Nicky Johns is an English retired football

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

who played both 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, it is the oldest football league in the world, and was the top-level football league in England from ...

and the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

. Johns began his career with

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and close to the Exmoor National Park. T ...

. In 1976, he signed with

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Poplar, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east of ...

. In 1978, he played eight games with the

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tie ...

of the

. However, the Rowdies had two good goalkeepers in

Winston DuBose Winston DuBose is an American former soccer goalkeeper who spent eight seasons in the North American Soccer League, four in the American Professional Soccer League and one in the American Indoor Soccer Association. He also earned fourteen cap ...

and Paul Hammond. Consequently, Johns saw time in only eight games before being sent on loan to

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history ...

where he played one game. The Rowdies then sent him on loan to

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Charlton, south-east London, England. The team compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Their home ground is ...

. In February 1979, the Rowdies traded Johns to Charlton in exchange for Mike Flanagan who had recently been ejected from a Charlton game for fighting with his teammate

Derek Hales Derek David Hales (born 15 December 1951) is an English former footballer who played as a striker. He is the all-time leading goalscorer for Charlton Athletic, with his most prolific season being 1975–76, when he scored 28 league goals and w ...

. Johns experienced his greatest success at Charlton. Over ten seasons, he played 288 games and was named the 1981, 1983 and 1984 Charlton Player of the Year.Carson keeping faith
He later played for

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

before finishing his career with Maidstone United. In 2003, he became an assistant manager with Erith Town in the Kent League.

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NASL stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johns, Nicky 1957 births Living people Men's association football goalkeepers Charlton Athletic F.C. players English men's footballers English expatriate men's footballers Maidstone United F.C. (1897) players Millwall F.C. players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Tampa Bay Rowdies (1975–1993) players English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Footballers from Bristol English Football League players