Mark Kendall (20 September 1958 – 1 May 2008) was a Welsh

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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He represented his country at schoolboy, youth and Under-21 level.

Career

Kendall, a

, joined

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 ...

as an apprentice in March 1975, aged 16. He signed professional forms in July 1976, and went on to make his league debut on 4 November 1978 in a 2–2 draw at

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

. However, although he spent four seasons with Spurs, he never managed to make the goalkeeper's position his own. His final full season on the club's books saw him spend a nine-game loan period, during which he saved penalties from

Steve Neville Steve Neville (born 18 September 1957) is an English former professional footballer. He is assistant coach at Sorrento FC in Perth, Western Australia. In his 14-season career in the English Football League, he played in 494 games, in which he sco ...

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

and Mark Smith of

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

, at Division 3 Chesterfield, returning to Tottenham after Barry Daines was injured during an FA Cup-tie against Manchester United. He signed for Newport County then of Division 3 for a club record £45,000 in September 1980 during the most successful period in the club's long history. Kendall was part of the team that won promotion and the

Welsh Cup The FAW Welsh Cup ( cy, Cwpan Cymdeithas Pêl-droed Cymru), currently known as the JD Welsh Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out football competition contested annually by teams in the Welsh football league system. It is considered the mos ...

and in the subsequent season reached the quarter-final of the 1981

European Cup Winners Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourna ...

. He left Newport as they headed for relegation to Division 4, for

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

in January 1986. Upon joining, Wolves were languishing in the fourth tier, but Kendall became an ever-present part of the side that went on to win back-to-back promotions and lift the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

. His tally of 28 clean sheets during a season (set in 1987/88) is a club record. The goalkeeper returned to his native Wales after 4 years at Molineux, joining Swansea City in Summer 1990. He won a second

of his career, but was largely only a back-up goalkeeper during his time with the ''Swans''. He played in the European Cup Winners Cup tie against

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

in 1991 when the rules stated that teams could only field 3 foreigners and Swansea had to find 12 Welshmen among their players, the second leg ending in a 0–8 defeat. His two seasons with the club saw him play 12 league games, a spell which also saw him loaned out to

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...

to gain playing time. However, after keeping a clean sheet in his first appearance for the ''Clarets'', he conceded 5 (at Blackpool) in his second which saw his loan ended.

Post football

Kendall retired from professional football aged 34 and became a police officer in the Gwent constabulary. He moved into training in 2003 and was named national police trainer of the year in 2007. He came out of playing retirement in 2000 though, and made a further

Welsh Premier League The Cymru Premier, known as the JD Cymru Premier for sponsorship reasons, is the national football league of Wales. It has both professional and semi-professional status clubs and is at the top of the Welsh football league system. Prior to 20 ...

appearance as he played for

Cwmbran Cwmbran ( ; cy, Cwmbrân , also in use as an alternative spelling in English) is a town in the county borough of Torfaen in South Wales. Lying within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, Cwmbran was designated as a New Town in 1949 to prov ...

against Barry Town, who fielded his son Lee Kendall in goal. On 1 May 2008, Kendall collapsed and died at his home, aged 49.Marl Kendall death
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References

External links

Obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kendall, Mark 1958 births 2008 deaths People from Blackwood, Caerphilly Sportspeople from Caerphilly County Borough Welsh footballers Wales men's youth international footballers Wales men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Newport County A.F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players Burnley F.C. players English Football League players Ebbw Vale F.C. players Cwmbrân Town A.F.C. players