Desmond Patrick Backos (born 13 November 1950) is a South African former

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 in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

for

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, the cl ...

Career

Backos was born in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

and played football with local sides Johannesburg Rangers,

Highlands Park Highlands Park Football Club are a South African professional soccer club who played in Modderfontein, Johannesburg. They were founded in 2003 as a phoenix club to the earlier Highlands Park F.C. (1959) and Highlands Park F.C. (1990) The clu ...

a second spell at Johannesburg Rangers and Hellenic. At Hellenic he worked under former England international

George Eastham George Edward Eastham, OBE (23 September 1936 – 20 December 2024) was an English footballer who played as a midfielder or inside forward for Newcastle United, Arsenal and Stoke City, as well as being a member of England's 1966 World Cup-w ...

who working as a coach but in 1977 Eastham returned to England and Backos moved to the United States to play for the

Los Angeles Aztecs The Los Angeles Aztecs were an American professional soccer team based in Los Angeles, California, that existed from 1974 to 1981. The Aztecs competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1974 North American Soccer League season, 1974 ...

. But Backos was brought over to England by Eastham in November 1977 who was now manager at

. However Backos had an awful time at Stoke managing to make just two appearances and soon returned to South Africa in January 1978.

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Backos, Desmond South African men's soccer players South African expatriate men's soccer players White South African people South African people of Greek descent Stoke City F.C. players English Football League players 1950 births Living people Highlands Park F.C. players Hellenic F.C. players Los Angeles Aztecs players Rangers F.C. (South Africa) players Soccer players from Johannesburg North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in England South African expatriate sportspeople in the United States South African expatriate sportspeople in England Men's association football forwards 20th-century South African sportsmen