Geoff Thomas

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GEOFF THOMAS
Personal information
Full name	Geoffrey Thomas
Date of birth	August 5, 1964 (age 42)
Place of birth	Manchester, England
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Retired
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1982 1984-1987 1987-1993 1993-1997 1997-1999 1999-2001 2001 2001-2002	Rochdale Crewe Alexandra Crystal Palace Wolverhampton Wanderers Nottingham Forest Barnsley Notts County Crewe Alexandra	12 (1) 138 (10) 249 (35) 54 (8) 27 (5) 45 (4) 8 (1) 17 (3)
National team2
1990-1991	England	9(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17th January 2007. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 17th January 2007. * Appearances (Goals)

Geoff Thomas (born August 5, 1964) is a former English footballer who captained Crystal Palace to the FA Cup final in 1990, where they drew 3-3 with Manchester United at Wembley before losing 1-0 in the replay.

He started his professional career at Rochdale before moving to Crewe in March 1984, establishing himself as a first-team regular and attracting top-flight interest before moving to Palace in 1987. He later turned out for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Nottingham Forest, Barnsley and finally returned to Crewe before retiring. He also gained eight caps for England, at the turn of the 1990s.

Thomas, a former leukaemia sufferer, won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award in 2005 after he raised over £150,000 for the Leukaemia Research charity by cycling 2,200 miles in 21 days, completing the route of all 21 stages of the 2005 Tour de France a few days ahead of the race itself.

On April 6, 2006, the players from the 1990 final all took part in a re-run of the match, in aid of Leukemia Research, at Selhurst Park. Manchester United won the game, 3-1 including goals from Neil Webb (2), Ian Wright and Mark Robins.

On March 16, 2007, a "Geoff Thomas Foundation Charity XI" took on a team on celebrities in the first ever match at the new Wembley Stadium, with Mark Bright and Simon Jordan scoring the goals in a 2-0 win, and three days later, a Palace team similar to the one of the previous year took on a Liverpool team of the time, a re-run of the epic semi-final game that saw Palace win 4-3 in extra-time. The re-run again took place at Selhurst Park, and this time finished 1-1 with Phil Babb opening the scoring and Bright scoring for the second time in three days to level things up.

At present, Geoff is in the process of establishing "The Geoff Thomas Foundation", a charity that will raise funds for the treatment of cancer.

In 2005, Geoff was voted in Palace's Centenary XI.

[edit] External links

• Official site

Preceded by Jim Cannon	Crystal Palace F.C. Player of The Year 1988	Succeeded by Ian Wright
Preceded by Mark Bright	Crystal Palace F.C. Player of The Year 1991	Succeeded by Eddie McGoldrick