Colin Mark Weatherly (born 18 January 1958) is an English retired

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 ...

. He spent his entire professional career with Gillingham, where he played in 457

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

matches, a club record for an outfield player.

Career

Although born in

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

Weatherly was on the books of

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

as a schoolboy but was not retained. He also played for

non-league 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 ...

Canterbury City from the age of 15. After his release from Coventry, he was signed by Gillingham as an apprentice and soon found himself making his first-team debut. At just 16 years 218 days he was at the time the youngest player ever to play for the club. Originally a striker, he was switched to the defence in 1978 and played there or in midfield for the remainder of his career, which saw him play in over 500 matches in all competitions for the Kent club and win the club's Player of the Year award on two occasions. While at the Gills he was the subject of a children's book entitled ''Footballer (My Job)''. In summer 1978 Weatherly moved to Finnish team called

Koparit Koparit (originally Kuopion Pallotoverit, or KPT for short) was a football club from Kuopio, Finland. It was founded in 1931 and disbanded in 1990. The club played a total of 21 seasons in the Finnish premier division Mestaruussarja between 19 ...

. He played there two months and became the first foreign player who had played in

Kuopio Kuopio ( , ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of North Savo. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Kuopio is approximately , while the Kuopio sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately . It is the mos ...

. After him many English players move to Kuopio and played summers there. The teams they played were

KuPS Kuopion Palloseura, commonly referred to as KuPS, is a Finnish professional football club based in Kuopio. KuPS competes in Veikkausliiga, the top flight of Finnish football. The team plays its home matches at Kuopio Football Stadium. KuPS ha ...

and

Kuopion Elo Kuopion Elo (originally Männistön Elo) is a football club from Kuopio, Finland. In 2023, they compete in Kakkonen, the third tier of Finnish football. Elo is the oldest existing football club from Kuopio. History Kuopion Elo was founded as M ...

. In 1989, he left

Priestfield Stadium Priestfield Stadium (popularly known simply as Priestfield and officially known from 2007 to 2010 as KRBS Priestfield Stadium and from 2011 to 2023 and again from 2024 as MEMS Priestfield Stadium for sponsorship purposes) is a football stadium i ...

and dropped into non-league football. He joined

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...

in 1991 and stayed there for ten years, including a spell as co-manager in the early 1990s during which he led the club to a

Kent Senior Cup The Kent Senior Cup is an English football knock-out competition played between senior clubs in the county of Kent. It is administered by the Kent County Football Association (KCFA). History Now known as the Kent Senior Cup it was originall ...

final victory at the ground of his old club Gillingham. He later had a spell managing Margate's local rivals

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town and civil parish in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in eastern Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2021 it had a population of 42,027. Ramsgate' ...

. In 2007, he returned to Margate as reserve team manager. In 2009, he became Head of Youth Development at

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weatherly, Mark 1958 births Living people Sportspeople from Ramsgate English men's footballers Canterbury City F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Koparit players Hythe Town F.C. players Margate F.C. players English Football League players English football managers Margate F.C. managers Men's association football defenders Men's association football forwards