Jack Diment (born John Bowman Diment; 1885 – October 12, 1978) was a Scottish footballer who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Early years

Diment was born in Plymouth in 1885 and grew up in Durris, near

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. They later moved to

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle ( , Received Pronunciation, RP: ), is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is England's northernmost metropolitan borough, located o ...

. There Jack took a job with a shipping agency.Scottish Sport History, "The Scots who won the Italian league in 1905: Jack Diment and James Squair", 18 February 2022, Andy Mitchell
/ref> In Newcastle he met James Squair. Some records claim they were on the books at

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

. That is disputed though, with at least one source claiming it is incorrect. Squair (aged 19) and Diment (aged 20), both began to work for steamship owner Walter F Becker, who founded a club in

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

in 1901..

Career in Italy

They both debuted for

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

on 13 November 1904 playing for the Palla Dapples trophy, a trophy donated by Henri Dapples for a series challenge matches. They lost 1-0 at

Genoa CFC Genoa Cricket and Football Club () is an Italian professional Association football, football club based in Genoa, Liguria. The team competes in the Serie A, the top division of the Italian football league system. Established in 1893, Genoa is ...

.JACK DIMENT, myjuve.it
/ref> Diment was nicknamed "the mule", for his tenacious, no-nonsense approach. His Juve debut in the Italian championship was on 3 May 1905, in a 3-0 home win v US Milanese. In his first season at Juventus, they won the

Prima Categoria The Prima Categoria is the seventh level (since 2014–15) in the Italian football league system and is organized by the National Amateur League by the Regional Committees. Each individual league winner within the Prima Categoria level progress ...

, a predecessor tournament of the 1929 formed

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

. This was also prior to the

Scudetto The ''scudetto'' (; Italian for 'little shield') is a decoration having the colors of the flag of Italy which is sewn onto the jersey of the Italian sports clubs that won the highest level championship of their respective sport in the previous ...

being awarded to the Italian league champions from 1924. 1905 is though recognised as the first national league title won by Juve. His last match for the Juventus came on 2 March 1907 in a 4–1 home loss to Torino. He made 11 appearances in the competition for the Italian league title, without scoring. He also played in 12 other Juventus games such as friendlies, again without scoring. In 1908, he played for

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

(as did Squair in his last year in Italian football at this level), and in 1909 for

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. However, these were the two years in which the FIF banned non-Italians from playing in Italian championship matches.

Style of play

Diment was a left footed midfielder.

Honours

Juventus

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia (Shostakovich's 11th Symphony i ...

References

1978 deaths Juventus FC players Torino FC players AC Milan players Year of birth missing Scottish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Newcastle United F.C. players {{Scotland-footy-midfielder-stub