Bedford Alfred George Jezzard (19 October 1927 – 21 May 2005) 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 ...

. Jezzard's teenage years coincided with 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 ...

, and he began football as an amateur with Croxley Boys and later

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

, for whom he made three

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 ...

appearances. Upon the resumption of peacetime football, Jezzard spent his entire professional career as a striker at Fulham, during the 1940s and 1950s. He holds the club's post-war record for league goals scored in a season – 39 in 1953–54. His Fulham career lasted only from 1948 to 1957, due to an irreversible injury. During his time at Fulham, he was picked for the London XI in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. He won two

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 ...

caps in 1954–55 and three England B caps, scoring six goals making him the England B all-time top scorer. Jezzard later managed Fulham from 1958 until 1964, taking them back into the First Division. He became discontented with the changes in football culture in the mid-1960s – essentially the abolition of the maximum wage (through teammates

Jimmy Hill James William Thomas Hill, OBE (22 July 1928 – 19 December 2015) was an English footballer and later a television personality. His career included almost every role in the sport, including player, trade union leader, coach, manager, director ...

and

Johnny Haynes John Norman Haynes (17 October 1934 – 18 October 2005) was an English association footballer who played as an inside forward. He made 56 appearances for his country including 22 as captain. He was selected for three World Cup finals squads ...

), which led to the concentration of power in the hands of the richer clubs – and retired to run a pub. He died in May 2005 at the age of 77, and had been ill with multi-infarct dementia for some time before his death.

References

External links

England profile (may become incorrect)
1927 births 2005 deaths People from Clerkenwell England international footballers English football managers English footballers 1954 FIFA World Cup players Fulham F.C. managers Fulham F.C. players England B international footballers English Football League players Watford F.C. players London XI players English Football League representative players Association football forwards {{England-footy-forward-1920s-stub