Kevin Smith Drinkell (born 18 June 1960) is an English former professional
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
player and
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...
. Drinkell was a
centre forward
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 be ...
, noted for his aerial ability and the number of headed goals he scored as a result.
Career
Drinkell began his career with hometown club
Grimsby Town
Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system.
Nicknamed "the Mariners", the club was f ...
where he scored 89 goals in 272 games. His goals got him noticed by other clubs and in 1985
Norwich City
Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...
manager Ken Brown signed him for a fee of £90,000. Norwich were rebuilding their squad after relegation from the first division and had looked set to sign striker
Trevor Senior
Trevor Senior (born 28 November 1961) is a former professional footballer who played as a striker, primarily at Reading. He is the assistant manager of Dorchester Town.
Playing career
Senior was born in Stratton, near Dorchester, Dorset. He ...
from
Reading
Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch.
For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...
, however when he opted to stay with the Royals they turned their attention to Drinkell. The fee was set by a Football League tribunal and the figure angered Grimsby, who considered his value to be much higher.
Drinkell quickly proved that Norwich had indeed got a bargain. In his first season at
Carrow Road
Carrow Road is a association football, football stadium in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and is the home of EFL Championship club Norwich City F.C., Norwich City. The stadium is east of the city, near Norwich railway station and the River Wensum.
...
he scored 22 league goals as Norwich won the Second Division championship. With the ''Canaries'' being
Football League Cup
The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England.
Orga ...
holders, Drinkell would also have experienced
UEFA Cup
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star.
Computer scientists and Mathematici ...
action that season had it not been for the ban on English clubs in European competitions arising from the
Heysel disaster
The Heysel Stadium disaster ( ; ; ) was a crowd disaster on 29 May 1985, when Juventus fans were escaping from an attack by Liverpool fans while they were pressed against a wall in the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, before the start of ...
in May 1985.
It won him the Golden Boot for being the division's top scorer as well as the first of two consecutive
Norwich City player of the year
The Norwich City Player of the Season award is voted for annually by Norwich City's supporters, in recognition of the best overall performance by an individual player throughout the football season. As a mark of respect, the trophy is named The ...
awards. His goalscoring form continued in the First Division. His most memorable goal for Norwich came in a match against
Liverpool
Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
on 11 April 1987 at Carrow Road. Liverpool were reigning league champions and were looking to regain the title. The score was 1–1 late in the game, when Drinkell picked up the ball at the edge of the area and hit a fierce shot from a difficult angle past Liverpool goalkeeper
Bruce Grobbelaar
Bruce David Grobbelaar (born 6 October 1957) is a Zimbabwean former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, most prominently for English club Liverpool between 1981 and 1994, and for the Zimbabwean national team. Regarded as one of ...
. It ended one of the most famous statistics in football, as it was the first time that Liverpool had lost a league match in which
Ian Rush
Ian James Rush (born 20 October 1961) is a Welsh former professional association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. He is regarded as one of the best strikers of all time and one of the best Welsh playe ...
had scored. Norwich finished fifth that season, but Drinkell and his colleagues were once again denied the chance of UEFA Cup action, as
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
voted for the ban on English clubs in European competitions to continue for at least another season. Drinkell added a further 12 league goals in 1987–88, though the ''Canaries'' finished in the bottom half of the table this time – a decline in form which had seen Brown dismissed as manager in favour of coach
Dave Stringer
David Stringer (born 15 October 1944) is an English former footballer and manager of Norwich City.
As a player, he won the fans' vote to be Norwich City player of the year in 1972, the same year that they won promotion to the First Division fo ...
in December 1987.
In total, Drinkell scored 57 goals in 150 games for the ''Canaries''.
In 1987, Drinkell rejected the chance of a move to
Manchester United
Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...
, just after the appointment of
Alex Ferguson
Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former professional football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as the greatest manager of all time and ...
as their manager.
Drinkell's exploits earned him a £600,000 move to
Rangers
A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...
, who signed him ahead of
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...
in the 1988 close season. He won
Scottish League Championship
The Scottish League Championship is the domestic rugby union league system within Scotland. Operated by the Scottish Rugby Union, the championship was founded in 1973 as the first formalised national league system within any home nations country. ...
and
Scottish League Cup
The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...
medals at Ibrox, but lost his place to new signing
Mo Johnston
Maurice John Giblin Johnston (born 13 April 1963) is a Scottish former football player and coach. Johnston, who played as a forward, started his senior football career with Partick Thistle in 1981. He moved to Watford in 1983, where he scored ...
for the 1989–90 season and played just four more games for Rangers before his return to England in October 1989 when he signed for Coventry City in a deal worth around £800,000.
Despite scoring on his debut against his hometown team, Grimsby, in the
Football League Cup
The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England.
Orga ...
, his goalscoring form deserted him at Highfield Road (he failed to score in any of his 15 league appearances in the 1990–91 season, and after a short loan spell with
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. The team compete in the ...
in the autumn of 1991 he began his coaching career in Scotland with
Falkirk
Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow.
Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...
. He coached and managed
Stirling Albion
Stirling Albion Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the city of Stirling. The club was founded in 1945 following the demise of King's Park after World War II. The club currently competes in as a member of the Scottish Profession ...
, gaining promotion to the First Division as Second Division champions in 1996, before becoming Montrose manager in 1998.
In 2002, Norwich City fans voted Drinkell an inaugural member of the
Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame
The Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame honours Norwich City F.C. players, coaches, managers, directors and executives who have "made the greatest contribution to the club in its long history both on and off the pitch." During the club's centenary s ...
.
As of 2012, Drinkell was working as a football player agent. He had a brief spell as assistant manager of Second Division club East Fife in 2013.
Since 2014 he has been working as a Mercedes-Benz Sales Executive in Perth for Arnold Clark Mercedes.
Honours
Grimsby Town
* Fourth Division runners up: 1979
* Third Division: 1980
*Supporters Player of the Year 1983
*Supporters Young Player of the Year 1977
Norwich City
*
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
: 1986
*
Norwich City
Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...
Player of the Year 1985–86, 1986–87
*Inaugural member of
Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame
The Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame honours Norwich City F.C. players, coaches, managers, directors and executives who have "made the greatest contribution to the club in its long history both on and off the pitch." During the club's centenary s ...
: 2002
Rangers
*Scottish Premier League Championship 1988–89
*Scottish League Cup 1988–89
Falkirk
*Division One Championship Winner (promoted 1994) 1993/94
*