For Club and Country: Welsh Football Greats

by Stead, Peter; Richards, Huw

• ISBN13: 9780708316245
• ISBN10: 0708316247
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

For many sports fans in Wales, football is very much thegame. In recent decades, rugby may have received more media attention, but there is some justification for the claim that it is soccer which is truly the national game of Wales. After all, the playing and watching of soccer has been characteristic of cities, towns and villages throughout the country and it is soccer, more than any other sport, which has helped forge an all-Wales identity. Whole communities have taken delight not just in their local teams but in the careers of those who have played for leading English and continental teams. And, naturally, there has been particular pride when these stars have joined with home-based players to wear the magnificent red shirts of Wales. In For Club and Country: Welsh Football Greatsa distinguished team of experts and enthusiasts celebrates the careers of a host of Welsh football's finest players from that first superstar, Billy Meredith, through the hey-day of the peerless John Charles to latter-day heroes such as Mark Hughes and Ryan Giggs. Rather than try to define a list of all-time greats, individual authors have set out to evoke the genius of those players who have inspired them most, setting them firmly in both their cultural context and within the changing pattern of the game in the United Kingdom and internationally.

Author Biography

Peter Stead is a writer, broadcaster and historian of popular culture. Huw Richards is the sports correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and Financial Times.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vi
Preface	vii
Contributors	viii
The Welsh Football World	1	(8)
Peter Stead
Billy Meredith	9	(12)
John Harding
Leigh Richmond Roose	21	(12)
Geraint H. Jenkins
Fred Keenor	33	(12)
Martin Johnes
Jack Fowler	45	(14)
Huw Bowen
Trevor Ford	59	(14)
Peter Stead
The Arsenal Welsh	73	(12)
Kenneth O. Morgan
Ivor Allchurch	85	(14)
Huw Richards
John Charles	99	(12)
Rob Hughes
Medwin and Jones in the 'Greatest-Ever Side'	111	(14)
Peter Stead
Mike England	125	(14)
Aled Eirug
John Toshack	139	(14)
Huw Richards
Terry Yorath	153	(14)
Barrie Morgan
Ian Rush	167	(16)
John Williams
Neville Southall	183	(12)
Rob Steen
Ryan Giggs	195	(14)
David Eastwood
Mark Hughes	209	(14)
Peter Stead
Hope Springs Eternal	223	(10)
Huw Richards
Select Bibliography	233	(4)
Index	237