John Wark

John Wark (* August 4, 1957 in Glasgow, Scotland ) is a former Scottish footballer. The attacking midfielder was best known as part of a young team of Ipswich Town, which celebrated the second half of the 1970s and large at the beginning of the 1980s successes.

Sports career

Wark first went through the youth department of Ipswich Town in 1975 and came to his debut in the first team. In 1978 the coached by Bobby Robson young team won the FA Cup surprise, beating in the final at Wembley the favored Arsenal 1-0, with Wark in the second half, hit the post twice. The following year, 1979, he came to Wales to his first international match for the Scottish national team and was in the course to 1984 to a total of 29 missions, where he scored seven goals.

In the English Championship Wark learned with Ipswich Town an additional performance boost and was able after a third place win in each case the runner-up in 1980 in the two subsequent seasons, where you give yourself while defeated Aston Villa and Liverpool, with only four points behind had. In European football, Ipswich won the 1981 UEFA Cup, defeating in the final the Dutch side AZ Alkmaar to 67 round-trip game with a total of 5-4 gates. Wark had, scoring 14 goals during the competition - including one in the final - and was at the end of the season by his fellow players to England's Footballer of the Year named. In the same year he also still worked in the football film " Victory " by John Huston ( in the German version titles also as an escape or victory known ) with and mimed doing the Scotsman Arthur Hayes.

Wark played initially on for Ipswich, although Robson had taken over the office of the English national team in 1982 and the team it slowly fell apart in the indirect succession. In the same year of Robson took office Wark played for Scotland in the World Cup in Spain, scoring two goals there. In March 1984, he finally left but Ipswich and joined for a fee of 450,000 British pounds in Liverpool, there to replace Graeme Souness, who intended to change during the summer of the same year to Italy.

In Liverpool he acquiesced at once good and came in the final phase of its first season to a sufficient number of applications, in order to secure the medal for the English championship in the 1983/84 season. Now in its second club he joined as a free-scoring attacking midfielder in appearance until he broke his leg early in 1986. Although he thereby missed the decisive phase for winning the ( so far only in the club's history ) Doubles from English Championship and FA Cup, he had again developed a championship medal.

After a long recovery time he fought briefly in the team back and was also a substitute in the 1987 final defeat in the League Cup against Arsenal at a late stage. In the subsequent year coach Kenny Dalglish him transferred for £ 100,000 then back to Ipswich. Despite his serious injury, it had brought in 108 games during his time at Liverpool 42 goals Wark.

Wark spent two good years for his old club, which is now in its second-rate Second Division was. Above all, by his experience and his stamina was a central pillar of the team, only missed two games in two years, scoring another 20 goals. All the more surprising, it was then that he moved to the second division rivals Middlesbrough FC in 1990. There, however, he remained only one year, and returned in August 1991 again back to Ipswich.

Up to end of his career in 1997 - shortly before his 40th birthday - was Wark then at Ipswich Town and thereby acted in the period between 1992 and 1995 for three years in the newly created Premier League. In the autumn of his footballing career, he withdrew into the defensive position of a center-back and was able to extend his playing career due to lower endurance stress. With 531 league games for Ipswich ( and 771 professional games overall ), he thus became one of the most respected personalities in English football.

Achievements

  • UEFA Cup Winners: 1981
  • English Champion: 1984, 1986
  • FA Cup Winners: 1978
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