John Radford (born 22 February 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 ...

who played for Arsenal,

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 ...

and

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

throughout his career. Radford, who played as a forward, is Arsenal's fourth highest goal scorer of all time.

Club career

Arsenal

John Radford was born in

Hemsworth Hemsworth is a town and civil parish in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire and had a population of 13,311 at the 2001 census, with it increasing to 13,533 at the 2011 Census. Hist ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

to a

butcher A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishm ...

. He joined Arsenal as an apprentice in 1962, turning professional in February 1964. At the club he played mostly as an

inside forward 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 ...

or centre forward and occasionally as a right-winger. He was a prolific goalscorer in the youth and reserve teams, before making his first-team debut against

on 21 March 1964, his only appearance of the 1963-64 season. Radford was used slightly more the next season, playing 15 times, and became Arsenal's youngest ever

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

scorer, against

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly un ...

on 2 January 1965, at the age of 17 years and 315 days, a record that remains to this day. By the start of 1965-66 Radford was an Arsenal regular, and particularly blossomed under the stewardship of

Bertie Mee Bertram Mee OBE (25 December 1918 – 21 October 2001) was an English footballer who played as a winger for Derby County and Mansfield Town. Mee was also a manager, noted for leading Arsenal to their first Double win in 1971. Playing career Bor ...

. Although he had been moved out to the right wing, in the 1968-69 season he scored nineteen goals and reached the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

. During the 1969-70 season he again scored nineteen goals, and helped Arsenal win the

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

Inter-Cities Fairs Cup which was their first trophy in seventeen years. Radford scored the second goal in Arsenal's 3–0 win in the second leg of the final, which they won 4–3 on aggregate. By now, Radford had been moved up front again and continued to score regularly. The following 1970-71 season Radford scored 21, his best single tally in a season, forming a partnership with

Ray Kennedy Raymond Kennedy (28 July 1951 – 30 November 2021) was an English footballer who won every domestic honour in the game with Arsenal and Liverpool in the 1970s and early 1980s. Kennedy played as a forward for Arsenal, and then played as a le ...

that between them recorded 47 goals. With his goals, Radford was an instrumental part of Arsenal's

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 ...

and League Championship

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

-winning side. His assists played an important role too as he set up Kennedy for the winning goal in Arsenal's FA Cup semi-final replay win against Stoke City, and set up both Eddie Kelly and

Charlie George Frederick Charles George (born 10 October 1950) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. George began his career as a youngster with Arsenal and was part of their 1970–71 League and FA Cup Double-winning team ...

for their goals in the

Final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. The following season Arsenal again faced Stoke in the FA Cup semi-final. Bob Wilson had to go off injured and Radford went in goal. He helped Arsenal secure a 1–1 draw and then in the replay he scored the winning goal as Arsenal again got to the

, though this time they lost to

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

. He continued to play for Arsenal through the early 1970s, scoring another 19 goals in 1972-73. However, his goal rate gradually reduced (only achieving single figures in 1973-74 and 1974-75) and he was injured in 1975-76, further restricting his appearances. By now, the partnership of

Malcolm Macdonald Malcolm Ian Macdonald (born 7 January 1950) is an English former professional footballer, manager and media figure. Nicknamed 'Supermac', Macdonald was a quick, powerfully built prolific goalscorer. He played for Fulham, Luton Town, Newcastle ...

and

Frank Stapleton Francis Anthony Stapleton (born 10 July 1956) is an Irish former professional football player and manager. He is best remembered for his time at Arsenal, Manchester United and as a pivotal player for the Republic of Ireland national team. H ...

had become Arsenal's first-choice attacking duo and Radford only played twice in the first four months of 1976-77. In all he played 481 times for Arsenal, scoring 149 goals, which makes him Arsenal's fourth all-time top scorer.

Later career

Unable to stake a place in the side, Radford moved on to

in December 1976 for £80,000. After a year and 28 league appearances and no goals with the Hammers, Radford joined

in 1977. He was moderately successful with the

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 ...

side, scoring ten times in 38 league appearances. He left Rovers in 1978 and then played for

non-league Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to d ...

side Bishop's Stortford, winning the Isthmian League and an FA Trophy with the club. After retiring, he enjoyed several spells as manager of Bishop's Stortford in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Radford worked as a youth coach with

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

as well. He now also gives tours of Arsenal's Emirates Stadium and appears as a football pundit on their TV station:

Arsenal TV Arsenal TV was a sports television channel devoted to coverage of the English football club Arsenal F.C. It was a part of the Setanta Sports package and was similar to other Setanta's other channels Celtic TV, Rangers TV and LFC TV. Arsenal ...

International career

Radford as an

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 ...

youth international, won four caps for the under-23 side. He made his full debut for the Three Lions in a friendly against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

on 15 January 1969. However, he was not a favourite of England manager Sir Alf Ramsey and won only one further cap, against Switzerland on 13 October 1971; Radford scored in neither match.

Personal life

Radford has been married to wife Engel since 1968. Engel, of the Netherlands and John have two sons, Ian and Robert. He became a landlord, running the Greyhound

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

Thaxted Thaxted is a town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of north-west Essex, England. The town is in the valley of the River Chelmer, not far from its source in the nearby village of Debden, and is 97 metres (318 feet) above sea level (whe ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. In 1997, Radford became a grandfather (through Ian) for the first time to a boy named Brandon. In 2001, a granddaughter was born (also by Ian) named Jovi-Lee.

Honours

Player

; Arsenal * First Division: 1970–71 *

: 1970–71 * Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: 1969–70 ; Bishop's Storford * Isthmian League: 1980–81 * FA Trophy: 1980–81

Manager

;Bishop's Stortford *

Isthmian League Cup The Alan Turvey Trophy, formerly the Isthmian League Cup is a football knock-out cup competition organised by the Isthmian League in England. History Isthmian League Chairman and President Alan Turvey was among the FA's "150 Grassroots Heroes" ...

: 1989

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Radford, John 1947 births Living people English footballers England men's international footballers England men's under-23 international footballers Arsenal F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Blackburn Rovers F.C. players People from Hemsworth English Football League players English Football League representative players Bishop's Stortford F.C. players English football managers Bishop's Stortford F.C. managers Men's association football forwards Footballers from Yorkshire FA Cup final players Queens Park Rangers F.C. non-playing staff Association football coaches Arsenal F.C. non-playing staff