Earl Mark Sean Stein (born 29 January 1966) is a South African former 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 ...

and physiotherapist. As a player, he was a striker from 1984 until 2004, notably in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

for

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

and the Football League for

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alder ...

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 ...

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and t ...

, Stoke City,

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

and AFC Bournemouth before finishing his career in Non-league with Dagenham & Redbridge and

Waltham Forest The London Borough of Waltham Forest () is a London borough in north-east London, England. Its population is estimated to be 276,983 in 2019. It borders five other London boroughs: Enfield to the north-west, Haringey to the west, Hackney to t ...

. Following his retirement, Stein became a sports physiotherapist and has held the role of first team physio at Barnet,

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team com ...

and

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

Playing career

Stein was born in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

and moved with his family to London in the 1970s. Both his brothers

Brian Brian (sometimes spelled Bryan in English) is a male given name of Irish and Breton origin, as well as a surname of Occitan origin. It is common in the English-speaking world. It is possible that the name is derived from an Old Celtic word me ...

and

Edwin The name Edwin means "rich friend". It comes from the Old English elements "ead" (rich, blessed) and "ƿine" (friend). The original Anglo-Saxon form is Eadƿine, which is also found for Anglo-Saxon figures. People * Edwin of Northumbria (die ...

plus Mark decided to become professional footballers, Mark joining

in 1983. He turned professional in January 1984 and earned three caps with the England under-19 team but he was unable to live up to the heights expected of him at

Kenilworth Road Kenilworth Road is an association football stadium in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. It has been the home ground of Luton Town Football Club since 1905. The stadium has also hosted women's and youth international matches, including the second ...

and had a short loan spell at

. In 1987–88, he helped Luton win their first – and only to date – major trophy as they achieved a shock 3–2 over Arsenal in the Football League Cup final, with Stein coming on as a substitute in the final. In June 1988 he moved on to

where he spent the 1988–89 season scoring seven goals in 42 appearances. He signed for

in September 1989 after failing out of favour at

Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...

. After two seasons with Oxford Stein found himself out of the side and playing in the reserves. He joined Stoke City on loan in September 1991 and played five matches without scoring. But he impressed manager

Lou Macari Luigi Macari (born 7 June 1949) is a Scottish former footballer and manager. He began his playing career at Celtic where he was one of the Quality Street Gang, the outstanding reserve team that emerged in the late 1960s that also included Ken ...

with his contribution so much that he persuaded the board to pay £100,000 for his services. It proved to be a sound piece of business as Stein went on a fine run, scoring 22 goals in 1991–92 helping Stoke reach the play-offs where they lost to

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they were renamed Stockport Co ...

although they did beat County in the

1992 Football League Trophy Final The 1992 Associate Members' Cup Final, known as the Autoglass Trophy for sponsorship reasons, was the 9th final of the domestic football cup competition for teams from the Third Division and Fourth Division. The final was played at Wembley Sta ...

with Stein scoring the game's only goal. Stoke fans named Stein "The Golden One" and he went on to top-score in

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

as Stoke won the Second Division title, Stein scoring 33 goals in 57 matches. In 1993–94 Stein hit the headlines after scoring twice past Manchester United in the League Cup. After Macari moved to Celtic Stein also left the

Victoria Ground The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League. History ...

moving to

for a fee of £1.5 million. Whilst at Chelsea, Stein set a Premier League record by scoring in seven consecutive matches from December 1993 to February 1994. The record stood until 2002, when

Ruud van Nistelrooy Rutgerus Johannes Martinus van Nistelrooij (anglicised to Van Nistelrooy; born 1 July 1976) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player. He is currently the coach of PSV Eindhoven. A former footballer, Van Nistelrooy is often consi ...

surpassed it. Stein also played in the

1994 FA Cup Final The 1994 FA Cup Final was an association football match that took place on 14 May 1994 at Wembley Stadium in London to determine the winner of the 1993–94 FA Cup. It was contested between Chelsea and Manchester United. Four goals in the sec ...

and, in total, he scored 25 goals in 63 games for the West London club, but by the 1996–97 season had lost his place in the first team due to the arrival of new strikers

Mark Hughes Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is the manager of Bradford City. During his playing career he usually operated as a forward or midfielder. He had two spells at Manchester United, an ...

, Gianluca Vialli and

Gianfranco Zola Gianfranco Zola (; born 5 July 1966) is an Italian football manager and former footballer who played predominantly as a forward. He was most recently the assistant manager of Chelsea. He spent the first decade of his playing career playing i ...

. He returned to Stoke on a short-term loan, scoring four goals in 11 games in 1996–97, the club's final season at the

. He finally left Chelsea in the summer of 1998 when he signed for AFC Bournemouth after a loan spell. His spell at Dagenham & Redbridge, in the Conference from 2001 to 2003, was notable for its ending, as Stein resigned over the club's refusal to investigate allegations of racist comments made by Daggers manager

Garry Hill Garry Hill is an English football manager who was last the manager of National League club Ebbsfleet United. He previously managed Woking, Heybridge Swifts, St Albans City, Dagenham & Redbridge, Hornchurch, Weymouth and Rushden & Diamond ...

against Fitzroy Simpson. Mark cited his father's work as a South African anti-apartheid activist as inspiration for this; "My Dad was a political activist who fought against racism in South Africa all his life. So why should I have to put up with it here?" Stein ended his career playing for

Isthmian League Division One North The Isthmian League () is a regional men's football league covering Greater London, East and South East England, featuring mostly semi-professional clubs. Founded in 1905 by amateur clubs in the London area, the league now consists of 82 teams ...

club

, scoring three goals in seven appearances in the 2003–04 season.

Physiotherapist

On 28 June 2007 he was appointed as the new physiotherapist at Barnet after taking on a temporary role at the end of the 2006–07 season. On 22 September 2010, he took up a full-time role as physiotherapist at

Personal life

He is the younger brother of former

striker Brian Stein; another brother, Ed Stein, played for Barnet. The Stein brothers were born in South Africa, and arrived in the United Kingdom in 1968 when their father Isaiah Stein, an activist with the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

and former boxer, fled the country to escape police persecution and torture for his political activities. Isaiah continued his activism in Britain, serving as a member of the

South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

. On 12 July 2008 he played for the England XI in the Gordon Banks Charity Match at the

Britannia Stadium The Bet365 Stadium (stylised as ''bet365 Stadium'') is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Britannia Stadium but was ...

Career statistics

Honours

Luton Town * Football League Cup: 1987–88 Stoke City *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third t ...

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 ...

: 1991–92 Individual * Second Division PFA Team of the Year:

, 1998–99 * Stoke City Player of the Year:

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

top scorer: 2001–02Glenda Rollin and Jack Rollin (eds.), ''Rothmans Football Yearbook 2002–2003''. Headline, 2002. * Stoke City Greatest All-Time XI

References

External links

Profile at www.sporting-heroes.net
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Mark 1966 births Living people AFC Bournemouth players Chelsea F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. players Aldershot F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players English footballers Association football forwards Association football physiotherapists Barnet F.C. non-playing staff National League (English football) players FA Cup Final players