Ken Green (footballer)

Sports career

Green played football in his youth first with the local team FC Millwall, where he was further registered as an amateur, while in 1943 his war service ableistete in Droitwich. At this time, the managing director of Birmingham City WA Camkin invited him for a trial. Since this was satisfactory, committed the "Blues " Green in November 1943 - according to legend, in the locker room of Villa Park ( home stadium of the city rivals Aston Villa). Since the army, however, immediately stationed him in India, the football career had to wait. When the English league play after the end of hostilities his second season 1947/48 fought out, and Green came to the course for the first time. After he had proved himself in the reserve team, he made his debut on 13 September 1947 in a second division match against Brentford FC (2:1). He quickly conquered a regular place and at the end of his first season was winning the second division championship and the rise associated in the highest English league.

In the first five years, Green has held most of the right side of defense, and then moved to the left, as the emerging Jeff Hall made ​​him the place in dispute. During this time, Dennis Jennings, Jack Badham and Hall were his partners in defense. A special connection he used to be Captain Len Boyd, with whom he had played as a student for London and Essexer selected teams ( after a wedding between members of the two families, they were even relatives ). Characteristic of greens playing style was the high combat readiness and strength in the tackle, the nicknamed " Slasher" brought him. Although he only acted in the second division in 1950 after two years of excellence, he counted on to England's best defensive players. This was particularly expressed in 1954 when he first played twice for the England B team in May and for the month was in the squad of the A- team for the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland. Here he was, however, just as little as same with the rest of his active career.

The next success with Birmingham City in 1955 were the return to the First Division, and a year later the finals in the FA Cup against Manchester City, but was followed by a 1-3 defeat to the. After four Erstligaspielzeiten and twelve years for the "Blues " Green ended in the summer of 1959 his active career. Overall, he had completed 443 duty games in the first team of Birmingham City. After the end of the runway he was only rarely found in football in the context of union meetings and similar occasions. Instead, he ran for many years in Handsworth a newsagent. Resident he was with his wife Hazel in Sutton Coldfield, where he died of a brain tumor even at the age of 77 years in June 2001.