Raymond Victor "Vic" Rouse (born 16 March 1936) is a Welsh 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 ...

and coach. Rouse played at both professional and international levels as a goalkeeper, before becoming a football manager.

Career

Playing career

Born in

Swansea Swansea (; cy, Abertawe ) is a coastal city and the second-largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Swansea ( cy, links=no, Dinas a Sir Abertawe). The city is the twenty-fifth largest in ...

, Rouse played in the English Football League for Crystal Palace,

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

and Leyton Orient. He was also a player with Millwall (as an amateur) and Northampton Town without making a League appearance for either club. Rouse later played in 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 ...

for the

Atlanta Chiefs The Atlanta Chiefs were an American professional soccer team based in Atlanta, Georgia. The team competed in the National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) in 1967 and the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1968 to 1973 and again from 19 ...

. Rouse earned one cap at full international level for Wales. Rouse became the first ever international player from the old Fourth Division when he appeared in 1959.

Coaching career

Rouse was player-manager of the Chiefs between 1969 and 1972. After retiring as a player in 1972, he returned to England to become manager of

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

. He was still managing Metropolitan Police as of 1982.

References

1936 births Living people Welsh footballers Wales international footballers Wales under-23 international footballers Welsh football managers Millwall F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Atlanta Chiefs players English Football League players National Professional Soccer League (1967) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Association football goalkeepers Atlanta Chiefs coaches Metropolitan Police F.C. managers Welsh expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Welsh expatriate footballers {{Wales-footy-goalkeeper-stub