Michael David Stringfellow (born 27 January 1943 in

Kirkby-in-Ashfield Kirkby-in-Ashfield is a market town in the Ashfield District of Nottinghamshire, England. With a population of 25,265 (according to the 2001 National Census), it is a part of the wider Mansfield Urban Area. The Head Offices of Ashfield Distr ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

) is an English retired

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 14 seasons as a winger 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 ...

in the 1960s and 1970s. He is the uncle of fellow footballer Ian Stringfellow. Stringfellow began his career at

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they play in a blue and ...

whom he joined as a schoolboy in 1957. He was a star in Mansfield's youth team, and signed a professional contract in February 1960, shortly after his 17th birthday. He made his first-team debut six months later, playing as an outside-left in the game against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

on 30 August 1960. Despite his young age, Stringfellow remained a regular in the Mansfield Town side, and scored 12 goals in 65 appearances for the Stags, before moving to Leicester City for £25,000 in January 1962 – the highest transfer fee ever paid for an 18-year-old at the time. By his second season at

Filbert Street Filbert Street was a football stadium in Leicester, England, which served as the home of Leicester City F.C. from 1891 until 2002. Although officially titled the City Business Stadium in the early 1990s, it remained known almost exclusively by ...

, Stringfellow was a regular in the Leicester side. He was a member of the Leicester side that lost against Manchester United in the

1963 FA Cup Final The 1963 FA Cup Final was the final of the 1962–63 FA Cup, the 82nd season of England's premier club football competition. The match was played at Wembley Stadium (which was fully roofed for the first time) on 25 May 1963 and contested by Manc ...

, and scored one of the goals when the Foxes won 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 ...

the following season with a 4–3 aggregate win against Stoke City. In 1968, Stringfellow's career was curtailed by a serious cartilage injury. Nevertheless, he remained on Leicester's books, mostly in a reserve role, until 1975 when he quit the professional game and finished his career with non-league Nuneaton Borough. In all competitions, Stringfellow played 377 games for Leicester and scored 98 goals.*(Subscription required) After his retirement from football, Stringfellow settled in Enderby, Leicestershire, where he worked as a newsagent.

References

1943 births Living people English footballers Mansfield Town F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Nuneaton Borough F.C. players People from Kirkby-in-Ashfield Footballers from Nottinghamshire Association football midfielders People from Enderby, Leicestershire Footballers from Leicestershire FA Cup Final players {{England-footy-midfielder-1940s-stub