Mark Walters

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Mark Walters
Personal information
Full name Mark Everton Walters
Date of birth June 2, 1964 (1964-06-02) (age 44)
Place of birth    Birmingham, England
Playing position Midfielder/Winger
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1981–1987
1987–1991
1991–1996
1993–1994
1994–1995
1996
1996–1999
1999–2002		 Aston Villa
Rangers
Liverpool
→ Stoke City (loan)
→ Wolves (loan)
Southampton
Swindon Town
Bristol Rovers
Total		 181 0(32)
106 0(32)
094 0(14)
009 00(2)
011 00(3)
005 00(0)
115 0(27)
082 0(13)
603 (123)   
National team
1983–1986
1991
1991		 England U21
England
England B		 009 00(1)
001 00(0)
001 00(0)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Mark Everton Walters (born June 2, 1964) is a former professional footballer from Birmingham, England. He was an attacking goal scoring winger.

Contents

[edit] Club career

[edit] Aston Villa

Walters began his career as an apprentice at Aston Villa, after signing professional forms he quickly showed why Ron Saunders signed him by making his debut under new manager Tony Barton on 28 April 1982 at the tender age of 17 in the 4-1 league defeat to Leeds United at Villa Park.

Walters appeared 234 times and scored 48 goals in the 5 years he spent at his boyhood favourites before an offer of £550,000 from Scottish side Rangers tempted Walters into a move north of the border.

[edit] Rangers

Due to English clubs being banned from European competition, teams such as Rangers, who were managed by former Anfield great Graeme Souness, were finding it easier to attract English players and sign internationals such as Terry Butcher, Trevor Steven, Gary Stevens, Chris Woods and Ray Wilkins with Walters becoming one of these players on New Years Eve 1987.

He has been referred to as the first black player to sign for Rangers. However, Walter Tull signed for Rangers during the First World War but was killed in the conflict before he could play. Mark Walters made his Rangers debut on 2 January 1988 in the Old Firm derby match with Celtic at Parkhead. Rangers lost 2-0 and Walters was subjected to racist abuse from Celtic fans who threw fruit, mostly bananas, on to the pitch. [1] Rangers also banned some of their own season ticket holders following racist abuse aimed at Walters. [2] Whilst at Ibrox, Walters was part of the side that won the Scottish Premier League in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and the Scottish League Cup in 1988 and 1990 thus enjoying the most successful spell of his career in terms of trophies won.

On 13 August 1991, after 143 appearances in which he scored 51 goals (better than 1 in 3), he followed Souness to Liverpool, which was somewhat ironic seeing as his middle name is Everton, Liverpool's fierce city rivals.

[edit] Liverpool

Liverpool paid £1.25 million for Walters services and he made his debut four days after signing, when he came on as a 65th minute substitute for Steve McMahon in a 2-1 league win over Oldham Athletic at Anfield on 17 August 1991. His first goal for the club was an 88th minute penalty in a 2-1 league win over Notts County at Meadow Lane on 7 September 1991.

Souness brought Walters back to England hoping that he would terrorize the 1st Division defences as he had done in Scotland, however, this failed to materialize with the performances expected coming too infrequently. He remained a regular in the side and helped Liverpool to the 1992 FA Cup final, although he was an unused sub as his team-mates beat 2nd Division Sunderland 2-0.

When Liverpool beat Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in the 1995 Coca-Cola Cup final, again an unused sub, Walters was being used less as Roy Evans was employing three centre-halves with Rob Jones and Stig Inge Bjørnebye as wing-backs and three midfielders.

He had already been sent out on loan to Stoke City (9 games, 2 goals) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (11 games, 3 goals) during the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons, and thus it was not surprising that, after not appearing at all during the first half of the 1995-96 season, Walters was allowed to leave, which he did when he joined Southampton on 18 January 1996.

[edit] Southampton

Walters was signed by David Merrington in January 1996 to assist in Saints' desperate fight against relegation from the Premiership. He made his debut as a substitute against Middlesbrough on 20 January 1996 and made a total of 5 league and 4 FA Cup appearances, but struggled to make any real impression with such a poor team. His final appearance was in a dreadful match away to Queens Park Rangers, which Saints lost 3-0 meekly surrendering in a shoddy second half. At the end of the season, with Saints' Premiership status secured for another season, Walters was released, moving on to Swindon Town.

[edit] Swindon Town

Mark joined Swindon Town on a free on 31 July 1996 and made his debut on 17 August in the 2-0 defeat to Norwich City at Carrow Road. His first goal for the Robins came via a 26th minute penalty during the 2-1 league win over Tranmere Rovers on 14 September 1996.

Walters settled at The County Ground but, again, his form went from one extreme to the other, sometimes he could be mesmerizing but in other games he would go missing - a trait he hadn't been able to remove from his game since returning from Scotland.

Walters played a total of 126 matches for Swindon in which he scored 28 goals when he was released on 17 November 1999 moving to Bristol Rovers.

[edit] Bristol Rovers

Having been told that he was no longer required by Swindon the 35 year-old joined Ian Holloway's Bristol Rovers side on a free transfer. He spent three years at the Memorial Stadium playing 96 times and scoring 14 goals before he finally hung up his boots on 26 April 2002, five weeks before his 38th birthday.

[edit] England career

Walters represented England at schoolboy and under 21 levels before he earning his 1 and only full cap under Graham Taylor whilst he was with Rangers. It came the day after his 27th birthday, on 3 June 1991 in the 1-0 friendly victory over New Zealand in Auckland.

[edit] Retirement

Walters joined Coventry Preparatory School as a Saturday morning football coach for the 4-11 year-olds in February 2003; he then became a member of staff in January 2006, coaching years three to eight and is also head coach of the under 14s at Aston Villa's academy. Walters is also heavily involved with groups aiming to eliminate racism in football. Walters went back to school and obtained teaching qualifications. He is Head of Languages at Aston Villa's academy. His close friend Torben Piechnik teaches science.

Although now retired, Walters still plays in the Sky Sports masters football competitions for Rangers. He is also one of three honorary members of the Rangers Supporters Trust, along with Johnny Hubbard and Billy Simpson.[1]

[edit] Career honours

[edit] Aston Villa

Winner

Runner up

[edit] Rangers

Winner

Runner up

[edit] Liverpool

Winner

Runner up

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Rangers Supporters Trust - April 2003", Rangers Supporters Trust website. 

[edit] External links