John Farmer (born 31 August 1947) is an English 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 ...

who played in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

for

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

and

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

Career

Farmer was a product of Stoke City's youth system after being found playing amateur football in his local town of

Biddulph Biddulph is a town in Staffordshire, England, north of Stoke-on-Trent and south-east of Congleton, Cheshire. Origin of the name Biddulph's name may come from Anglo-Saxon/Old English ''bī dylfe'' = "beside the pit or quarry". It may also ...

. He broke into the first team in 1966 at the age of eighteen and is therefore one of the youngest keepers ever to play for the club. He initially began to play regularly for Stoke but when Farmer was 20 years old manager

Tony Waddington Anthony Waddington (9 November 1924 – 21 January 1994) was an English football manager at both Crewe Alexandra and Stoke City. Waddington had a seven-year playing career with Crewe Alexandra before becoming a coach at Stoke City. He progress ...

signed England world cup winner

Gordon Banks Gordon Banks (30 December 1937 – 12 February 2019) was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he made 679 appearances during a 20-year professional caree ...

and Farmer lost his place as number one. He however resisted the chances to switch clubs and remained loyal to Stoke providing useful back-up to Banks. Farmer reclaimed his starting spot in 1972–73 as Banks was involved in a car crash which left him blind in one eye and as a result had to retire from playing top flight football. He played regularly for three seasons until another England 'keeper,

Peter Shilton Peter Leslie Shilton (born 18 September 1949) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. His 30-year career included spells at 11 clubs and he has the distinction of playing over 1,000 league games, including in ...

joined Stoke in November 1974 for a then world record fee for a goalkeeper of £325,000. Farmer then joined the club that Shilton had come from,

, and played twice for the "Foxes" before returning to Stoke. He left Stoke at the end of the 1974–75 and went on to play for

Northwich Victoria {{Infobox UK place , static_image_name = Northwich - Town Bridge.jpg , static_image_caption = Town Bridge, the River Weaver and the spire of Holy Trinity Church , official_name = Northwich , country ...

Career statistics

Source:

Honours

; Stoke City *

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 ...

winner:

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Farmer, John English footballers England under-23 international footballers Stoke City F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players English Football League players 1947 births Living people Cleveland Stokers players Northwich Victoria F.C. players People from Biddulph United Soccer Association players Association football goalkeepers English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States English expatriate footballers