Raymond Leslie "Ray" Evans (born 20 September 1949) 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 le ...

who played in the position of full back in England and the United States. He played for

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

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

and

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 ...

Career

Evans was born in

Edmonton, London Edmonton is a town in north London, England within the London Borough of Enfield, a local government district of Greater London. The northern part of the town is known as Lower Edmonton or Edmonton Green, and the southern part as Upper Edmonto ...

and joined Tottenham Hotspur as an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

in May 1965, and signed as a full professional in 1967, making his league debut in March 1969 at

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 ...

. He made 181 appearances including four as substitute in all competitions for the club between 1969–1974 and scored two goals.Hugman,B,J (Ed)''The PFA Premier & Football League Players' Records 1946–2005'' (2005) p198 Retrieved 17 August 2008 Evans featured 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 in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

with Spurs losing 4–2 on aggregate. He joined

for a fee of £35,000 in January 1975. He helped the Lions win promotion to the Second Division in 1975–76 and made 91 appearances for the club in three seasons. During the summer of 1977, Evans played for the St. Louis Stars of the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League may refer to: *North American Soccer League (1968–1984), a former Division I league *North American Soccer League (2011–2017) The North American Soccer League (NASL) was a professional men's soccer league b ...

. He transferred to

in March 1977 where he played 91 for the

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football ground in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 22,384; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game against M ...

side as they posted three season of mid-table in the Second Division. In 1978, he returned to the United States where he played for the

California Surf The California Surf were an American Association football, soccer team that competed in the North American Soccer League (1968–1984), North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1978 North American Soccer League season, 1978 to 1981 North American ...

. He was selected for the First Team All-Star team in 1978. In August 1979 he return to England and signed for

. He played 44 times for Stoke in 1979–80 scoring a penalty against

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

. He played in 36 matches in 1980–81 and 26 times in 1981–82. He returned to the United States after making 106 appearances for the Potters. In 1982, he moved permanently to the United States when he signed with the

Seattle Sounders Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's association football, soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club w ...

for two seasons. In the autumn of 1983, he moved to the newly established Tacoma Stars of the Major Indoor Soccer League. He would play three seasons for Tacoma before announcing his retirement in May 1986. In 1989, he came out of retirement to play one season in the

Western Soccer Alliance Western Soccer Alliance was a professional soccer league featuring teams from the West Coast of the United States and Western Canada. The league began in 1985 as the Western Alliance Challenge Series. In 1986, it became the Western Soccer Alli ...

with the

Seattle Storm The Seattle Storm are an American professional basketball team based in Seattle. The Storm competes in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was founded by Ginger Ackerl ...

Coaching career

While with the Tacoma Stars, Evans also served as an assistant coach. He is now the head coach of the

Columbia Basin College Columbia Basin College (CBC) is a public community college in Pasco, Washington. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. The college offers English as a second language and General Educational Development (GED) ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, United States

Career statistics

Source:

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 Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

winner: 1971-72 *

runner-up: 1973-74 ; Millwall *

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the f ...

third-place promotion: 1975–76

References

External links

*
NASL/MISL stats

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Ray 1949 births Living people Footballers from Edmonton, London California Surf players English footballers English expatriate footballers Seattle Storm (soccer) players Fulham F.C. players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players Millwall F.C. players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players St. Louis Stars (soccer) players Seattle Sounders (1974–1983) players Stoke City F.C. players English Football League players Tacoma Stars players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Western Soccer Alliance players UEFA Cup winning players Association football defenders English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States