire-based club, after World War II, Geldard returned to play for Bolton in 1946 and played nine games scoring a single goal, but was forced to retire from football after a knee injury in 1947.

International career

He made his debut for

on 13 May 1933 at the age of 19 against

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

in a 1–1 draw at

Stadio Nazionale PNF The Stadio Nazionale del PNF ( English: National Stadium of the National Fascist Party) was a multi-purpose stadium in Rome, Italy. It hosted three of the 17 matches of the 1934 FIFA World Cup, including the final between hosts Italy and Czechosl ...

, making him the 10th youngest player to ever appear for England; at this time he was playing at Everton, going onto make four appearances for England in total in games against;

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

International appearances

References

External links

*
England profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geldard, Albert 1914 births 1989 deaths Footballers from Bradford Men's association football outside forwards English men's footballers England men's international footballers Bradford (Park Avenue) A.F.C. players Everton F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Darwen F.C. (1870) players English Football League players English Football League representative players British Army personnel of World War II Royal Artillery soldiers 20th-century English sportsmen