Benjamin David Thatcher (born 30 November 1975) is a former professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
who played as a
left-back
In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring.
Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...
.
He played for a number of English clubs, and has featured in more than 300 English league games, all of which were in the top two leagues in the country, notably spending time in the
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
with
Wimbledon,
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...
,
Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
and
Manchester City. He also played for
Millwall
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...
,
Charlton Athletic
Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...
and
Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system.
The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...
He represented
England's under-21 national team on four occasions, but chose to represent the
Wales national team in his senior years, for whom he earned seven
caps
Caps are flat headgear.
Caps or CAPS may also refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters
* Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...
.
Club career
Thatcher was born in
Swindon,
Wiltshire
Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
. As a youth, he played
Sunday League football for various amateur teams in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, before attending
the Football Association
The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...
(FA)'s School of Excellence at
Lilleshall
Lilleshall is a village and civil parish in the county of Shropshire, England.
It lies between the towns of Telford and Newport, on the A518, in the Telford and Wrekin borough and the Wrekin constituency. There is one school in the centre of ...
.
Millwall
Upon graduation, he signed his first professional contract with
Millwall
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...
, making his debut in the
1993–94 season at the age of 18. The following season, he established himself in the Millwall first team, and scored his first goal as a professional. He made more than 100 appearances for Millwall, and won their Player of the Year award for the
1995–96 season.
Wimbledon
In the 1996 close season, he was
transferred to
Wimbledon F.C. for a fee of more than £1.8million - making him Wimbledon's first million-pound signing and doubling the club's previous record fee which had been paid for
Efan Ekoku
Efangwu Goziem Ekoku (born 8 June 1967) is a former Nigerian professional footballer, and sports commentator.
As a player, he was a striker who notably played in the Premier League for Norwich City and Wimbledon and in Switzerland for Grassh ...
three years earlier.
In his first season at Wimbledon, Thatcher made only nine appearances, but played more regularly in subsequent seasons. He was banned for two matches in January 2000 for elbowing Nicky Summerbee of
Sunderland to the head in the build-up to a goal; the incident was missed by the referee but action was taken by the governing body following a video review. After Wimbledon's
relegation
In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...
from the Premiership at the end of the
1999–2000 season, Thatcher moved to
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...
.
Tottenham Hotspur
Thatcher cost
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...
a fee of around £5 million in the Summer of 2000. A few months after the transfer, Spurs manager
George Graham
George Graham (born 30 November 1944), nicknamed "Stroller", is a Scottish former Association football, football player and manager (association football), manager.
In his successful playing career, he made 455 appearances in England's Football ...
was sacked, and Thatcher featured less frequently under successor
Glenn Hoddle
Glenn Hoddle (born 27 October 1957) is an English former football player and manager. He currently works as a television pundit and commentator for ITV Sport and BT Sport.
He played as a midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, Monaco, Chelsea and ...
, though he was a member of the Spurs team for the 2002
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
final.
Leicester City
Thatcher subsequently moved to
Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
in a £300,000 transfer deal in the summer 2003,
immediately proceeding to attack Glenn Hoddle's style of management.
After a single season at Leicester, Thatcher once again found himself in the arms of a relegated club, and moved to
Manchester City. He scored once in the league for Leicester, in a 4–4 draw with his former club Spurs.
Manchester City
His move to Manchester City cost around £100,000. His Manchester City debut came on the opening day of the
2004–05 season against
Fulham. He was initially the first choice left-back at Manchester City, but a combination of injuries and the emergence of
Stephen Jordan limited him to 21 appearances in his first season for the club. In January 2005 Thatcher nearly joined Fulham for a fee of £500,000 after a series of burglaries unsettled his family, but the move fell through.
His second Manchester City season followed a similar pattern to the first, with most of his 19 starts coming in the first half of the season.
Thatcher gained notoriety on 23 August 2006, in a game between Manchester City and
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most dens ...
. Whilst challenging with
Pedro Mendes
Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter.
The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...
for a loose ball Thatcher viciously and intentionally led with his elbow, knocking Mendes into the advertising hoardings rendering him unconscious. Mendes required oxygen at pitchside and suffered a
seizure
An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with l ...
while being transferred to hospital, where he spent the night. Mendes was discharged from hospital the next day, but remained under medical supervision. Thatcher was not sent off by referee
Dermot Gallagher but given just a yellow card, but he was investigated by the FA as a result of the challenge. He was disciplined and his barrister, Rupert Bowers, read a written apology following the hearing.
Greater Manchester Police
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England.
, Greater Manchester Police employed 6,866 police officers, 3,524 memb ...
noted receipt of many "statements of complaint" and also chose to investigate the matter. On 30 August, Manchester City announced that Thatcher would be banned for six matches, two of which would be suspended, and fined six weeks' wages for the challenge. This punishment is separate from the sanctions made by the FA, who suspended Thatcher for eight matches, with a further fifteen game suspended ban for two years. Mendes shook hands with Thatcher pre-match when they next faced one another in January 2007, despite claiming beforehand that he would not do so.
Thatcher also faced possible action from
Lancashire Police over a clash with ex-
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
player
Ralph Welch
W. Ralph "Pest" Welch (January 13, 1907 – September 15, 1974) was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at the University of Washington from 1942 to 1947, compiling a record of 27–20–3. Welch led his 1943 Wash ...
during a reserve game at
Ewood Park in February 2006.
Charlton Athletic
He signed for
Charlton Athletic
Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...
on 11 January 2007 for a reported fee of £500,000, which could rise to £750,000 depending on appearances. He played his first match for Charlton Athletic on 23 January 2007 against
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
;
the team were relegated from the Premier League at the end of the season.
Ipswich Town
Thatcher joined
Ipswich Town
Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system.
The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...
on 14 August 2008 on a one-year contract with an option to extend it for a further year. His contract was terminated by
Roy Keane on 26 February 2010, due to his refusal to move closer to the club.
International career
During his time at Wimbledon, Thatcher played for the
England under-21 team four times. However, in 2004 he opted to play for
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
, for whom he qualifies due to his Welsh grandmother. His debut international performance came against
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the ...
, in a 2–1 victory in March 2004, and by October 2004 he had earned seven caps for Wales.
In October 2004,
John Toshack
John Benjamin Toshack (born 22 March 1949) is a Welsh former professional football player and manager.
He began his playing career as a teenager with his hometown club Cardiff City, becoming the youngest player to make an appearance for the ...
was appointed new Welsh national team coach, but Thatcher did not play any games under Toshack, due to suspensions and injuries. Thatcher did not play Wales'
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...
qualifying matches against
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
and
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
in early September 2005 on grounds of injury, while playing full-time three days later when Manchester City met cross-city rivals
Manchester United. This angered Toshack, and Thatcher was categorically left out of the Welsh national team in September 2005.
Career statistics
Club
International
Honours
Tottenham Hotspur
*
Football League Cup runner-up:
2001–02
Individual
*
PFA Team of the Year:
1994–95 First Division
*
Millwall
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...
Player of the Year:
1995–96
References
External links
*
Official Charlton Athletic F.C. profileOfficial Manchester City F.C. profileBBC profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thatcher, Ben
1975 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Swindon
English people of Welsh descent
English footballers
Welsh footballers
England under-21 international footballers
Wales international footballers
Association football fullbacks
Millwall F.C. players
Wimbledon F.C. players
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players
Leicester City F.C. players
Manchester City F.C. players
Charlton Athletic F.C. players
Ipswich Town F.C. players
Premier League players
English Football League players