Keith Waldon is a physiotherapist and

sports coach A sports coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''coach'' is that of a horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultimately from the Hun ...

, who was assistant manager of

Portsmouth F.C. Portsmouth Football Club is a professional football club based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, which compete in . They are also known as ''Pompey'', a local nickname used by both HMNB Portsmouth and the city of Portsmouth; the ''Pompey'' nick ...

under Terry Fenwick, and who acted as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

of the club in January 1998 after Fenwick's dismissal.

Playing career

Keith Waldon played for Chelsea as a schoolboy then moved to Millwall as an apprentice professional and two years later signed professional terms. He failed to break into the first team and moved to the Southern League with Chelmsford City then to South Africa to play for

Berea Park Berea Park is a multi-sport venue in Pretoria, South Africa, on Lilian Ngoyi Street (earlier Van der Walt Street) near downtown. It has been utilized by multiple local sports teams in both football/soccer, including Berea Park F.C., and formerly cr ...

. There he sustained a broken leg which threatened to end his career but when Waldon returned to England he eventually recovered enough to play amateur football for Croydon,

Dulwich Hamlet Dulwich Hamlet Football Club is a semi-professional football club based in East Dulwich in south-east London, England. They are currently members of and play at Champion Hill. History The club was formed in 1893, by Lorraine 'Pa' Wilson. T ...

and Sutton United.

Coaching career

Waldon had obtained his coaching badges while at Millwall and began working for 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 an ...

, running coach education courses. He progressed to coaching foreign managers and coaches when they sought their UEFA coaching badges.

David Pleat David John Pleat (born 15 January 1945) is an English football player turned manager, and sports commentator. Pleat made 185 Football League appearances for five clubs, scoring 26 goals. He had two spells as manager of Luton Town, and four as ma ...

persuaded Waldon to join the coaching staff of Tottenham Hotspur in 1984, acting as assistant to youth team manager

Keith Blunt Keith Blunt ( – 12 August 2016) was an English football coach. He was first team coach at Plymouth Argyle before leaving to manage Sutton United from the late seventies until moving onto Malmö and then Viking in 1984. In 1987, he was coach of ...

. Waldon took over as youth team manager when Blunt left, and was in charge of the team that won the

FA Youth Cup The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under-18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part. It ...

in 1990. Waldon left Tottenham in 1994 and joined Portsmouth, becoming caretaker manager in January 1998. In his time as caretaker, Waldon lost all three of his matches and at the end of January, Alan Ball was appointed as manager. Keith is now the owner of ''Up&Running Sports Injuries Clinics Limited'', where he acts as a director and therapist. He is also a qualified athletics and tennis coach.

References

External links

* Living people English football managers Portsmouth F.C. managers Year of birth missing (living people) {{england-footy-manager-stub