Leigh Roose
'Prince of goalkeepers', a playboy off the field and a WWI hero.
- Born:
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1878
- Place of Birth:
- Holt, near Wrexham
- Trivia:
- There are no shortage of stories about this colourful character. Apparently, Leigh Roose insisted on wearing the same undershirt for every game (an old black-and-green Aberystwyth top) which was never washed for fear of bad luck!
In 1905, when the Daily Mail published a world XI to play another planet at football, Roose was the choice for the goalkeeper's jersey. Whilst working at a hospital in London one match day, he missed his train. He hired a special train and handed the bill to his football club - Stoke City!
- Biography:
-
Leigh Richmond Roose has become an unsung hero of British football, but in his own lifetime he was famous as a glamorous, playboy goalkeeper!
Roose was originally a medical student at Aberystwyth University, but he failed to qualify. Instead, he became an amateur goalkeeper, who won a total of 24 Welsh caps. One of Roose's best friends was another famous local footballer, Billy Meredith, who described Roose as the 'prince of goalkeepers'. He played for a number of British football teams, including Stoke City, Sunderland and Celtic. He famously caused a stir playing as a guest for Port Vale in a reserves game against his former club, Stoke, in 1910. Roose insisted on playing in his old Stoke City shirt! He then went on to win Man-of-the-Match. The game apparently ended in a riot. Roose played in a historic match between Wales and Ireland at the Racecourse Ground in Wrexham on April 2, 1906. The game was captured for posterity by the film pioneers, Mitchell and Kenyon, in the first surviving film of an international football game. Roose died in the trenches on the Somme during World War One. He had been awarded a Military Medal for bravery during one incident after he threw hand grenades to help thwart a German counterattack. His biography, Lost in France, has been written by top sportswriter, Spencer Vignes.
- Stats:
- International Stats: 24 Welsh caps
Position: Goalkeeper
- Moment of Glory:
- As a Sunderland player, beating Newcastle 9-1.
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