Alun Evans

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Alun Evans
Alun Evans.jpg
Personnel
Surname Alun William Evans
birthday April 30, 1949
place of birth Kidderminster ,  England
position Storm
Juniors
Years station
1964-1967 Wolverhampton Wanderers
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1967-1968 Wolverhampton Wanderers 22 0(4)
1967 →  Los Angeles Wolves  (loan)
1968-1972 Liverpool FC 79 (21)
1972-1975 Aston Villa 60 (11)
1975-1988 Walsall FC 87 0(7)
1978-1982 South Melbourne FC 104 (36)
1983 Morwell Falcons 23 0(4)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1968-1969 England U-23 4 0(0)
1 Only league games are given.

Alun William Evans (born April 30, 1949 in Kidderminster , England ) is a retired English football player . His most successful period was from 1968 to 1972 at Liverpool FC . But he also did pioneering work and was active both in 1967 in the USA and from 1978 in Australia as one of the first players in the newly founded professional leagues there.

Career

Evans began his professional career with Wolverhampton Wanderers . In the 1967/68 season he joined the first team of the Wolves , who had just been promoted to the Football League First Division , the highest English league at the time.

In the summer of 1967 he was with parts of his Wolverhampton Wanderers team for a guest appearance in the USA, where they took part in the newly founded professional league of the United Soccer Association under the name Los Angeles Wolves . After the Wolves completed the preliminary round of the Western Division as leaders, they met on July 14, 1967 in the final on the Washington Whips , which consisted of the players of the Scottish club Aberdeen FC . The Wolves won the final after extra time 6: 5 and thus secured the first and only title in this league, which was merged to form the North American Soccer League at the end of the season .

After just one season at Wolverhampton, Evans joined Liverpool FC in 1968 . The transfer fee of 100,000 pounds made him the most expensive young player in Great Britain. On September 21, 1968 Evans made his debut in the league game against Leicester City and was able to achieve his first goal in the 4-0 success. In his first season in Liverpool, he made 33 games in which he scored seven times. At the end of the 1968/69 season , the Reds were runner-up behind Leeds United . After a weaker season in 1969/70 , Evans showed better performance again at the beginning of the 1970/71 season until he lost his regular place due to bad luck with injuries. In addition to a serious injury that he sustained in a game against Dinamo Bucharest in November 1970, which forced him to take a four-month break, he was also seriously wounded in the face when he was attacked with a glass in a nightclub in Wolverhampton. Evans had to be sewn with 70 stitches and left some scars.

He only returned to the team towards the end of the season, where he made an impressive return in the quarter-finals of the trade fair cup - the predecessor of the UEFA Cup . In the 3-0 first leg win against Bayern Munich , he scored all three goals and thus laid the foundation for reaching the semi-finals, in which Liverpool FC, however, had to admit defeat against eventual winners Leeds United . Also in the semi-finals of the FA Cup against local rivals Everton , Evans scored an important goal, which meant the move into the final. In front of 100,000 spectators at London's Wembley Stadium, however, the Reds lost 2-1 after extra time against Arsenal . Because Arsenal also won the championship, Liverpool took part in the European Cup Winners' Cup the following season . In the last sixteen they met the German cup winner FC Bayern Munich again. In the 1: 3 defeat in the second leg Evans succeeded in the interim connection goal to 1: 2 with a remarkable twist shot from 16 meters, which was voted goal of the month in November 1971 in Germany . After the commitment of Kevin Keegan Evans made only a few games in the 1971/72 round , so that he finally left the club in 1972 after 111 competitive appearances.

His destination was Aston Villa , which was playing in the Football League Second Division at the time . Evans played two and a half years in the second division for the Villans and won the 1975 League Cup with a 1-0 win in the final against Norwich City . In December 1975 he moved to third division club FC Walsall in the Football League Third Division . Just five months after his move, Aston Villa was promoted to the top division again. However, Evans stayed in Walsall until 1978.

At the end of his career, Evans moved again to Australia . There he first played five seasons for South Melbourne FC in the National Soccer League from 1978 to 1982 . The club, which had regularly won the state championship of Victoria in the 1960s and 1970s , initially had difficulties adjusting to the first national league, which was only founded in 1977, and was bottom of the table in 1979. In the following years, however, the club from Melbourne sat with Evans' help in the top group and was able to celebrate the championship for the first time in 1984. Since Evans had already ended his career after a year-long interlude with the Morwell Falcons in 1983 because of a broken leg.

Because he had met his wife in Australia, Evans stayed there after retiring and settled in Melbourne . He kept himself afloat with part-time jobs and also worked as a painter and decorator. Evans has two sons and a daughter.

successes

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Goal of the month in November 1971 on sportschau.de
  2. ↑ Evans On The Record, Thirty Years On: Life and Times of Teenage Ground Breaker Article with interview on Wolves Heroes of May 10, 2009 (English)
personal data
SURNAME Evans, Alun
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Evans, Alun William (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Kidderminster , England