Francis Lee

Francis Henry Lee ( born April 29, 1944 in Westhoughton ) is a former English football player and 27 -fold for national team of his country. After the active time as a footballer Lee was also in the 1990s, President at his longtime club Manchester City.

Sports career

The Bolton Wanderers rejected Lee's projects from first, which meant that Lee went on strike at the start of the 1967/68 season. A few weeks later relented and allowed the club's management Lee in October for a transfer fee of £ 60,000 to Manchester City switch. There he found a fast and formed under coach Joe Mercer a very successful storm Trio with Colin Bell and Mike Summerbee. Behind Neil Young Bell was 16 goals still the second- leading scorer and shot in a 4-3 win at Newcastle United on the final day of the decisive seventh goal, which Manchester City won the championship with two points ahead of local rivals Manchester United.

The subsequent season Lee sat with two goals in a 6-1 victory in the Charity Shield against West Bromwich Albion with a good form continued and he was first used in the match against Bulgaria in November 1968 in the England team. At the end of the season Lee won with Manchester City to a 1-0 playoff victory against Leicester City in the FA Cup Wembley Stadium.

Only a year later, he expanded his trophy and won next to his first League Cup ( against West Bromwich Albion in the final ) after victories against Athletic Bilbao and FC Schalke 04 the European Cup Winners' Cup, and in the Vienna final Gornik Zabrze 2-1 was defeated. Lee shot it with a penalty goal to make it 2-0. Subsequently, Lee was appointed to the squad for the 1970 World Cup in Mexico and there also used in three of the four games. He was part of the team that defeated 2:3 after extra time, the team from Germany in the quarterfinals. In this game, Lee made ​​primarily by a fist blow he dealt the German goalkeeper Sepp Maier, attention.

After a mediocre season and an interim climax, a hat-trick Lees in the 4-1 victory at Old Trafford against Manchester United, Lee could intervene with Manchester City in the 1971/72 season back in the battle for the English championship and closed at the end with only one point distance to the master from Derby County from fourth place. Lee scored 35 goals in the season, which is a club's record to this day ( only Shaun Goater was the 30 - goal mark in the 2001/ 02 season again reach ). At Euro 1972, he failed in England again to the German team, with Lee at the 1-3 first-leg defeat the goal for interim 1:1 marked. In the return game Lee did not play.

The departure of coach Malcolm Allison during the 1972/73 season heralded the end of a successful time of Manchester City and Lee settled down with his club in the middle of the league. Also for the national team came Lee after ten goals in 27 games since 1972 to no more international game and threw himself at the end of the season in 1973/74 with the President Peter Swales, consequently, Lee then went for 100,000 pounds to Derby County.

As in Manchester won Lee with Derby under Dave Mackay in his first season directly the English Championship. He was supported by an above-average middle that stood where players like Bruce Rioch, Archie Gemmill and Henry Newton. In the subsequent season, which should be the last Lees, he could both nationally and internationally to build on the good performance. After last season's game against Ipswich Town, Derby won by Lee after two goals 6-2, Lee resigned from active football.

Lee as club president

In 1993, Lee took over, with the support of followers, after several months of fighting, the president of Manchester City and put his plan to the club to professionalize stronger. Since the club had few financial resources, Lee dismissed several veteran players like Niall Quinn, Garry Flitcroft and Keith Curle. In addition, he installed with Alan Ball a new coach. Despite new players like Giorgi Kinkladse However, the decline of the association could not be prevented and city had, for the first time in its history, after the 1997/98 season to descend to the third tier. Shortly before, Lee had given his resignation and was replaced by David Bernstein.

Others

  • Although Lee was always a good penalty taker for his clubs, he missed his only two penalty kicks for the English national team.
  • Lee had a great fondness for horse racing since his playing days.

Achievements

  • European Cup Winners' Cup: 1970
  • English Championship: 1968, 1975
  • English Cup: 1969
  • English League Cup: 1970
  • Charity Shield: 1968, 1972, 1975
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