John Edward Smith (1914 – 1989), was an English

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 as full back, and a coach. Smith represented

Millwall F.C. Millwall Football Club () is a professional football club in Bermondsey, South East London, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its name ...

in the late 1930s, he then coached Benfica from 1948 to 1952 guiding them to their first international trophy.

Career

Born 3 September 1914 in Grays, in the

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 ...

county, Smith football career started at

in 1935, as the ''Lions'' were on Third Division. He was part of the squad that eliminated (2–0)

Manchester City 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 Salford to the west. The tw ...

on the quarter-finals of the

1936–37 FA Cup The 1936–37 FA Cup was the 62nd season of the world's oldest football cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup. Sunderland won the competition for the first time, beating Preston North End 3–1 in t ...

, on 6 March 1937, which would be known as one of the historic ''giant-killings'' in the FA Cup. In the next season, Smith helped the club get promoted to the second tier, playing just one season before the War interruption. He competed a further three years, retiring in 1948, age 33, after amassing over 140 league caps. He immediately started a managerial career, arriving at Benfica in 1948. The club last league title was in 1944–45, and

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

was in the most successful period of their history, winning seven of the eight championships contested from the 1946–47 season to the 1953–54 season, losing only in the 1949–50 season to Smith's Benfica. This was the age of the Cinco Violinos ("Five Violins"). Adding up to the league title, Smith biggest success, was conquering, the

Latin Cup The Latin Cup was an international football tournament for club sides from the Southwest European nations of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In 1949 the football federations came together and requested FIFA to launch the competition. Europ ...

, the predecessor of

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

, contested by

Latin European Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

nations of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, in a tournament organized at the end of the season, defeating

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

Estádio Nacional The Estádio Nacional (English: National Stadium), also known as National Stadium Sports Complex ( pt, Complexo Desportivo do Estádio Nacional) and as ''Jamor Sports Complex'' ( pt, Complexo Desportivo do Jamor), is a national football stadium ...

on 18 June 1950. After bagging his second

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

in his third year in charge, his fourth year was more irregular. In December, Smith, resigned for personal problems, changed his mind in March and returned, but only for a month, leaving again in April. His successor,

Cândido Tavares Cândido Coelho Tavares (30 December 1911 – 18 June 1997) was a Portuguese football goalkeeper and manager. With a career spanning over a decade, Tavares represented mainly Casa Pia and Benfica, coaching the latter afterwards and winning a P ...

won the Taça de Portugal preventing a trophyless season. After Benfica, Smith managed

Workington A.F.C. Workington Association Football Club is an English football club based in Workington, Cumbria. The club competes in the Northern Premier League Division One North West, the eighth tier of English football. The club plays its home matches at Bo ...

for one season, and had a short spell at Atletico in the early 1970s.

Managerial statistics

Honours

;Benfica *

: 1949–50 *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

: 1949–50 *

: 1948–49; 1950–51

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Ted 1914 births 1989 deaths English footballers Millwall F.C. players English football managers S.L. Benfica managers Workington A.F.C. managers Association football fullbacks