Ian Leonard Osborne (born 28 October 1952) is an English former 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 ...

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, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

and

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley of ...

Career

Osborne was born in Leicester. When he left school in 1968, he joined

as an apprentice, and turned professional two years later. A pacey full back, he spent a long time in the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

before eventually making his debut in the First Division on 16 August 1975, the opening game of the 1975–76 season, in a 3–3 draw at

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the Nation ...

. Osborne played a few more games that season, deputising for Ray Martin who was nearing the end of his Birmingham career, but his defending was not considered up to standard and he was allowed to leave. He then spent a season with

where he played the opening six games of the season for the Third Division side. After losing his place in September 1976 he did not get another game until April the next year, though he did play nine of the last ten games. He left on a free transfer in May 1977, moving into

non-League football Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is s ...

with Hillingdon Borough and Westfields.

Career statistics

Source:

References

1952 births Living people Footballers from Leicester English men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Birmingham City F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Hillingdon Borough F.C. players Westfields F.C. players English Football League players {{England-footy-defender-1950s-stub