Gary Blissett (born 29 June 1964) is an English 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 le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He notably played 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 Foo ...

for

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

, and in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

and

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

. He finished his career in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

with Sembawang Rangers and

SV Elversberg SpVgg 07 Elversberg is a German association football club, located in Spiesen-Elversberg, Saarland. History The club was founded in 1907 as ''FC Germania Elversberg''. It was dissolved in 1914, but then re-constituted in 1918 as ''Sportverein ...

respectively.

Career

Blissett scored over 100 league goals for

and

. He picked up a Third Division title medal with Brentford in 1992. In December 1992, Blissett was acquitted of

grievous bodily harm Grievous bodily harm (often abbreviated to GBH) is a term used in English criminal law to describe the severest forms of battery. It refers to two offences that are created by sections 18 and 20 of the Offences against the Person Act 1861. The ...

after challenging for an aerial ball with

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

player John Uzzell in an away game at Plainmoor 12 months earlier. It was alleged by Uzzell that Blissett had deliberately elbowed him in the face, fracturing his eye socket, although the court did not agree with this. Blissett has always maintained that the incident was an accidental collision and video evidence of the challenge was deemed to show that Blissett kept his eyes on the ball and, furthermore, that in jumping to head an aerial ball, a player would typically raise one or both arms to gain height. Blissett moved to

summer 1993. He was mostly a substitute in his four seasons at Wimbledon, starting only ten matches and scoring three goals. He had a loan spell with

during that time, and also a loan spell back at Crewe Alexandra, before leaving Wimbledon in 1997 for a brief spell with Sembawang Rangers in Singapore. He completed his playing career with a four-year spell in Germany at

Personal life

Blissett is based in Florida where he is the Director of Coaching for Florida Premier FC Zephyrhills.

Honours

Brentford *

Football League Division Three The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the ...

: 1991–92 Individual * Brentford Hall of Fame

References

External links

* 1964 births Living people English men's footballers Footballers from Manchester Men's association football forwards Premier League players English Football League players Singapore Premier League players Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Wimbledon F.C. players SV Elversberg players Sembawang Rangers FC players English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Singapore Expatriate men's footballers in Singapore English expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany {{England-footy-forward-1960s-stub