Anthony Stewart Woodcock (born 6 December 1955) is an English retired international

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 professionally in both England and Germany as a striker for

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

FC Köln FC may refer to: Businesses, organisations, and schools * Fergusson College, a science and arts college in Pune, India * Finncomm Airlines (IATA code) * FranklinCovey company, NYSE stock symbol FC * Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force in Paki ...

and

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 ...

. Woodcock won the

European Cup 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 ...

(now known as the

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 ...

) in 1979 with

Club career

Early career

Born in

Eastwood, Nottinghamshire Eastwood is a former coal mining town in the Broxtowe district of Nottinghamshire, England, northwest of Nottingham and northeast of Derby on the border between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Mentioned in Domesday Book, it expanded rapidly ...

, Woodcock had trained with

Alan Alan may refer to: People *Alan (surname), an English and Turkish surname * Alan (given name), an English given name **List of people with given name Alan ''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.'' *A ...

and Steve Buckley as a child, coached by their father, and had played for Priory Celtic. He started his career at

, signing a contract in January 1974. After loan spells at Lincoln City and

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

, Woodcock broke into the Forest first team in 1976–77, helping the team to promotion to the First Division. Woodcock would later credit the Lincoln move and the leadership of

Graham Taylor Graham Taylor (15 September 1944 – 12 January 2017) was an English football player, manager, pundit and chairman of Watford Football Club. He was the manager of the England national football team from 1990 to 1993, and also managed Lincoln C ...

as being instrumental to his development. Under

Brian Clough Brian Howard Clough ( ; 21 March 1935 – 20 September 2004) was an English football player and manager, primarily known for his successes as a manager with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. He is one of four managers to have won the Englis ...

, Forest went on to win the First Division title and

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

in 1978 with Woodcock winning the

PFA Young Player of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year (often called the PFA Young Player of the Year, or simply the Young Player of the Year) is an annual award given to the young player who is adjudged to have been the best of the s ...

award that year as well, and the

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

. He also scored in Forest's victory over Southampton in the

1979 Football League Cup Final The 1979 Football League Cup Final took place on 17 March 1979 at Wembley Stadium. It was the nineteenth Football League Cup final and the thirteenth to be played at Wembley. It was contested between Nottingham Forest and Southampton. Forest were ...

Move to the Bundesliga

Woodcock was signed by

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

side

for a fee of £600,000 (), in time for the 1979–80 season. He spent three seasons there. He scored 28 goals in 81 matches for the

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

club.

Arsenal

He returned home after the 1982 World Cup, signing for

Terry Neill William John Terence Neill (8 May 1942 – 28 July 2022) was a Northern Irish football player and manager. A centre-back, he captained and later managed Arsenal, guiding the club to a European final in 1980 and three consecutive FA Cup final ...

for £500,000. Woodcock was Arsenal's top scorer for the next three seasons, his best tally being 21 in 1983–84; he hit five in a single game 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 ...

, a post-

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

record for the club, he also scored the final goal in the last

British Home Championship The British Home Championship * sco, Hame Internaitional Kemp * gd, Farpais lìg eadar-nàiseanta * cy, Pencampwriaeth y Pedair Gwlad, name=lang (historically known as the British International Championship or simply the International Champio ...

. He helped Arsenal reach the semi-finals of both domestic cups in his first season, and remained in favour with new manager

Don Howe Donald Howe (12 October 1935 – 23 December 2015) was an English football player, coach, manager and pundit. As a right back Howe featured for clubs West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal together with the England national football team in his play ...

, who was appointed in December 1983 following the dismissal of Terry Neill after a dismal first half of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. He also contributed to a strong start to the 1984–85 season for the Gunners, which saw them top the league in the autumn of 1984. However, he suffered a serious injury in March 1985, which disrupted his career. With the arrival of

George Graham George Graham (born 30 November 1944), nicknamed "Stroller", is a Scottish former Association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. In his successful playing career, he made 455 appearances in England's Football ...

as Arsenal manager in May 1986, the 30-year-old Woodcock was told he was surplus to requirements. In all, Woodcock scored 68 goals in 169 matches for the Gunners.

Return to Germany

Woodcock then returned to 1. FC Köln for a fee of "about £200,000". During his second spell there, he made 49 appearances and scored 11 goals. He finished his career playing for

Fortuna Köln Fortuna ( la, Fortūna, equivalent to the Greek goddess Tyche) is the goddess of fortune and the personification of luck in Roman religion who, largely thanks to the Late Antique author Boethius, remained popular through the Middle Ages until a ...

, making 37 appearances and scoring five goals, before retiring from playing in 1990.

International career

England U21

Woodcock made two appearances for the England U21s, scoring five goals; two of which came against Italy U21.

Senior side

Woodcock was first called up to the full England squad for the match against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

. He made his début for

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1978 against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. He would go on to win 42 caps for his country (scoring 16 goals), and play in the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

. He also played in the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

qualifiers but was left out of the final squad.

Honours

Nottingham Forest *

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 ...

: 1977–78 *

: 1977–78, 1978–79 *

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier Le ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

: 1978–79 Individual *Nottingham Forest Player of the Year: 1977 *

: 1977–78 *

Arsenal Player of the Season The Arsenal Player of the Season award is an official award given by Arsenal Football Club to the best performing player from the club over the course of the season. The award is given based on votes by Arsenal fans on the club's website, it wa ...

: 1982−83 *Arsenal Top Scorer: 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woodcock, Tony 1955 births Living people 1982 FIFA World Cup players Arsenal F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Eintracht Frankfurt non-playing staff England B international footballers England international footballers England under-21 international footballers English footballers English expatriate footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Germany Bundesliga players Association football forwards 1. FC Köln players SC Fortuna Köln players Lincoln City F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players People from Eastwood, Nottinghamshire Footballers from Nottinghamshire English Football League players UEFA Euro 1980 players Eastwood Town F.C. players 1. FC Lokomotive Leipzig managers SC Fortuna Köln managers English football managers