Steve Bloomer
| Steve Bloomer | ||
 Steve Bloomer, 1892
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| Personnel | ||
|---|---|---|
| Surname | Stephen Bloomer | |
| birthday | January 20, 1874 | |
| place of birth | Cradley , England | |
| date of death | April 16, 1938 | |
| Place of death | Derby , England | |
| position | striker | |
| Juniors | ||
| Years | station | |
| -1888 | St. James' School | |
| 1888-1891 | Derby Swifts | |
| 1892 | Tutbury Hawthorn | |
| Men's | ||
| Years | station | Games (goals) 1 |
| 1892-1906 | Derby County | 375 (238) |
| 1906-1910 | Middlesbrough FC | 125 (61) |
| 1910-1914 | Derby County | 98 (53) |
| National team | ||
| Years | selection | Games (goals) |
| 1895-1907 | England | 23 (28) |
| Stations as a trainer | ||
| Years | station | |
| 1914 | Britannia 92 Berlin | |
| 1918 | Blauw-Wit Amsterdam | |
| 1923-1925 | Real Unión Irún | |
| 1925-19 ?? | Derby County (Reserve) | |
| 1 Only league games are given. | ||
Stephen "Steve" Bloomer (born January 20, 1874 in Cradley , † April 16, 1938 in Derby ) was an English football player and coach . His active career at Derby County , the Middlesbrough FC and the England team lasted from 1892 to 1914. He will be one of the world's best players before the outbreak of World War I viewed.
At his club Derby County he still has a legendary status , which is expressed, among other things, by the fact that the anthem "Steve Bloomer's Watching" is sung before every home game. Although he played at a time when scoring goals was even more difficult - mainly due to the old offside rule - he is still second in the all-time scoring lists in the first highest English with 317 goals in 536 first division games behind Jimmy Greaves To find league. In 1896, 1897, 1899, 1901 and 1904 he was the top scorer in England five times in the service of Derby County and in 1896, with Johnny Campbell from Aston Villa, he was even the best league scorer - based on all European leagues. With 28 international goals, he was also the national team's record goal scorer until 1911.
In addition to football, he also played successfully baseball for the Derby County Baseball Club and won three British championships with this team in the 1890s. He also played cricket at the amateur level . After his resignation, he trained in Germany for the Britannia 92 Berlin association and was captured in an internment camp in Ruhleben during the First World War . After the end of the war, he took on further coaching duties in the Netherlands and, from 1923 in particular, looked after the Spanish club Real Unión de Irún . There he won the Copa del Rey - the Spanish Cup - in 1924 and defeated FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in succession in the semifinals and final of the current competition . After his return to England he acted for some time as a player- coach in the reserve team of Derby County, also worked as a columnist for a local newspaper and was groundskeeper at the Baseball Ground stadium .
The bloomer family
Steve Bloomer was in Cradley in the county of Worcestershire born and moved at a young age with his parents Caleb and Merab to Derby . His brother Philip also played briefly for Derby County, but only came to one game in the first team and died early in May 1896 due to peritonitis - an inflammation of the peritoneum. In the same year Steve Bloomer married Sarah Walker. They had four daughters, two of whom died at a very young age - before their 18th birthday (although the death of one of the two daughters occurred when Bloomer was interned in Ruhleben). Another daughter later married footballer Alf Quantrill , who acted as the left winger for both Derby County and the English national team . Bloomer spent the last years of his life - after the death of his wife in 1935 - with his daughter Doris Richards , whose son Steve Richards later became a political columnist for The Independent newspaper in London. Bloomer's nephew Ted Measures was also a soccer player and was signed by Arsenal FC in 1932 .
Career as a soccer player
The early years
Bloomer developed a great athletic talent in his early teens , playing soccer for St. James' School in the Derbyshire Minor Football League . Football was not part of the official curriculum in Derby, but it was encouraged by young football-loving teachers at the elementary school there . Between 1888 and 1891 he acted for the Derby Swifts and then came in April 1892 to a controversial use for Tutbury Hawthorn in the final of the Cup competition in Derby. Since Bloomer - as well as another player - had already signed a professional contract with Derby County the month before, the opposing Gresely Rovers protested the valuation of the game, which was lost by 2: 7 goals, because such a use of players from foreign clubs did not comply with the rules corresponded. The game was repeated and afterwards both clubs shared the title.
At a young age, Bloomer also worked at the foundry Ley's Malleable Castings , the owner of which, Sir Francis Ley, decided after a visit to the United States to increase the workforce of his employees by taking care of physical and health training. Ley had seen companies and factories leave baseball fields to their workers in the States , and he wanted to keep this concept a reality when he returned to Derby. He pushed for the construction of the Baseball Ground, a nearly 50,000 square meter park that was henceforth available to employees for cricket and baseball.
Derby County
Who exactly discovered Bloomer's talent is still controversial today. His mentor and sponsor is double winner John Goodall , who was also playing for Derby County at the time. After Bloomer experienced a rapid rise in Derby, many other figures from the football business took him over and called themselves the real discoverer. However, it was undoubtedly thanks to Goodall's perseverance that Bloomer was used for the first time in the championship and thus found the breakthrough to a career that was incomparable at this time.
Bloomer played his first game for Derby County against Darley Dale , where he scored four goals. In the Football League he made his debut away at the Victoria Ground against Stoke City on September 3, 1892 and led the still very inexperienced team to a 3-1 win. His first championship goal for the "Rams" he scored on September 24 of the same year in the home game against West Bromwich Albion .
In the 1893/94 season Bloomer won the first championship in the United Counties League . After differences of opinion with the cricket officials in Derby, the club moved to the baseball ground of Ley in 1895 and Bloomer contributed two goals in the first game in front of 10,000 spectators in the new home against Sunderland . He completed one of his best seasons in the 1896/97 season when he scored 31 goals in 33 championship and FA Cup games. He scored three goals in five games and scored 21 hits in 20 games in the period from November 14, 1896 to April 5, 1897. In January 1899 he set another personal record with six goals in the game against The Wednesday .
Although he was the top scorer of his club in 14 seasons, he could not win either of the two big titles (English championship or FA Cup) during his first time at Derby County. The best results were the two entries into the cup final in 1898 and 1899, where he scored the consolation goal for his team in the final of 1898 in the 1: 3 defeat by Nottingham Forest . Upon his return from Middlesbrough - where he spent four years - he won the second division title in the Second Division with Derby County in 1911 . His last goals for Derby County he scored in the championship on September 6, 1913 against Sheffield United and in a game generally on January 31, 1914 against Burnley FC - at the age of 40 years and 11 days.
Middlesbrough FC
In March 1906 Bloomer moved to Middlesbrough FC for a fee of £ 750 . Among his teammates there was Alf Common, the first player whose commitment cost a club £ 1,000. In the seasons 1906/07 and 1907/08 Bloomer was again the best club scorer and shot on January 5, 1907 against Woolwich Arsenal four hits.
The English national team
Between 1895 and 1907 Bloomer completed 23 international matches for the English national team. Already on his debut on March 3, 1895, he scored two goals in a 9-0 win over Ireland . He scored a total of 19 goals in his only ten games and finished his English career with a total of 28 goals. He scored five more goals on March 16, 1896 against Wales and on March 18, 1901 four more goals against the same opponent. Bloomer was the first player who managed to score three goals in two international matches for the English national team and generally four goals in one game. During his international career he was in a team with players like John Goodall, Frank Becton , Jack Reynolds , Ernest Needham , Fred Spiksley , Samuel Wolstenholme and Vivian Woodward , who won eight British Home Championship titles for England .
Captivity in Germany
After the end of his football career, Bloomer went to Germany to coach the Britannia Berlin club. Only three weeks after his arrival, the First World War broke out and Bloomer was captured in Ruhleben - an internment camp for civilians in the Spandau district . This fate he shared with several other professional football players, among which are next to Fred Spiksley, Samuel Wolstenholme, his former teammates of FC Middlesbrough Fred Pentland , the Scottish international John Cameron and former player of FC Everton and Tottenham Hotspur John Brearley with Edwin Dutton one former German national player of British descent.
Between 4,000 and 5,500 people were detained in the camp. A small form of society of its own developed there, in which football became a popular activity. There was even a small football association of its own, within which its own cup and championship competitions were played (some games were attended by up to 1,000 spectators). The individual teams were named after popular teams and Bloomer led a "Tottenham Hotspur" called team in November 1914 - which also included Dutton - to a cup victory against " Oldham Athletic ". Spiksley was also present in this game, which was chaired by Wostenholme as a referee (however, it could not be clear which side he was playing for). On May 2, 1915 Bloomer played together with Pentland, Wolstenholme, Brearley in an English selection against a "world eleven" led by Cameron. He was also active there in cricket and played in May 1915 with Brearley and a selection of Ruhleben in the so-called Rubleban Cricket League . In July 1916, he acted in a Lancashire - against a Yorkshire selection, in which Wostenholme was again.
Life after playing career
After the end of the First World War, he first played in the reserve team of Derby County and later became their coach. He then went abroad, first to northern Spain and later to Canada , before returning to his old club in Derby, where he worked with Harry Storer under the then coach George Jobey - who later had a great influence on coaches like Brian Clough and Peter Taylor should exercise - work.
By the 1930s, Bloomer, who suffered from bronchitis and asthma, became progressively worse . When he became seriously ill in the second half of 1937, his old club bought him a cruise to Australia and New Zealand . However, he died three weeks after the end of this journey in April 1938 and was four days later on the cemetery Nottingham Road Cemetery buried. The funeral was attended by numerous prominent athletes as well as a large crowd of Derby residents who gathered along the roadsides from the cathedral to the cemetery.
Personality and style of play
Bloomer mostly played on the inside right in the English attack line. He was of a rather thin nature and, due to his pale complexion, looked a little sickly to those around him. With regular training this changed in the course of his football career.
In addition, his character showed a high tendency towards individualism and occasional egocentrism, which he expressed through his self-defined game philosophy ( "I'll try to be there first" ). His temporary stubbornness and reluctance to subordinate turned out to be a nuisance for his club. He was not infrequently punished, both for his negligence in training and for his alcohol problems. However, observers of his game noted that despite these character vices, he possessed irreplaceable qualities for his team in the offensive game. At the end of his first time at Derby County, however, the differences at the club increased. This was mainly due to the fact that he had difficulties dealing with officials and fellow players due to his egocentric nature.
His exceptional position in the club and in the English national team was also clearly evident in 1896 when he was not considered in a prestigious duel against Scotland, which led to major public protests. Due to his very outspoken manner, he was banned by the FA in 1904 following a game at Goodison Park , which was not changed by a letter of defense written by Bloomer - extending over four pages - in which he opposed what he saw as unfair treatment fought the bandage.
He also refused to participate in the players' union that was first established at the turn of the century. His resulting absence from a game of English versus Scottish union players on April 28, 1898 was partly responsible for a very low audience popularity of the game.
Bloomer's record of championship goals wasn't topped until 1936 by Dixie Dean . His record with 28 international goals - in 1898 he had replaced Tinsley Lindley (14 goals) with a brace against Scotland - held "only" until 1911, when Vivian Woodward , with whom he had even played on the national team, held him in the last Passed his career game against Wales with his 28th and 29th goals. During his time, his reputation extended to the future Italian national coach and supporter of English football Vittorio Pozzo . He was - according to some reports - in Derby in 1910 and requested discussions with Bloomer and Charlie Roberts on football-related topics.
successes
- British Home Championship winners: 1895, 1898, 1899, 1901, 1903 *, 1904, 1905, 1906 * (* title shared)
- Spanish Cup Winner: 1924 (as a coach)
- British baseball champions: 1895, 1897, 1898
Web links
- Steve Bloomer Profile and Statistics sS englandfootballonline.com (English)
- Bloomers time in Ruhleben Camp (see pages 8, 9 and 11) aS flickr.com (English)
- Steve Bloomer's memorial in Derby ( Memento from March 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 168 kB)
- Derby's Baseball Ground Closes ( bloomer as baseball player ) sS chapters.sabr.org (English)
- Ralf Klee: "Football in captivity: 'Traut the Kraut' and Steve Bloomer, the 'lion behind bars'" In: taz of December 27, 2004.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steve Bloomer sS spartacus-educational.com (English)
- ^ "England - All-Time Topscorers" (RSSSF)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bloomer, Steve |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bloomer, Stephen |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English soccer player and coach |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 20, 1874 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cradley |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 16, 1938 |
| Place of death | Derby |