Ralph Coates (26 April 1946 – 17 December 2010) was an English professional

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 ...

who played as a winger. Coates played for

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

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 ...

and

Orient The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

, making 480 appearances 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 ...

. From 1970 to 1971, he played for the England national team, earning four caps.

Club career

Coates was born in

Hetton-le-Hole Hetton-le-Hole is a town and civil parish in the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear, England. It is in the historic county of Durham. The A182 road, A182 road runs through the town, between Houghton-le-Spring and Easington Lane (the latter bord ...

, County Durham. He was an apprentice colliery fitter and his footballing ability was spotted by Burnley's North-East scout Jack Hixon. Coates joined Burnley on trial in 1961, and after a period as an apprentice, turned professional in 1963. He made his first-team debut in December 1964, scoring his first goal in a 2–0 win against Leicester City in March 1965. He would go on to make 261 appearances for Burnley in all competitions, scoring 32 goals. After Burnley had been relegated from the First Division in 1971, Coates was sold to Tottenham Hotspur for a fee of £190,000. He played over 300 games for Tottenham and earned winner's medals for the

1971–72 UEFA Cup The 1971–72 UEFA Cup was the inaugural season of the UEFA Cup, now known as the UEFA Europa League, which became the third club football competition organised by UEFA. The tournament retained the structure and format of the Inter-Cities Fairs C ...

and the 1972–73 Football League Cup, where he scored the winning goal in the final. Coates left Tottenham in 1978 and had a short period playing with

St George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the R ...

in the Australian

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its ...

, before returning to play for Orient, where he was also on the coaching staff. He played 84 games in all competitions for Orient scoring 12 goals. He retired from professional football in 1982, but continued to play non-league football for Hertford Heath,

Ware WARE (1250 AM) is a commercial radio station broadcasting a classic hits format. Licensed to Ware, Massachusetts, United States, the station serves the Springfield radio market. The station is currently owned by Success Signal Broadcasting ...

and Nazeing.

International career

Coates played eight times for England U-23 and four times for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. He was a member of the initial squad for the 1970 World Cup but was not selected for the final squad which travelled to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Personal life

Coates was married twice, first to Veronica Banks in 1968 (whom he subsequently divorced) and then to Lesley Clarkson in 1981 (from whom he had separated by the time of his death). He had a son and a daughter. Coates was a Labour Party supporter. After his football career ended, Coates became a

travel agent A travel agency is a private Retailing, retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism-related Service (economics), services to the general public on behalf of accommodation or travel supply chain, suppliers to offer different kin ...

. He later moved into the leisure industry, managing leisure centres in

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

and Boreham Wood and was involved with Tottenham Hotspur for over 20 years, where he worked as a match-day host. He was also a football coach for disabled children.

Death

In early December 2010, he suffered a series of strokes and was hospitalised. He died on 17 December 2010 at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Trust aged 64.

Career statistics

International

:Source:

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur * League Cup: 1972–73 *

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 ...

: 1971–72 * Anglo-Italian League Cup:

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

References

External links

Ralph Coates R.I.P
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coates, Ralph 1946 births 2010 deaths English men's footballers England men's international footballers England men's under-23 international footballers Burnley F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Ware F.C. players English Football League players Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia National Soccer League (Australia) players Footballers from Hetton-le-Hole English Football League representative players UEFA Europa League–winning players Men's association football wingers 20th-century English sportsmen