Brian Harris (soccer player)

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Brian Harris
Personnel
birthday May 16, 1935
place of birth Bebington ,  England
date of death February 17, 2008
Place of death Chepstow ,  Wales
position External rotor (left)
Juniors
Years station
Port Sunlight
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1954-1966 Everton FC 310 (23)
1966-1971 Cardiff City 149 0(0)
1971-1974 Newport County 85 0(0)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1974-1975 Newport County
1 Only league games are given.

Brian Harris (born May 16, 1935 in Bebington , † February 17, 2008 in Chepstow ) was an English football player and coach . Mostly used as a left wing runner , he won the English championship with Everton in 1963 and the FA Cup three years later . For more than a decade, he was more or less a constant with the “Toffees”.

Athletic career

Harris grew up on the Wirral Peninsula in Merseyside and near the hometown of Bebington, he gained his first footballing experience for the amateur club from Port Sunlight . There he was signed by Everton FC in January 1954 - the transfer fee for the talent is said to have been ten pounds.

The former youth international made his debut for the first team in the third league game of the 1955/56 season away at Burnley FC , where he was first used on the right wing on the offensive. The sporting breakthrough was still a long time coming before Everton, bobbing in midfield in the first division, signed the Irish Johnny Carey as a new coach in October 1958 . Carey, who had played at Manchester United under Matt Busby at the beginning of the 1950s , had himself been converted into an outside runner as a half- forward and he now made a similar defensive change to Brian Harris. Harris was now in the defensive half position on the left side (although he was right footed). There his strengths, which were also in the fast and accurate passports, came into their own. In addition, there was a good shot, tackling strength and a solid header technique.

On the right side, he was henceforth a constant, where he sometimes referred to as full-back helped out. When the club then made numerous expensive new signings under the new club chairman John Moores and went on the way to a top team, Harris kept his regular place. It was only in December 1962 when the new coach Harry Catterick , who had become Carey's successor a year earlier, signed Tony Kay for a new record fee in his position in the middle of the championship season , that he was suddenly no longer part of the Everton team. Afterwards he was on the reserve team for a long time, which ended in April 1964. His competitor had been involved in a betting scandal before he moved from Sheffield Wednesday to Everton, which aimed at defeating his own team and leading to his sporting end. This cleared the way for Harris again and with him again as a fixed part of the team, Everton won the FA Cup in 1966 . In the final against Sheffield Wednesday in particular, his "cool head" as an experienced player was in demand when the "Toffees" converted a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win. Coach Catterick then made extensive changes to the squad despite the success and so Harris had to leave the club. This moved in October 1966 for the transfer fee of 15,000 pounds to Cardiff City .

In the good five years he was four times in a row in the victorious Welsh Cup final and in the 1967/68 season he and his men advanced in the European Cup Winners' Cup to the semi-finals, in which he was just defeated by Hamburger SV . In 1971 he moved to Newport County . On the one hand, he let his active career come to an end there and in addition he looked after the club as head coach in the mid-1970s. He then returned to Cardiff City as a cotrainer and was then briefly assistant to Bobby Robson at Ipswich Town . He then left professional football behind and returned to Wales. There he settled in Chepstow , only coached the amateur field and ran a company in the canvassing field with his two sons .

Harris, who was popular with teammates and fans for his friendly manner, later met other "alumni" at Everton FC before he passed away at the age of 72 in his adopted Welsh home.

Title / Awards

literature

  • Ivan Ponting: Everton Player by Player . Hamlyn, London 1998, ISBN 0-600-59581-1 , pp. 28 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Triumph and despair (The Observer)
  2. ↑ Obituary for Brian Harris (The Guardian)
  3. ^ Obituary for Brian Harris (The Independent)
  4. ↑ WELSH CUP 1877 - TO DATE: THE FINALS (Welsh Football Data Archive) ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wfda.co.uk
personal data
SURNAME Harris, Brian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Bebington , England
DATE OF DEATH February 17, 2008
Place of death Chepstow , Wales