Joseph Bradford (22 January 1901 – 6 September 1980) was an English professional

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 ...

who played as a centre forward. Born in Peggs Green, near

Coalville Coalville is an industrial town in the district of North West Leicestershire, Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England, with a population at the 2011 census of 34,575. It lies on the A511 trunk road between Leicester and Burton upon Tr ...

, Leicestershire, Bradford made nearly 450 appearances for

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

in all competitions, scoring 267 goals. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

12 times 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 ...

, scoring seven goals, and played five times for a representative Football League XI. He is Birmingham's all-time leading goalscorer. He topped the club's scoring charts in all but one First Division season between 1921–22 and 1932–33, and if goals in all competitions are counted, he was top scorer in all twelve of those seasons. Bradford also scored Birmingham's only goal of the

1931 FA Cup Final The 1931 FA Cup Final was a football match between West Bromwich Albion and Birmingham, played on 25 April 1931 at the original Wembley Stadium in London. The showpiece event was the final match of the 1930–31 staging of English football's pri ...

, in which they were beaten by

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

. He died in

aged 79.

Honours

Birmingham *

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 ...

finalist:

1930–31 Year 193 ( CXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sosius and Ericius (or, less frequently, year 946 ''Ab urbe condit ...

References

1901 births 1980 deaths People from Coalville English footballers England international footballers Association football forwards Coalville Town F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players English Football League players English Football League representative players People from North West Leicestershire District Footballers from Leicestershire FA Cup Final players {{England-footy-forward-1900s-stub