William Lansdowne (born 28 April 1959) is an English former professional footballer who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. Active in both England and Sweden, Lansdowne scored 45 goals in 169 career league games. On 24 September 2018 he was inducted into the Kalmar FF Wall of Fame.

Career

Born in Epping, Essex, Lansdowne began his career with West Ham United, making his professional debut for the club on 28 April 1979. Lansdowne later played for Charlton Athletic and Gillingham, and made a total of 47 appearances in the Football League for all three clubs. Lansdowne later spent six seasons with Swedish club Kalmar FF and was joint-top scorer in the

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; en, the All-Swedish, also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan, en, the Football All-Swedish) is a Swedish professional league for men's association football clubs. It was founded in 1924 and is the top tier of the Swedish football lea ...

in 1985 with 10 goals. He played in the 1987 Svenska Cupen Final, where Kalmar FF won. In September 2018, he was commemorated with a plaque at the

Guldfågeln Arena Kalmar Arena, currently known as Guldfågeln Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Kalmar, Sweden and the home of Allsvenskan club Kalmar FF. The stadium is located in the area known as Hansa City, in the North West of Kalmar. ...

. He later played for Leytonstone & Ilford,

Dagenham Dagenham () is a town in East London, England, within the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Dagenham is centred east of Charing Cross. It was historically a rural parish in the Becontree Hundred of Essex, stretching from Hainault Forest ...

and

Anderstorp Anderstorp () is a locality situated in Gislaved Municipality, Jönköping County, Sweden with 4,965 inhabitants in 2010. Scandinavian Raceway, which hosted the Swedish Grand Prix Formula One races in 1973–1978, is situated here. Anderstorp ...

. After his retirement, he remained in Sweden and became a football commentator for TV4. He later commentated on

greyhound racing Greyhound racing is an organized, competitive sport in which greyhounds are raced around a track. There are two forms of greyhound racing, track racing (normally around an oval track) and coursing; the latter is now banned in most countries. Tra ...

for

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso *Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala *Channel 3 (Algeria), a public Algerian TV channel owned by EPTV ...

Personal life

Lansdowne's father Bill was also a professional footballer who played for West Ham United. His son, Billy Jr, played for Nybro IF, IFK Berga and Lindsdals IF, in the lower levels of Swedish football.

Honours

Kalmar FF * 1987 Svenska Cupen

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lansdowne, Billy 1959 births Living people People from Epping Footballers from Essex English men's footballers English expatriate men's footballers Men's association football forwards West Ham United F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players English Football League players Kalmar FF players Redbridge Forest F.C. players Dagenham F.C. players Anderstorps IF players Allsvenskan players Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden English expatriate sportspeople in Sweden