Steve Hodge

Steve Hodge
Personnel
Surname	Stephen Brian Hodge
birthday	October 25, 1962
place of birth	Nottingham ,  England
position	midfield
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1980-1985	Nottingham Forest	123 (30)
1985-1986	Aston Villa	53 (12)
1986-1988	Tottenham Hotspur	45 0(7)
1988-1991	Nottingham Forest	82 (20)
1991-1994	Leeds United	54 (10)
1994	→  Derby County  (loan)	10 0(2)
1994-1995	Queens Park Rangers	15 0(0)
1995-1996	Watford FC	2 0(0)
1997-1998	Leyton Orient	1 0(0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1984-1991	England B	2 0(1)
1986-1991	England	24 0(0)
1 Only league games are given.

Stephen Brian "Steve" Hodge (born October 25, 1962 in Nottingham ) is a former English and international football player of the 1980s and 1990s.

Athletic career

The first professional years (1980–1986)

Hodge, a central as well as outside attacking midfielder with a strong left foot, joined the Nottingham Forest club as a junior player in 1980 and made his debut on the last day of the 1981/82 season against Ipswich Town . He quickly became one of the preferred players of the legendary coach Brian Clough and thus quickly became a regular player when Clough rejuvenated his aging and slowly disintegrating team with new players after winning two trophies in the European Cup . As a midfielder, Hodge regularly scored goals and helped the team to establish themselves in the top half of the table, although there were no further titles after the upheaval. A final highlight of his station in Nottingham was in 1984 when he reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup , in which the club was eliminated from the tournament after a 2-0 first leg due to 3-0 in the second leg at RSC Anderlecht .

In the summer of 1985, Hodge then surprisingly moved from the East Midlands to the West Midlands to Aston Villa for a transfer of 450,000 pounds . From then on, Hodge played consistently for the Aston Villa team and due to his strong performance on the left wing position (although he was less of a pure winger than a creative attacking midfielder) he was noticed by England coach Bobby Robson and made his first substitute for England against the Soviet Union in Tbilisi . Hodge was nominated for one of the last free places in the squad for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico that followed shortly thereafter . One month after his first appearance, Hodge was used for the first time in the national team from the start, beating Scotland 2-1 at Wembley and suddenly was a serious competitor in the position of the left winger for the more technically gifted, but also less constant and defensively weaker John Barnes .

Although Hodge had only played three internationals at this time, he was called up by Robson in the team for the World Cup. In the first two group games against Portugal and Morocco , which England could not win, Hodge was substituted on. For the last and decisive group game against Poland Robson made a number of changes in the team and brought Hodge into the starting eleven. Hodge was able to convince with an outstanding performance, preparing the second goal by an offensive run by Gary Lineker , who paved England's way into the second round with his hat-trick in the first half. In the round of 16 England faced the team from Paraguay . In this game, too, Hodge was to be involved in a crucial situation when he held an imprecise pass from Glenn Hoddle in the game and hit the ball in the middle of Lineker's barrel, which turned the template into a hit. England won again 3-0 and was then expected in the quarter-finals by Argentina and a memorable game. Hodge was to go down in English sports history in his own way and was involved in a memorable moment in the history of the World Cup. When the game was goalless in the opening stages of the second half, Diego Maradona tried a one- two with Jorge Valdano on the right-hand side, near the English penalty area . The back pass ended up behind Maradona, so Hodge got the ball and tried to give it back to his goalkeeper Peter Shilton with his left foot . It remains unclear whether Hodge recognized the pursuing Maradona and therefore really wanted to pass the ball to Shilton, or whether he was planning a break. However, he hit the ball so badly that it moved in a high trajectory towards Shilton. Both the English goalkeeper and Maradona went up to reach the ball, and although Shilton was much taller, Maradona was able to move the ball over the line with his hand. The referee judged the goal, later called the Hand of God , to be legal. Maradona scored his second goal with a remarkable solo effort just minutes later before Hodge gave substitute Barnes the opportunity to cross, which Lineker used to follow up. However, England could no longer equalize and then retired. Hodge was able to swap his jersey with Maradona after the game and has kept this jersey to this day.

After the 1986 World Cup (1986–1988)

Hodge was also part of the team that started qualifying for the 1988 European Championship in Germany with victories against Northern Ireland and Yugoslavia . At the end of 1986 he then moved to Tottenham Hotspur for £ 650,000 .

Tottenham coach David Pleat installed Hodge on the left as part of a five-man attacking midfield, alongside Hodge's national team-mates Hoddle and Chris Waddle , Argentinian veteran Osvaldo Ardiles and the hard-working Paul Allen . All of these players should be dangerous on goal and provide the only central striker Clive Allen with templates, which could also be implemented. Hodge scored his first goal in his first game for Tottenham on Boxing Day in 1986, beating West Ham United 4-0, and had three more to follow over the course of a season in which the Spurs played for three trophies.

Unfortunately for Hodge, he could not win a title that year when he first lost in the semi-finals of the league cup against local rivals Arsenal and dropped to third place in the championship at the end of the season. In addition, Tottenham lost after a 4-1 semi-final against Watford , in which Hodge scored two goals, in the FA Cup final against Coventry City . One consolation for Hodge should be that he continued to appear in the national team and completed his 15th international match in the 0-0 win over Scotland at Wembley. After that, however, it should no longer be considered for a long time.

The Spurs could no longer keep their good form in the following season, with the negative trend then intensified by the departure of Hoddle and later coach Pleat. In the meantime, Hodges competitor in the national team, Barnes, moved to Liverpool in the summer and played an extraordinarily good season until 1988. Hodge played consistently in the Spurs team, but could not build on his previous performances and was then no longer in the squad of the English team that went to the European Championship finals in Germany. In retrospect, however, Hodge was a winner of this decision, as England left the tournament prematurely with three defeats from three games and presented themselves very weakly.

Return to Nottingham (1988–1991)

Robson went back to Hodge in the first game after the European Championship, in a 1-0 win against Denmark at Wembley Stadium. After returning to Nottingham for 550,000 pounds under Clough, this had regained its former strength. Hodge was called up regularly in the national team in Nottingham with increasing form, although appearances on the field remained rare.

Forest won the relatively insignificant Simod Cup in 1989 and reached the final in the League Cup. In his first major title win, when Forest could win 3-1 against Luton Town , Hodge was brought down in an offensive action in the penalty area. Nigel Clough converted the due penalty and put Forest on the winning road. Just a week later, the FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool had to be postponed due to the events in Hillsborough . In the rescheduling, Hodge played in the 3-1 defeat at Old Trafford . In the following season, Hodge was able to defend the League Cup title with Forest with a 1-0 against Oldham Athletic . In addition, Hodge was again considered more often in the English team after a good performance as a substitute against Italy at Wembley. After England secured their place at the 1990 World Cup in Italy , Hodge played in the four preparatory games for the tournament.

Hodge was then called into the squad for the World Cup, but suffered an injury immediately afterwards, as a result of which he did not come to any use during the tournament on England's way to the semi-finals (as England's only outfield player). Even in the game for third place, Hodge was not yet completely healthy, so that he could not take part in this game either. Robson resigned after the World Cup and Hodge was initially ignored by his successor Graham Taylor . At the time, Hodge also had to fight for his regular seat at his club against an up-and-coming Irish teenager named Roy Keane to form a line with Garry Parker , who was seeded as a central midfielder, although never an international. Taylor nominated Hodge in 1991 in a 2-0 win over Cameroon . In the 1-0 win against Turkey , during a qualifier for the 1992 European Championship in Sweden , Hodge then completed his 24th international match. At Nottingham Forest he had meanwhile lost his regular place and was initially not placed in the final of the FA Cup against his old club Tottenham Hotspur. Hodge was substituted on in the second half, but the Spurs won the game 2-1 after extra time .

The 1990s (1991–1998)

In the summer, Clough sold him to Leeds United for a transfer fee of £ 900,000 , which was the highest sum in Hodge's transfer history, although this was already in the fall of his career. He then came to the Elland Road only sparse appearances, which led him to his first championship in the first season for Leeds. The success was primarily linked to the other midfielders Gordon Strachan , Gary McAllister and Gary Speed , whose achievements were ostensibly honored in public.

Hodge was loaned to Derby County for a short time before moving to the Queens Park Rangers in 1994 for a small transfer . There followed two seasons in which he was only used in 15 games before he then joined Watford FC. Then he played in Hong Kong . His last player position before his final resignation was Leyton Orient .

Hodge withdrew from the public eye after retiring, although he does occasionally appear in the English media, mostly to show off his Maradona jersey. He loaned the shirt to the National Football Museum in Preston on a long-term loan.

successes

• English champion: 1992
• League Cup Winner: 1989, 1990
• Simod Cup winner: 1989

Web links

• Entries at sporting-heroes.net
• Statistics in the Post War English & Scottish Football League A - Z Player's Database