Richard Mark Johnson (born 27 April 1974) is an Australian 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 le ...

. Johnson played for English club

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

for 12 years, making 278 appearances and achieving back-to-back promotions to reach the Premiership in 1999. Following a loan spell at

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

, he played for

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

in England after leaving Watford, before finished his career in the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

with

Newcastle United Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from The Austral ...

New Zealand Knights New Zealand Knights Football Club (formed from the Football Kingz Football Club in 2004) were the only professional association football club in New Zealand before they became defunct. Based in Auckland, New Zealand, they played in the A-League ...

and

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

. Johnson is currently academy director at Watford, having held a variety of administrative positions at the club since 2018.

Club career

Johnson was born in

Kurri Kurri, New South Wales Kurri Kurri is a small town in the Hunter Region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Cessnock LGA. At the , its population was 6,044. Kurri Kurri is the largest town in a group of towns and hamlets, including Stanford Merthyr, Pelaw Main, ...

and played for

Weston Workers Bears Weston Bears Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Weston, New South Wales. At its senior level the club participates in the National Premier Leagues Northern NSW, the highest tier of Northern New South Wales Foot ...

before moving to England to become a professional. He joined the youth ranks of

, and made his league début in the closing stages of the 1991–92 season. Johnson's ability to shoot accurately and powerfully from long distance secured him the "Goal of the Season" award for the 1994–95 season, for a 30-yard shot in a game against

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

. Often in and out of the side for much of his early

career, Johnson became an integral part of Graham Taylor's re-shaped Watford side as it started the 1997–98 season. He formed a central midfield partnership with Micah Hyde that was to help drive

to the 1997–98 Division Two Championship. Johnson was also to show his long-range shooting skills in the 4–0 victory over rivals

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

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 ...

, scoring the first goal. The Hyde-Johnson axis continued into the 1998–99 season, with Johnson playing in Watford's drive to the play-offs and picking up a winners medal in the 2–0 final victory over

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

. Johnson was to play a limited part in

's first Premiership season, with injuries sustained in August and January keeping him out for two months each time. Playing in a match 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 ...

on 29 April 2000 Johnson ruptured knee ligaments. He did not return until 28 April 2001, featuring in the final three games of the 2000–01 season. However, Johnson suffered a relapse, and he missed all of the 2001–02 season. He returned intermittently in the autumn of 2002, but after picking up another injury was sent on loan to

for a month in February 2003 to gain fitness. He scored one goal - against Watford's rivals

- in 6 games for the Cobblers. Returning to

, Johnson featured in the final few games of the season, but still struggling for fitness and a first-team place he was released in October 2003. He had played 277 times for the Hornets in 11 years at the club, scoring 22 goals. He subsequently joined

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colches ...

, playing a singular game for the Us in the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

. After just a month in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, Johnson joined

. He played nine times for the Potters before joining

in February 2004, who were driving towards promotion from Division Two. Johnson played 11 times in Rangers' run-in, helping them to secure second position and automatic promotion. Johnson started the 2004–05 season in the first-team, but found the step-up to the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

too demanding and slipped out of the team at the end of August. In October 2004 he was loaned to

for whom he played three times. Returning to QPR, he was unable to regain his place and he was released at the end of the season having not played another game for the

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

club.

A-League

Johnson moved back to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, joining home-town club

in the newly formed

. Johnson played a key part in Jets' first season where the team managed a respectable 4th place under then manager

Richard Money Richard Money (born 13 October 1955) is an English former footballer and manager who was most recently manager of National League club Hartlepool United. Before this, he managed Cambridge United, overseeing the side's return to the Football Leag ...

, starting 20 out of 23 games. However, in the 2006 off-season he moved to

club

for the final year of their existence. In May 2007 Johnson signed for newly formed

team

Wellington Phoenix FC Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

. In March 2007, Johnson had been arrested for drink driving in Newcastle and had subsequently been sentenced to eight months in prison. He appealed against this verdict and the sentence was amended to a suspended sentence and a fine, allowing him to take up his contract with Wellington. On 11 February 2009, Johnson announced he would be retiring from professional football at the end of the 2008–09

season.

Post-playing career

In January 2019, Johnson was appointed technical director at

National League South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

side

Wealdstone Wealdstone () is a district located in the centre of the London Borough of Harrow, England. It is located just north of Harrow town centre and is south of Harrow Weald, west of Belmont and Kenton, and east of Headstone. The area accommodates ...

, while continuing in his role as business development manager at his former club Watford. After three years in his previous role at the club, Johnson became head of academy partnerships at Watford in February 2021. Three months later, he was appointed academy director at the club.

International career

Johnson won his first and only full cap for the Australian national team against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

on 29 March 2000. He also played for the Australian national team twice against a Brazilian 'B' side.

Career statistics

Sources: :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the

Anglo-Italian Cup The Anglo-Italian Cup ( it, Coppa Anglo-Italiana, also known as the Anglo-Italian Inter-League Clubs Competition and from 1976 to 1986 as the Alitalia Challenge Cup, Talbot Challenge Cup or Gigi Peronace Memorial) is a defunct European football c ...

and

Football League play-offs The English Football League play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the four association football teams finishing immediately below the automatic promotion places in the second, third and fourth tiers of the English football league ...

International

Source:

Honours

; Watford *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

Playoff Winner: 1998–99 *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

Winner: 1997–98

References

External links

Oz Football profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Richard 1974 births Living people People from Kurri Kurri Soccer players from New South Wales Australian men's soccer players Australia men's international soccer players Watford F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players Newcastle Jets FC players New Zealand Knights FC players Premier League players English Football League players A-League Men players Wellington Phoenix FC players Australian expatriate men's soccer players Expatriate men's association footballers in New Zealand Expatriate men's footballers in England Men's association football midfielders Watford F.C. non-playing staff Australian expatriate sportspeople in England Australian expatriate sportspeople in New Zealand