Phil Beal (born 8 January 1945) is an English former

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 ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Career

Tottenham Hotspur

Beal was born in

Godstone Godstone is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England, east of Reigate at the junction of the A22 and A25 roads, near the M25 motorway and the North Downs. Godstone railway station is separated from it by agricultural land. Blindley H ...

, Surrey. He played for Surrey boys and England Youth before signing as an amateur for

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

in 1960 and became a professional at the club in 1962. He made his debut as a defender against Aston Villa in 1963, and went on to make 16 appearances in that season. By the start of the following season Danny Blanchflower had retired with Beal taking on the former captain's

right half 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 ...

position. With the team in transition, he only made eight appearances that season. The versatile player filled a variety of defensive positions and featured in 21 matches in 1965–66, started in 26 games in 1966–67, but did not feature in the

1967 FA Cup Final The 1967 FA Cup Final was the 86th final of the FA Cup. It took place on 20 May 1967 at Wembley Stadium and was contested between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. It was the first FA Cup Final to be contested between two teams from London, and is t ...

because of an injury. By the late 1960s he had fully established himself in the side and consistently showed his calm, authoritative and composed style. Feyenoord vs Spurs 1974

Beal played in both

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

winning sides against Aston Villa in 1970-71 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 ...

in 1972-73. He played in both matches against

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

in the

1972 UEFA Cup Final The 1972 UEFA Cup Final was the final of the first UEFA Cup football tournament. It was a two-legged contest played on 3 May and 17 May 1972 between two English clubs, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur. This was the first UEFA club com ...

in which he collected a winners' medal, and in both legs of the

1974 UEFA Cup Final The 1974 UEFA Cup Final was played on 21 May 1974 and 29 May 1974 between Tottenham Hotspur of England and Feyenoord Rotterdam of the Netherlands, to determine the champion of the 1973–74 UEFA Cup. Feyenoord won 4–2 on aggregate. Tottenham sup ...

against

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names bef ...

. Beal finished his career with Spurs in 1975 and made 420 appearances including three as substitute in all competitions, and scoring just one goal.

Later career

After leaving Spurs he played for

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

Los Angeles Aztecs The Los Angeles Aztecs was an American professional soccer team based in Los Angeles, California that existed from 1974 to 1981. The Aztecs competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1974 to 1981 as well as the 1975 NASL Indoor tourn ...

North American Soccer League players
Retrieved 20 October 2008 and

Memphis Rogues The Memphis Rogues were a professional soccer team in the former North American Soccer League. They operated in the 1978, 1979, and 1980 seasons and played their home games in Memphis' Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. They also played indoor ...

After football

Today, Beal is a match day host at

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater it had a capacity of 36,284 before demolition. ...

.''Where are they now ?''
Retrieved 18 October 2008

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

; runner up 1974 * Football League Cup: 1971,

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

References

External links

Phil Beal...cool, calm and sure

Photo of Phil

Phil Beal
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beal, Phil Living people 1945 births People from Godstone English men's footballers Men's association football defenders UEFA Cup winning players English Football League players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Ilford F.C. players Los Angeles Aztecs players Memphis Rogues players Crewe Alexandra F.C. players Chelmsford City F.C. players Oxford City F.C. players English expatriate men's footballers English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Footballers from Surrey