Michael Colin Boot (born 17 December 1947) 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

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

Boot joined

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in 1963, turned professional in December 1964, and made his senior debut in October 1966. Boot made his debut on 5 October 1966 in a league cup defeat 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 ...

. Boot's first goal for Arsenal came only three days later against

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

in a 2-0 league victory at

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was situ ...

. Boot's final appearance in an Arsenal shirt occurred on 5 November 1966 when he replaced

Jon Sammels Jonathon Charles Sammels (born 23 July 1945) is an English former footballer. Career Sammels joined Arsenal, in 1961, the club he supported as a boy, from his family home in Grundisburgh near Woodbridge in Suffolk. He was a regular in the rese ...

during Arsenal's 1–0 defeat against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

at Highbury. Over the course of the season, Boot scored 2 goals in 4 appearances 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 ...

. After a spell in South Africa with Port Elizabeth City, where he helped the club win the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

title, Boot played English non-league football with

Nuneaton Borough Nuneaton Borough Football Club is an English football club that is based in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The men's 1st team competes in the , the seventh tier of English football. In 1889, Nuneaton St. Nicholas FC was the first team in Nuneaton t ...

of the

Southern Football League Premier Division The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English foot ...

Kidderminster Harriers Kidderminster Harriers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. The team compete in the National League North, at the sixth tier of the English football league system. Formed in ...

of the

West Midlands (Regional) League The West Midlands (Regional) League is an English association football competition for semi-professional and amateur teams based in the West Midlands county, Shropshire, Worcestershire, southern Staffordshire and northern Herefordshire. It has tw ...

, and

AP Leamington Leamington Football Club is a football club based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England. They are currently members of and play at the New Windmill Ground near Bishop's Tachbrook. History The club was established in 1933 as the works te ...

, where he was ever-present as the team were promoted to the Southern League Premier Division in 1975–76. He later moved to Australia, where he played for Townsville, Mareeba and Phoenix before taking up coaching.

References

1947 births Living people Footballers from Leicester English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Arsenal F.C. players Port Elizabeth City F.C. players Nuneaton Borough F.C. players Kidderminster Harriers F.C. players Leamington F.C. players English Football League players National Football League (South Africa) players Southern Football League players {{England-footy-midfielder-1940s-stub