Allan Clarke (footballer)

Allan Clarke (born Short Heath, Derbyshire, 31st July 1946) was one of English football's greatest goalscorers who shot to fame in the much-admired and feared Leeds United team of the 1970s.

Clarke started his career at Walsall and made his debut aged 16, then moved to Fulham. Such was his early promise that Leicester City then paid 150,000 pounds for Clarke in 1968 when he had yet to play at the highest level.

He spent just one season at Leicester, culminating in an appearance in the 1969 FA Cup final which Leicester lost to Manchester City. Weeks later, he was on his way to Leeds when Don Revie offered 165,000 pounds to Leicester, and so began one of the deadliest goalscoring careers in English football.

Clarke scored 26 goals in his first season (and earned the predatory nickname "Sniffer", which stuck throughout his career) as Leeds chased a dream "treble" of League championship, FA Cup and European Cup though ultimately they won nothing. Clarke hit the post in the FA Cup final at Wembley (with strike partner Mick Jones following up to score the rebound) and then went on a mazy run through several Chelsea defenders in the replay to set up a goal for Jones again, but Leeds still lost. The title had already gone to Everton on the last day of the season, and the European Cup campaign ended with defeat to Celtic in the semi-final.

The summer of 1970 gave Clarke an opportunity to take some consolation from an eventful but ultimately fruitless club season - he was called up for England's 1970 World Cup squad in Mexico, despite being uncapped, and made his debut for his country (and scored) against Czechoslovakia in the heat and pressure of a World Cup first round match, something which would be unheard of today.

Clarke became an England regular thereafter and was in the Leeds side which won its second Fairs Cup in 1971 - scoring in the final against Juventus - while again missing out on the League championship in the last week of the season and losing to lowly Colchester United in the fifth round of the FA Cup. But in 1972, his place in Leeds folklore would arrive.

Leeds reached the FA Cup final again in the competition's centenary year and at Wembley they would face Arsenal, who were the Cup holders and had also denied Leeds the title the previous year. In a tight and largely unexciting game, Clarke threw himself at a Jones cross midway through the second half, and the diving header nestled into the corner of the net. Leeds won 1-0 and Clarke finally had a winners' medal to go with his two for finishing runner-up. Naturally for Leeds, there still had to be some sourness to temper the sweet, and they lost the League title and the chance of emulating Arsenal's "double" when they lost to Wolves three days after winning the Cup.

Clarke played again at Wembley - and lost - when Leeds were surprisingly beaten 1-0 by Sunderland in the 1973 FA Cup final. Later that year, he was in the England team which needed to beat Poland at Wembley to qualify for the 1974 World Cup. A goal down, England were awarded a penalty from which Clarke coolly scored, but he was among many England players thwarted by the charmed and brilliant Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski. A 1-1 draw was not enough and England did not go to the World Cup.

Clarke was again Leeds' top scorer as he finally earned a title medal in 1974 as Leeds sauntered to the crown on a record run of 29 opening matches without defeat. The following year he won his 19th and final England cap - he scored a healthy ten goals during his internationla career - and helped Leeds to the European Cup final.

Leeds lost the match to Bayern Munich 2-0 and were denied a clear penalty when Clarke was hacked down by Franz Beckenbauer in the penalty area. This was the last time the great 1960s and 1970s Leeds generation would be in contention for an honour in the game. The Revie side started to break up - their manager had left in 1974 for the England job - and Clarke himself left the club in 1978 after 351 appearances and 151 goals.

He went to Barnsley as player manager and under him they won promotion in 1980, an impressive enough achievement for Leeds to ask their most famous goalscorer to come back as manager. This proved a bad move, as sadly, Clarke also became remembered by Leeds fans as the man who took the club to relegation in 1982.

Clarke has pursued business interests in recent years though has remained an outspoken critic of the game, and like all the Leeds players of the Revie era, has remained fiercely protective of the reputation of both the manager and the club.sv:Allan Clarke (fotbollsspelare)