Ron Flowers

Ron Flowers
Personnel
Surname	Ronald Flowers
birthday	July 28, 1934
place of birth	Edlington ,  England
position	Outrunner
Juniors
Years	station
	Doncaster Rovers
1950-1952	Wath Wanderers
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1952-1967	Wolverhampton Wanderers	467 (33)
1967-1969	Northampton Town	62 ( 04)
1969-1971	Wellington Town
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1955	England U-23	2 ( 00)
1955-1966	England	49 (10)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1968-1969	Northampton Town (player-manager)
1971	Wellington Town (player-manager)
1 Only league games are given.

Ronald "Ron" Flowers (born July 28, 1934 in Edlington ) is a former English football player . Between 1955 and 1966 he completed a total of 49 international matches for the English national team , scored ten goals and was part of the team for the 1966 World Cup , which became world champions.

Athletic career

Born in Edlington, near Doncaster , Flowers, whose father had also played soccer as an amateur, played first in the local school teams before he was invited to a trial at Sheffield Wednesday . Flowers wanted to play for the Doncaster Rovers , where his uncle had already been active as a professional and then joined this club. After only a short time, however, the Rovers let the young player go again, so that Flowers initially only played for a selection team. At the age of 16 he was then signed by Mark Crook, coach of the Wath Wanderers and youth division of Wolverhampton Wanderers .

Before the outrunner was first used in the 1952/53 season in the 2: 5 defeat against FC Blackpool , Flowers did his military service as an aviator with the Royal Air Force , which was interrupted by Flowers due to the advancing football career. Flowers scored his first goal in his first game and had another 19 appearances during the season. In the following season, in which Wolverhampton could win the championship, Flowers was used in 15 games and was part of the England U23 national team. The following year he came on May 15, 1955 in the 1-0 defeat against France for his first international match. The international trip in May 1955, in which England could also neither win against Spain nor against Portugal , was a great disappointment overall and Flowers had to wait three years for his next international match. In addition, Flowers could not establish himself permanently on his position in the club against the great competition with Billy Wright , Eddie Clamp and Bill Slater in the 1955/56 season.

In the following years Flowers experienced the best time with his club, when Wolverhampton was able to win the English championship again in 1958 and 1959 and Flowers found his way back to the English national team. After his comeback against Wales , 39 more international matches followed without a break, in which Flowers was used. This also included the three group games at the 1962 World Cup in Chile , in which Flowers scored two penalty goals against Hungary and Argentina , but were then eliminated from the tournament prematurely.

Flowers suffered a club crisis at the Wolves, which led to relegation to the Second Division at the end of the 1964/65 season . The following year, when England was preparing for the 1966 World Cup in their own country, Flowers played his last game for England in a 6-1 win over Norway . During the tournament he was not considered for the starting lineup by Alf Ramsey . Shortly before the finale, there was a possibility that Jack Charlton would have been canceled at short notice, thus clearing the way for Flowers to play. Shortly before the start of the game, however, Ramsey decided to consider Charlton.

In 1967 the Wolves returned to England's elite league and Flowers moved to Northampton Town , where he spent two years. Then he was player-coach at Wellington Town and then ended his career in 1971 with a farewell game in Wolverhampton.

Flowers then opened a sports shop in downtown Wolverhampton that is still extremely successful today.

successes

• English champion: 1954, 1958, 1959
• FA Cup winner: 1960
• Charity Shield Winner: 1954, 1959

literature

• Matthews, Tony: Wolverhampton Wanderers - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2008, ISBN 978-1-85983-632-3 , pp. 120 .

Web links

• Profile page at Wolverhampton Wanderers