Peter Harris (soccer player)

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Peter Harris
Personnel
Surname Peter Philip Harris
birthday December 19, 1925
place of birth Southsea , Portsmouth ,  England
date of death January 2, 2003
Place of death Hayling Island ,  England
position Right winger
Juniors
Years station
Gosport Borough
1944-1946 Portsmouth FC
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1946-1960 Portsmouth FC 479 (193)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1949-1954 England 2 00(0)
1 Only league games are given.

Peter Philip Harris (born December 19, 1925 in Southsea , Portsmouth , † January 2, 2003 on Hayling Island , Hampshire ) was an English football player . As a right winger , he scored 193 league goals for Portsmouth FC in just under a decade and a half , making him the club's most successful goalscorer to this day. Speed ​​and high ball control, which gave him advantages in often tricky duels with his direct opponent, were just as characteristic of his style of play as the high accuracy in front of the opposing goal. The greatest successes of the two-time English national player were the two English championships in 1949 and 1950 and in 1953 the award for best goalscorer in the top English division.

Athletic career

Portsmouth FC

At a young age, Harris played football for a club called Gosport Borough and was learning the trade of carpenter when Jack Tinn discovered him just before the end of World War II in 1944. Tinn was the coach of Portsmouth FC and quickly found a talent in the slender teenager who, in long, baggy shorts, emulated his childhood idol, Alex James, of Arsenal FC . Initially still practicing in unofficial "war games", Harris made his debut after resumption of play in August 1946 in a 3-1 home win against Blackburn Rovers .

With the help of his extraordinary speed, Harris captured a regular place in the team under Tinn's successor Bob Jackson in the 1947/48 season and a year later he was decisive alongside other offensive forces such as Duggie Reid and Ike Clarke (in the center) and Jack Froggatt (left) jointly responsible for winning the English championship. Harris was part of a largely underrated team, which was characterized by great camaraderie and also failed in the FA Cup only in the semi-finals - Harris had scored three times in a 7-0 third round win over Stockport County . Many English football experts predicted that Portsmouth FC would soon slip in the table behind the renowned clubs from London and the North, but Harris and his men defended their title just a year later and again every player from the "Froggatt-Reid-Clarke quartet had Harris “hit double digits.

Although Portsmouth FC continued to have a good team, in the further course of the 1950s there was an increasing lack of consistency and the successful championship team gradually fell apart. In the 1952/53 season Harris was with 23 league goals behind Charlie Wayman of Preston North End and on September 3, 1958 he scored five goals in the 5-2 win over Aston Villa as the first right winger in English first division history. Nevertheless, he suffered his greatest sporting disappointment in this 1958/59 season when he was relegated to the second division with Portsmouth FC as the bottom of the table - from the former championship only he himself was left. In the Second Division, the now 33-year-old Harris was only used a few times before a tuberculosis disease in November 1959 more or less forced him to end his career.

English national team

Despite his consistently good performance at the club, Harris came only to two missions in the English senior team . This was largely due to the fact that he could not get past the high-profile competition with Stanley Matthews and Tom Finney in his position . In addition, both internationals were under "no good star", which was especially true after the defeat on his debut in September 1949 against Ireland (0: 2) for the humiliating 1: 7 bankruptcy in May 1954 against Hungary .

After the active career

After a six-month hospital stay due to his tuberculosis, Harris turned down numerous offers to return to the football business. Instead, he settled in Hayling Island , ran a restaurant there and died there on January 2, 2003.

Achievements / titles

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Harris, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harris, Peter Philip (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH December 19, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Southsea , Portsmouth
DATE OF DEATH January 2, 2003
Place of death Hayling Island