George Eastham

George Eastham
George Eastham in the 1973-74 season
Personnel
Surname	George Edward Eastham
birthday	September 23, 1936
place of birth	Blackpool ,  England
position	Half forward , midfield
Juniors
Years	station
	Bispham Church
	Highfield Youth Club
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1953-1956	FC Ards
1956-1960	Newcastle United	124 (29)
1960-1966	Arsenal FC	207 (41)
1966-1973	Stoke City	194 ( 04)
	Cape Town Spurs
	Hellenic FC
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1963-1966	England	19 ( 02)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
	Hellenic FC (player-coach)
1977-1988	Stoke City
1 Only league games are given.

George Edward Eastham (born September 23, 1936 in Blackpool ) is a former English football player and completed 19 international matches for the English national team .

Athletic career

Eastham was born in Blackpool , Lancashire , but initially played for Northern Irish club Ards , which was coached by his father George R. Eastham , and turned professional at Newcastle United in 1956 . As a technically talented midfielder and central attacking player , he was with the Magpies for four years . When he looked around for another club, he turned down a contract extension in Newcastle in December 1959. The association then opposed a change from Eastham and refused to hand over the approval documents. Thereupon Eastham moved against his association before the High Court of Justice and fought against this "unfair trade barrier". The court upheld Eastham's lawsuit in 1961 and the UK transfer market subsequently went through far-reaching reforms.

In the meantime, Eastham had joined Arsenal FC , debuting against Bolton Wanderers in December 1960 , scoring two goals. Eastham was, although he had not previously played an international game, part of the squad for the 1962 World Cup in Chile , where he was not used. His first international match then took place in May 1963 against Brazil . After that he was part of the team that won the World Cup in 1966 . As four years earlier, he was not used in this tournament. In total, Eastham played 19 times for England and scored two goals.

In 1966, Eastham became team captain for Arsenal FC. Since the club under coach Billy Wright had only finished the season as 14th, Eastham was very dissatisfied with his situation there and moved to Stoke City after 223 games and 41 goals for the Gunners . He spent a total of eight years there, won the league cup in 1972 and scored the decisive goal in the final against Chelsea . In 1973 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire as an OBE .

After retiring as a footballer, he returned to Stoke for ten months in 1977 to coach the club until 1978. He then retired completely from football and later emigrated to South Africa .

successes

• English league cup winner: 1972

literature

• Matthews, Tony: The Legends of Stoke City . Breedon Books, 2008, ISBN 978-1-85983-653-8 , pp. 66-67 .

Web links

Commons : George Eastham  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Profile at Arsenal FC