Charles Martin Reagan (12 May 1924 – 26 December 2016) was an English 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 ...

and coach / manager. During his playing career, Reagan played 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 ...

for

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

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 ...

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

and

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

. He later coached the

England women's national football team The England women's national football team, also known as the Lionesses, have been governed by the Football Association (FA) since 1993, having been previously administered by the Women's Football Association (WFA). England played its first in ...

. Prior to his football career Reagan served as a Staff Sgt Tank Commander in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Playing career

From 1947-48 Reagan made 18 appearances for Hull, where he attracted the attention of Middlesbrough, in 1948 paid £5,000 to sign Reagan from Hull City. Over the next three years he scored four goals in 25 league and cup appearances, and is credited with scoring Middlesbrough's 1000th league goal, before joining Shrewsbury Town. On New Year's Eve 1952 Portsmouth bought Reagan from Shrewsbury for £12,000 and played him in their next five matches. Reagan did not play for Portsmouth again but remained with the club until August 1954 when he joined Norwich City. After two years with Norwich, Reagan became player manager at March Town United in the

Eastern Counties Football League The Eastern Counties Football League, currently known as the Thurlow Nunn League for sponsorship purposes, is an English football league at levels 9 and 10 of the English football league system. It currently contains clubs from Norfolk, Suffol ...

Coaching career

After managing March, Reagan became manager at

Goole Town Goole Association Football Club is a semi-professional football club in Goole, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Victoria Pleasure Grounds. History The club was established by Mike Norman i ...

. He later became head coach of the

from 1979 until 1990, and was in charge for 96 matches during his 11-year tenure. Reagan took England to

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

of the 1984 European Competition for Women's Football, where they lost a two-legged tie to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

after a

penalty shoot out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

Kenilworth Road Kenilworth Road is an association football stadium in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. It has been the home ground of Luton Town F.C., Luton Town Football Club since 1905. The stadium has also hosted women's and youth international matches, includ ...

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

. Despite also winning the Mundialito (known as the little World Cup) twice in 1985 and 1988, the

Women's Football Association The Women's Football Association (WFA) was the governing body of women's football in England. It was formed in 1969 and was disbanded in 1993, as responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the game of women's football in England passed to Th ...

(WFA) sacked Reagan in 1990 when a 6–1

UEFA Women's Euro 1991 The 1991 UEFA Women's Championship took place in Denmark. It was won by Germany in a final against Norway in a repeat of the previous edition's final. Eighteen teams entered qualifying, which was enough to make the competition the first fully offic ...

quarter final aggregate defeat by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

cost England a place at the inaugural

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

. At the 1985 Mundialito Reagan had noticed the potential of the

United States women's national soccer team The United States women's national soccer team (USWNT) represents the United States in international women's Association football, soccer. The team is the most successful in international women's soccer, winning four FIFA Women's World Cup, Wom ...

, when England beat them 3–1 in their third ever match. He wrote a prescient letter to his American counterpart Mike Ryan which said "The day cannot be very distant when you will be a world force." From 1989–2003 Reagan was director of coaching at the Two Rivers Soccer Camp in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, USA.

Personal life

As well as his football career Reagan worked as a self–employed sales agent. Prior to his death in December 2016, Reagan was the oldest surviving Middlesbrough FC player and lived in a

Kirk Hammerton Kirk Hammerton is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is near the River Nidd and the A59 road, west of York. The village suffix refers to the ''Hamerton'' family who owned the land until the 16 ...

care home. Before his football career, Reagan served as a Staff Sgt Tank Commander in 204 Armoured Assault Squadron, Royal Engineers, during

. On 20 October 1994, the 50th anniversary of an explosion which killed many of his tank squadron, Reagan visited Ijzendijke in the Netherlands with his three sons and began a campaign to fund and build a memorial to those who had died. The memorial, at the entry to Isabellaweg Farm, is the site of an annual commemoration of the British and Canadian soldiers who died there.

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Reagan, Martin 1924 births 2016 deaths English footballers Association football midfielders York Railway Institute A.F.C. players York City F.C. players Hull City A.F.C. players Middlesbrough F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players English Football League players English football managers England women's national football team managers March Town United F.C. players March Town United F.C. managers Goole Town F.C. managers York City F.C. wartime guest players British Army personnel of World War II Footballers from Newcastle upon Tyne Royal Engineers soldiers Tank commanders