Alfred John Kirchen (26 August 1913 – 18 August 1999) was an English footballer. Born in Shouldham,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, Kirchen played for local clubs, and for his county at youth level. He was signed by Tom Parker, the manager of

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

in 1934 and he immediately impressed, scoring seven goals in fourteen League games, and three in four

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

games for the Canaries. He soon caught the eye of First Division champions Arsenal, and was signed for £6,000 in March 1935, at the age of 21. Kirchen arrived too late at Arsenal to pick up a League winner's medal (the club completed a hat-trick of titles that year), but he still made an immediate impact, scoring twice on his debut against Arsenal's arch-rivals

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

on 6 March 1935 – the match finished 6–0 to Arsenal, a record in a

North London derby The North London derby is the meeting of the association football clubs Arsenal F.C. and Tottenham Hotspur F.C., both of which are based in North London, England. Fans of both clubs consider the other to be their main rivals, and the derby is co ...

. An

outside right Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

, Kirchen had to fight for a first-team spot with Joe Hulme (who started the 1936 FA Cup Final ahead of him), but by the start of the 1936–37 season, Kirchen was the Gunners' first-choice outside right. Kirchen became well known for his fierce shooting; unusually fast and immensely powerful, he was equally at home on either wing, for he could hit a ball left or right-footed, with equal facility, which soon attracted international attention; he picked up 3 caps and scored 2 goals 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 ...

on a 1937 tour of

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

, his debut coming against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

on 14 May 1937, and his final match being against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

on 20 May of the same year. Despite these performances however, he was never picked again. He finally picked up a League winners' medal as Arsenal won the 1937–38 title, playing nineteen games that season, but the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

intervened just as he was reaching the peak of his career. Kirchen served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

as a PT instructor, which allowed him to continue playing wartime matches for Arsenal (he appeared 113 times, scoring 80 goals, as well as three more times for England), but a severe injury picked up in a match against

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

in 1943 forced his early retirement. In all, excluding wartime appearances, he played 101 League and Cup professional games for Arsenal, scoring 45 goals (total: 214 appearances and 125 goals). Kirchen later returned to his old club Norwich City, as a trainer, before leaving football to become a

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer m ...

at Cringleford in

. He later returned to Norwich as a director of the club, and also served as Honorary President of th
Norfolk Arsenal Supporters Club
He also represented his country at clay pigeon shooting and was a keen player of

lawn bowls Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...

. He died in 1999, eight days short of what would have been his 86th birthday.

Honours

* First Division: 1937–38 * FA Charity Shield: 1938

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kirchen, Alf 1913 births People from King's Lynn and West Norfolk (district) 1999 deaths English footballers England international footballers England wartime international footballers Association football wingers Norwich City F.C. players Arsenal F.C. players Royal Air Force Physical Training instructors Royal Air Force personnel of World War II