Ivan Gordon Sharpe (15 June 1889 – 9 February 1968) was an English amateur

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 ...

. Although an amateur, he played for several professional clubs, including

Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

— with whom he won the

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

in 1911–12–and later

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

. He represented the

England national amateur football team The England national amateur football team was the amateur representative team for England at football. It was formed in 1901, due to the growth of the professional game which meant that amateur players could no longer easily find places in the ...

, and also the

Great Britain Olympic football team The Great Britain Olympic football team is the men's football team that represents the United Kingdom at the Summer Olympic Games (where it competed as Great Britain, branded Team GB). The team is organised by the Football Association as the me ...

, with whom he won an Olympic gold medal at the 1912 games in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. He is also one of very few players to have played for both Leeds City (65 appearances and 17 goals) and

(1 appearance 0 goals). After retirement he enjoyed a long career as a sports journalist, becoming president of the Football Writers Association. He served as editor of the Athletic News Football Annual and also of the Athletic News Cricket Annual. In 1936 he was selected by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

to be one of two journalists (the other being Norman Creek) who for the first time provided live commentary on 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 ...

. He continued to contribute a hard-hitting article to the

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

match day programme for many years right up to his death. He produced a volume of memoirs "40 Years in Football" in 1954, as well as writing "Soccer Top Ten" in 1962, detailing his ten favourite players.

International goals

:''England Amateurs score listed first, score column indicates score after each Sharpe goal.''

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sharpe, Ivan 1889 births 1968 deaths English men's footballers England men's amateur international footballers Watford F.C. players Glossop North End A.F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Leeds City F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Footballers at the 1912 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Great Britain English Olympic competitors Olympic gold medallists for Great Britain Southern Football League players English Football League players Olympic medalists in football English sportswriters Medalists at the 1912 Summer Olympics Men's association football wingers Footballers from St Albans