Trevor Ford ― The Authorised Biography

Welsh football legend Trevor Ford was not your typical football player from the forties and fifties. In a era where football club owners held all the cards, and were more than happy with the ￡20 a week maximum wage given to the games stars, Ford was a man who knew his own worth and challenged the status quo in the game. A fearsome centre-forward loved by the fans he played for and a villain to the opposition, he filled stadiums and ruffled a few feathers on and off the pitch.

Born in Swansea in 1923, Ford played for Swansea Town, Aston Villa spent three seasons as Aston Villa’s top scorer, and in a debut for Sunderland against Sheffield Wednesday scored a hat-trick, broke the opposing centre-half’s jaw, charged the Wednesday keeper into the net and broke a goalpost. His time will forever be remembered for his falling out with team-mate and England legend Len Shackleton, who it is claimed would deliberately put spin on a pass so Trevor could not control it.

Ford returned to his native Wales in 1953 and joined Cardiff City, where he was banned from the game for two years after admitting he received illegal payments while at Sunderland. Ford left the Welsh capital in 1957 after more run-ins with Cardiff manager Trevor Morris. He joined PSV Eindhoven in Holland as his two-year ban from the British game kicked in, and this may have led to Ford not being picked for the Welsh World Cup squad of 1958. His career tally was 175 goals in 349 games; he also scored 23 goals for Wales in 38 appearances making him Wales’s second highest goal scorer of all time. As a keen cricketer, he regularly turned out for Glamorgan in his footballing days.