James Leslie was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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 for clubs including Clyde and

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, 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 made his debut for Sunderland on 4 September 1897 against

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in a 1–0 win at

Olive Grove The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' 'M ...

. Overall, he made 98

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 ...

and

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appearances while at the club from 1897 to 1901, scoring 29 goals. He scored Roker Park's first ever goal in a 1–0 win over

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

in September 1898 and was part of the team which finished runners-up in 1897–98 and again in 1900–01, but had departed for

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 ...

by the time they claimed the title the following season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leslie, Jim 1873 births Year of death missing Scottish men's footballers Clyde F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Arthurlie F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players People from Barrhead Men's association football forwards Footballers from East Renfrewshire English Football League players Scottish Football League players