A very happy birthday wishes to former Sky Blue striker Bob Latchford, who turns 73 today!
Bob, who spent 11 consecutive seasons in top flight football from 1972 to 1983, was the best He scored more league goals than any player in the First Division and became a legend in England’s two metropolitan areas.
Born Brummie (18 January 1951), Bob started his career with his hometown club in 1968 and moved to Everton in 1974.
At both clubs he developed a reputation as a prolific shooter (for example, scoring 30 goals in the 1977/78 season), and with the Toffees he won 12 caps for England (5 goals).
Bob Latchford in Sky Blue Action Then CCFC gaffer (now our member) ‘Cov Kid’, former Sky Blue player Bobby Gould, joined Swansea in the summer of 1984.
We signed Bob (33 years old) from Town.
He was clearly onto something.
His acumen in front of goal was gone, but he made just two appearances in 14 first-team games with the Sky Blues, before being replaced by the firepower of big Cyril Regis (who was also a CCFPA member until his untimely death).
He scored a goal.
Bob scored his first goal for City in the 53rd minute in the third leg of the 1984/85 season at home against Leicester City.
His other goal came late in the season, in a 6–2 loss to Chelsea in early November.
He was sold to Lincoln City in the summer of 1985 and finished his professional career with Newport County and Merthyr Tydfil in Wales and Hamrun Spartans in Malta, retiring around 1987.
Although he currently lives in Germany with his family, he works regularly, returns home to speak on after-dinner panels, and writes a regular column on Everton’s independent website.
He is said to have written.
In 2016, he published a rather modest biography called A Different Road, in which he completely described his year with the Sky Blues, led by ‘Cov Kid’ Bobby Gould (now a CCFPA member).
He revealed that he was not happy.
Bob’s two brothers, Dave and Peter (both goalkeepers) also made it to the top professional leagues, and Bob is probably the only one to score twice against one of them (1974).
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Bob Latchford’s Strike Today’s “Many Happy Returns”, Bob!
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