Eddie Lewis (soccer player, 1935)

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Eddie Lewis
Personnel
Surname Edward Lewis
birthday January 3, 1935
place of birth Manchester ,  England
date of death May 2, 2011
Place of death Johannesburg ,  South Africa
position Center forward , defender (left)
Juniors
Years station
1949-1952 Manchester United
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1952-1955 Manchester United 20 ( 09)
1955-1956 Preston North End 12 ( 02)
1956-1958 West Ham United 31 (12)
1958-1964 FC Orient 143 ( 05)
1964-1965 Folkestone Town
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1965-1968 Clapton FC
1968-1970 Ford Sports
1974 Kaizer Chiefs
1974-1979 Wits University
1979-1980 Kaizer Chiefs
1980-1982 Computer stars
1985 Kaizer Chiefs
1987-1988 Giant Blackpool
1989-1992 Moroka Swallows
1992-1997 D'Alberton Callies
1997-1999 Manning Rangers
1999-2000 AmaZulu Durban
1 Only league games are given.

Edward "Eddie" Lewis (born January 3, 1935 in Manchester , † May 2, 2011 in Johannesburg ) was an English football player and coach . He was a member of the "Busby Babes" at a young age and emigrated to South Africa in 1970 to do pioneering work as a trainer there for three decades.

Athletic career

Lewis began his professional football career as part of Manchester United's " Busby Babes" in the 1950s. After he had joined "United" at the age of fourteen, he played his first senior game for the reserve team at the age of 16. On November 29, 1952, he made his debut before his 18th birthday in a first division game against West Bromwich Albion and after just a few minutes he took the lead 1-0 - the game was ultimately lost 3-1. However, the competition was fierce for him and he had to compete on the offensive with players like Bobby Charlton , Billy Whelan , Tommy Taylor and Dennis Viollet . In a good five years, he only made 20 league games in which Lewis scored nine goals. Lewis himself attributed his "failure" at Manchester United primarily to two things. On the one hand, he dealt with a bleeding head injury in a game against Wolverhampton Wanderers , with which he had to "play through" at a time when substitutions were not yet allowed. From then on he went more cautiously in the subsequent tasks, which suffered from his self-confidence. The second reason he saw self-critically in the fact that he was simply "not good enough" in comparison with other players like Tommy Taylor or Duncan Edwards . Not long after the start of the 1955/56 season and four league appearances, Lewis moved on to Preston North End . United won the English championship in the same season .

The eleven months that Lewis spent in Preston, he called a "catastrophe". His performances were inconsistent and coach Frank Hill often blamed him for a lack of sporting success (starting with his debut when he scored two goals, but the game was lost 3-2). In November 1956 he moved to London one league lower to West Ham United as part of a swap deal with Frank O'Farrell . With West Ham he won the second division championship in the 1957/58 season before moving on to Leyton Orient within the Second Division within the British capital . Leyton Orient coach Alec Stock quickly turned Lewis into a left-back, where he remained a regular for several years. His sporting highlight was the 1961/62 season, in which he made a significant contribution to promotion to the top English division and only missed one game - his good performance in a direct duel against the "old master" Stanley Matthews from Stoke City attracted special attention . Back in the first division, Lewis initially kept his permanent place in the team before he was briefly replaced by Billy Taylor . In May 1964, Lewis ended his active professional career with his move to the lower class club Folkestone Town . In 1965 he worked for the first time as a coach and an engagement at FC Clapton followed by an employment at Ford Sports . In April 1970 he emigrated to South Africa with his wife and two daughters.

Lewis started a successful coaching career in his adopted South African home. This started in 1971 at Jewish Guilld FC and continued a year later at Highlands North . From 1974 he was the coach of the Kaiser Chiefs before he was appointed sports director of the football department of Wits University . During his time at Wits University, he shaped talents like Gary Bailey and Richard Gough who soon found their way into English professional football. Lewis coached a South African selection on the occasion of the first football tournament in South Africa with "mixed origins". After his return to the Kaiser Chiefs in the early 1980s, he was successful in the second half of the decade with Giant Blackpool and under his direction, the club rose to the top South African league in 1988. He joined the Moroka Swallows the following year and worked for clubs including D'Alberton Callies , the Manning Rangers and AmaZulu Durban until he retired from coaching in 2001 . He was also part of the coaching team for the 1998 World Cup in France and the 2000 African Championship in Ghana and Nigeria .

After his retirement he volunteered as a trainer at local schools and supported the family business in the field of garden maintenance in Johannesburg. He stayed with the South African public mostly as a TV expert for the broadcaster M-Net . On May 2, 2011, Lewis succumbed to cancer that was discovered during knee surgery.

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Neilson N. Kaufman and Alan E. Ravenhill: Leyton Orient: The Complete Record . Breedon Books, Derby 2006, ISBN 1-85983-480-9 , pp. 232 .
  2. ↑ Interview with Eddie Lewis (Rednews.co.uk)
personal data
SURNAME Lewis, Eddie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lewis, Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Manchester
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 2011
Place of death Johannesburg