Leighton James

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Leighton James born 16 February 1953 in Loughor, Glamorgan, Wales is a retired professional footballer.

Leighton started his career as a Left Winger with Burnley making his league debut in November 1970 against Nottingham Forest ,

In 1971 he won his 1st international cap against Czechoslovakia. Altogether, he played 54 times for Wales and scored 10 goals.

In 1975 he signed for Derby County for a then club record fee of £310,000 before signing for Queens Park Rangers in 1977 in exchange for Don Masson. He made his QPR debut against WBA in October 1977 and went on to play 28 league games, scoring 4 goals.

In 1978 he returned to play with Burnley but left when they were relegated to the third division and signed for Swansea City helping then from the third division to the first division. He had spells with Sunderland , Bury and Newport County before in 1986 he returned to Burnley for a third spell , he became youth team manager as well as playing a bit part role. He retired from playing in 1989 after being sacked as youth team manager.

He became a coach at Bradford City before being appointed manager at Gainsborough Trinity in 1993. He was the manager at Morecambe but was sacked after only 5 months in charge. Leighton has also had two spells in charge of League of Wales club Llanelli, who he saw relegated in 2002-03. In 2001-02 he coached Garden Village of the Welsh Football League to the Second Division championship title with a final day victory at Chepstow Town.

He is now well known as a TV and Radio pundit in Wales, and was involved in an on air argument with former Wales midfielder Robbie Savage.