Norman A.J. Sykes (16 October 1936 – 9 December 2009) was a 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 in The Football League for Bristol Rovers,

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

, Stockport County, and Doncaster Rovers between 1953 and 1967. Sykes played youth football for various teams in his home town of Bristol before signing his first professional contract with Bristol Rovers on his seventeenth birthday, with whom he spent twelve years, including one year as a youth team player. In 1961 he had an unsuccessful trial with Chelsea and returned to Bristol Rovers until in 1964 he joined Plymouth Argyle for a transfer fee of £2,000, but during his time there he was dogged by injury and made just three League appearances for them. In the summer of 1964 he played in the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League with

Toronto City Toronto City was a Canadian soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario. Between 1961 and 1967, teams using this name competed in both the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League and the United Soccer Association. History ECPSL In 1961, along with ...

. He played 52 League games for Stockport County in seventeen months between September 1965 and February 1967, before spending the remainder of the 1966–67 season with Doncaster Rovers. Following that he dropped down to

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

, where he played for Altrincham. After his footballing career Sykes opened a

teetotal Teetotalism is the practice or promotion of total personal abstinence from the psychoactive drug alcohol, specifically in alcoholic drinks. A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler or teetotaller, or is ...

nightclub in Manchester in 1975, and later lived and worked in Manchester.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sykes, Norman 1936 births 2009 deaths Footballers from Bristol English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders English Football League players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Stockport County F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Altrincham F.C. players Toronto City players Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League players