John Joseph Byrne (13 May 1939 – 27 October 1999) was an English professional footballer who played as a
striker. He was nicknamed "Budgie" due to his constant chattering.
He played non-league football for
Epsom Town and
Guildford City Youth, before signing a professional contract with
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
in 1956. He joined
West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
in 1962, and spent the next five years with the "Hammers". He returned to Crystal Palace in 1967, before joining
Fulham the following year. He emigrated to South Africa in 1969 and spent four years with
Durban City
Durban City was a South African association football club based in the city of Durban. Formed in 1959 by Norman Elliott, the club was dissolved in 1988.
History
Durban City FC played in the newly formed whites only National Football League f ...
. He went on to coach in South Africa for many years, and turned out as a player for
Hellenic in 1980.
He won seven caps for the
England under-23 team, before scoring eight goals in eleven full
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 ...
internationals between 1961 and 1965.
Early life
John Joseph Byrne was born in
West Horsley
West Horsley is a semi-rural village between Guildford and Leatherhead in Surrey, England. It lies on the A246, and south of the M25 and the A3. Its civil parish ascends to an ancient woodland Sheepleas Woods which are on the northern downsl ...
,
Surrey, to Irish immigrants on 13 May 1939 and he attended nearby
Howard of Effingham School As a youth player he represented
Epsom Town and
Guildford City Youth, though it was his schoolteacher
Vincent Blore,
a former
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
and
West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
player, who alerted Crystal Palace manager
Cyril Spiers
Cyril Henry Spiers (4 April 1902 – 21 May 1967) was an English association football goalkeeper who played for Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers. He later went on to manage at Football League clubs for more than twenty ...
to Byrne's talents. Whilst working as an apprentice toolmaker at the age of 15, Byrne attended four trials at
Selhurst Park before being signed onto the ground staff.
Club career
Crystal Palace
Byrne made 14 appearances for
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...
during the
1956–57 season, scoring once as the "Glaziers" finished 20th in the
Third Division South
The Third Division South of The Football League was a tier in the English football league system from 1921 to 1958. It ran in parallel with the Third Division North with clubs elected to the League or relegated from Division Two allocated to ...
.
He signed a professional contract on his 17th birthday in 1956,
and made his debut in October of that year.
He scored seven times in 28 matches in the
1957–58 season, as Palace finished in 14th place.
He scored 17 goals in 45 matches in the
1958–59 season, in which the club became founder members of the
Fourth Division and new manager
George Smith led the "Glaziers" to a seventh-place finish. In 1959–60 Byrne scored 16 times in 42 matches as Palace finished eighth in Division Four.
He requested a transfer, and an asking price of £20,000 was demanded by the club.
On 15 October 1959, he scored two goals as Palace recorded a
club record 9–0 victory over
Barrow.
After a steady first two seasons, Byrne became a first team regular, and was popular with the Palace fans. In the
1960–61 season, Byrne scored 30
of Palace's 110 goals (his strike partner
Roy Summersby netted 25), as Palace reached the
Third Division. He left Palace having scored 96 goals, then a post-war record.
West Ham United
Following this, he did not stay a Third Division player for long, and the
First Division beckoned, as
Ron Greenwood
Ronald Greenwood CBE (11 November 1921 – 9 February 2006) was an English football player and manager, best known for being manager of the English national football team from 1977 until 1982, as well as being manager of West Ham United for 13 ...
paid a Second Division
British record transfer fee of £65,000 to take "Budgie" to
West Ham United
West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...
in 1962. Greenwood would later compare Byrne with Argentine footballer,
Alfredo Di Stéfano
Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxon name Alfred and a common Italian, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name.
People with the given name include:
*Alfredo (born 1946), Brazilian footballer born as Alfredo Mostarda Fil ...
. The fee being made up of £58,000 plus ex-Palace striker
Ron Brett who was valued at £7,000.
Byrne's debut came on 17 March 1962 in a 0–0 draw at
Hillsborough against
Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...
.
He played eleven games in his first season, scoring a single goal, in a 4–1 home win against
Cardiff City, in April 1962.
The
1962–63 season saw him score 14 goals in all competitions, only one behind leading scorer
Geoff Hurst
Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst (born 8 December 1941) is an English former professional footballer. A striker, he became the first man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final when England recorded a 4–2 victory over West Germany at Wembley S ...
.
In the
1963–64 season he beat
Bobby Moore, who finished second, to the "Hammer of the Year" award for the season, as West Ham won the
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
. Byrne had amassed 33 goals from 45 games in all competitions for this season overtaking Hurst as top goalscorer. This included FA Cup goals in the fourth round against
Leyton Orient
Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a profession ...
, the fifth round against
Swindon Town
Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...
and two in the sixth round against
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...
.
The
1964–65 season saw West Ham playing in both the
1964 Charity Shield and in
European football
UEFA competitions (french: competitions de l'UEFA), referred improperly by the mass media as European football, are the set of tournaments organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), generally in professional and amateur asso ...
having won the previous year's FA Cup. West Ham and
1963–64 league champions,
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 populat ...
, shared the Charity Shield having drawn the game at
Anfield
Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 189 ...
, 2–2 with Byrne scoring one of the West Ham goals.
In Europe West Ham competed in the
1964–65 European Cup Winners' Cup. Byrne scored in the first round against
La Gantoise, the third round against
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...
and a goal in the semi-finals against
Real Zaragoza
Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at L ...
. Unfortunately, for Byrne, he was injured in the England-Scotland match a few weeks earlier
and did not play in the final against
Munich 1860 at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...
which West Ham won 2–0
In the
1965–66 season West Ham were again in European football as holders of the Cup Winners' Cup. They also reached the
1966 League Cup Final. Again Byrne was on the scoresheet in the Cup Winners' Cup, in the second round against
Olympiacos
Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós ( el, Ολυμπιακός Σύνδεσμος Φιλάθλων Πειραιώς, Olympic Club of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number ...
, the third round against
Magedeburg and in the semi-final against
Borussia Dortmund
Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...
where they were eliminated from the competition. He scored five goals in six games in the League Cup including one in the first-leg of the final against
West Bromwich Albion
West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...
which West Ham won 2–1. Albion won the second leg, at
The Hawthorns
The Hawthorns is an all-seater football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of Championship club West Bromwich Albion since 1900, when it became the sixth ground to be used by the cl ...
, 4–1 to take the trophy by an aggregate score of 5–3. Byrne finished the season with 17 goals in all competitions, someway behind Geoff Hurst, who, on the verge of his 1966 World Cup victory, scored 40 goals in 59 games.
Return to Crystal Palace
Byrne left West Ham in February 1967, returning to Crystal Palace for £45,000.
scoring one goal (14 appearances) in his first season back and four goals in 22 appearances in 1967–68. This took his total for Palace to over 100 goals putting him 4th on Palace's all-time scorers list at the time. Palace were now in the
Second Division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
but Byrne was past his peak as a player,
and after only a year with the club was transferred to
Fulham for £25,000 in March 1968.
Fulham
Byrne's time at
Fulham, was largely the unsuccessful, as the club suffered relegation in both 1968 and 1969, leaving it in the
Third Division. Byrne played only 19 games, (some of them at half-back)
scoring twice, in that time, before signing for
Durban City
Durban City was a South African association football club based in the city of Durban. Formed in 1959 by Norman Elliott, the club was dissolved in 1988.
History
Durban City FC played in the newly formed whites only National Football League f ...
, in June 1969.
South Africa
310px, Manager Johnny 'Budgie' Byrne, and players on the bench of _of_Cape_Town">Hellenic_FC_of_Cape_Town,_South_Africa,_early_1970s_(Photo:_Hilton_Teper).html" ;"title="Cape_Town.html" ;"title="Hellenic FC of Cape Town">Hellenic FC of Cape Town, South Africa, early 1970s (Photo: Hilton Teper)">Cape_Town.html" ;"title="Hellenic FC of Cape Town">Hellenic FC of Cape Town, South Africa, early 1970s (Photo: Hilton Teper)
Byrne played for Fulham for only one full season before moving to South Africa, to play for the now defunct Durban City, alongside some of his former Fulham teammates, such as Johnny Haynes.
He became manager of
Durban City
Durban City was a South African association football club based in the city of Durban. Formed in 1959 by Norman Elliott, the club was dissolved in 1988.
History
Durban City FC played in the newly formed whites only National Football League f ...
, but spent most of his coaching career at Cape Town club
Hellenic FC
Hellenic FC is a South African association football club based in Cape Town. They were nicknamed ''The Greek Gods''.
Established in 1958 by Greek South Africans, Hellenic campaigned in the lower amateur leagues of Cape Town. But by the 1970s the ...
. He even played for them during an injury crisis in 1980, coming on as a late substitute in a league match against Johannesburg club Dynamos just short of his 41st birthday. He also coached at Cape Town Spurs and for Michau Warriors in Port Elizabeth. Spurs was his last job in 1998.
International career
Byrne played for England at both youth and
under-23 levels.
He became the first
Fourth Division player to win a cap for the under-23 side.
In November 1961 Byrne was called up to the
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 ...
team, despite playing outside the top two divisions at the time, one of only five post-war players to achieve this. Byrne played the whole of the 1–1 draw against
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
, part of the 1962
British Home Championship, at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...
.
He was a strong candidate to be selected for the
1962 FIFA World Cup
The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place be ...
in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, but he was shunned by
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 ...
's selectors after getting involved in a confrontation with former England favourite
Don Howe
Donald Howe (12 October 1935 – 23 December 2015) was an English football player, coach, manager and pundit. As a right back Howe featured for clubs West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal together with the England national football team in his pla ...
in a league match at
The Hawthorns
The Hawthorns is an all-seater football stadium in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England, with a capacity of 26,688. It has been the home of Championship club West Bromwich Albion since 1900, when it became the sixth ground to be used by the cl ...
.
He got his first (and second) England goal in the 1–8 win over
Switzerland. On 16 May 1964, possibly Byrne's greatest achievement came, as he scored a hat-trick, in Lisbon, in England's 4–3 win over a
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
team that included
Eusébio
Eusébio da Silva Ferreira (; 25 January 1942 – 5 January 2014), nicknamed the "Black Panther", the "Black Pearl" or "O Rei" ("The King"), was a Portuguese footballer who played as a striker. He is considered one of the greatest players of ...
.
He missed out on a place in the eventually victorious
England squad, at the
1966 FIFA World Cup.
Personal life
Byrne married Margaret when he was 18 years old.
He died suddenly following a heart attack in Cape Town on 27 October 1999, aged 60.
His son Mark played for Hellenic and
Cape Town Spurs
A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck.
History
Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. T ...
. Later he was president of Hellenic. He died in 2021.
Honours
West Ham United
*
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
:
1963–64
*
FA Charity Shield:
1964
Events January
* January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved.
* January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...
References
;Specific
;General
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Byrne, Johnny
1939 births
1999 deaths
People from the Borough of Guildford
English people of Irish descent
Association football forwards
English Football League players
English footballers
England youth international footballers
England under-23 international footballers
England international footballers
English Football League representative players
English football managers
Epsom & Ewell F.C. players
Guildford City F.C. players
Crystal Palace F.C. players
West Ham United F.C. players
Fulham F.C. players
Durban City F.C. players
Hellenic F.C. players
English expatriate footballers
English expatriate sportspeople in South Africa
Expatriate soccer players in South Africa
Expatriate soccer managers in South Africa
Santos F.C. (South Africa) managers
Durban City F.C. managers
Hellenic F.C. managers
FA Cup Final players