Len Cantello (born 11 September 1951) is a former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

West Bromwich Albion: 1967–1979

Cantello joined

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 pla ...

as an apprentice in 1967. Aged 18, Cantello played in the 1970 League Cup Final. Cantello scored

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

's goal of the season in December 1978, playing against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

. During his 12-year stay at the Hawthorns, Cantello made 371 appearances. In 1978, he played with the

Dallas Tornado The Dallas Tornado was a soccer team based in Dallas, Texas that played in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1967 to 1981. Of the twelve teams that comprised the U.S. in 1967, the Tornado franchise played the longest–15 seasons. ...

. Although signing for

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

in the summer of 1979 for a fee of £350,000, Cantello was awarded a

testimonial match A testimonial match or testimonial game, often referred to simply as a testimonial, is a practice in some sports, particularly in association football in the United Kingdom and South America, where a club has a match to honour a player for servic ...

by West Bromwich Albion that saw a team of white players play against a team of black players.

Bolton Wanderers: 1979–1982

In 1979, he moved to

, spending three years with them.

Later career: 1982–1986

In 1982, Cantello moved two divisions down on loan to

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

. He made just one appearance and then moved again on loan to

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

. In 1981, he went on loan to the

of the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

. In 1983, he was transferred to Dutch side

SC Cambuur SC Cambuur, also known as Cambuur Leeuwarden, or simply Cambuur, () is a Dutch football club from the city of Leeuwarden formed on 19 June 1964. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, after winning the 2020–21 Ee ...

, before finishing with two seasons at

Eastern AA Eastern Athletic Association Football Team Limited, also known as Eastern Sports Club (), is a Hong Kong professional sports club whose football section competes in the Hong Kong Premier League, the top flight of Hong Kong football. The f ...

. In 1989 and 1990, he played in the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; french: Ligue canadienne de soccer — LCS) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (C ...

with

Calgary Strikers Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

and London Lasers.

Post-playing career

After retiring from professional sport, Cantello became the UK managing Director of FieldTurf, a Canadian-based brand of

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...

playing surface. He currently resides in his home town of Manchester.

References

External links

*
Len Cantello (West Brom) at Sporting-heroes.net

Len Cantello (Bolton Wanderers) at Sporting-heroes.net

1951 births Living people English footballers Footballers from Manchester West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Bury F.C. players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Dallas Tornado players Eastern Sports Club footballers England under-23 international footballers English expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Hong Kong Stockport County F.C. non-playing staff Association football midfielders English expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Calgary Kickers players London Lasers players {{England-footy-midfielder-1950s-stub