John Edward Smith (1914 – 1989), was an English

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 lea ...

who played as full back, and a coach. Smith represented

Millwall F.C. Millwall Football Club () is a professional football club in Bermondsey, South East London, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its nam ...

in the late 1930s, he then coached Benfica from 1948 to 1952 guiding them to their first international trophy.

Career

Born 3 September 1914 in Grays, in the

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

county, Smith football career started at

in 1935, as the ''Lions'' were on Third Division. He was part of the squad that eliminated (2–0)

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

on the quarter-finals of the

1936–37 FA Cup The 1936–37 FA Cup was the 62nd season of the world's oldest football cup competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup. Sunderland won the competition for the first time, beating Preston North End 3–1 in ...

, on 6 March 1937, which would be known as one of the historic ''giant-killings'' in the FA Cup. In the next season, Smith helped the club get promoted to the second tier, playing just one season before the War interruption. He competed a further three years, retiring in 1948, age 33, after amassing over 140 league caps. He immediately started a managerial career, arriving at Benfica in 1948. The club last league title was in 1944–45, and

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

was in the most successful period of their history, winning seven of the eight championships contested from the 1946–47 season to the 1953–54 season, losing only in the 1949–50 season to Smith's Benfica. This was the age of the Cinco Violinos ("Five Violins"). Adding up to the league title, Smith's biggest success was conquering the

Latin Cup The Latin Cup was an international official football tournament for club sides from the Southwest European nations of France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. In 1949, the football federations came together and requested FIFA launch the competition ...

, the predecessor of

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, contested by

Latin European Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area around Rome, Italy. Through the expansion of ...

nations of France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, after defeating

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

Estádio Nacional The Estádio Nacional ', also known as Jamor National Sports Centre (), is a football stadium. It is located in the civil parish of Algés, Linda-a-Velha e Cruz Quebrada-Dafundo, in the municipality of Oeiras, in the southwestern part of Lisb ...

on 18 June 1950. After bagging his second

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

in his third year in charge, his fourth year was more irregular. In December, Smith, resigned for personal problems, changed his mind in March and returned, but only for a month, leaving again in April. His successor, Cândido Tavares won the Taça de Portugal preventing a trophyless season. After Benfica, Smith managed

Workington A.F.C. Workington Association Football Club is an English football club based in Workington, Cumbria, England. The club competes in the Northern Premier League Premier Division, the seventh tier of English football. The club plays its home matches at ...

for one season, and had a short spell at Atletico in the early 1970s.

Managerial statistics

Honours

;Benfica *

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

: 1949–50 *

: 1948–49; 1950–51

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Ted 1914 births 1989 deaths English men's footballers Millwall F.C. players English football managers S.L. Benfica managers Workington A.F.C. managers Men's association football fullbacks Footballers from Grays, Essex English Football League players 20th-century English sportsmen