Paul Bodin

Paul Bodin
Personal information
Full name Paul John Bodin
Date of birth 13 September 1964 (1964-09-13) (age 47)
Place of birth Cardiff, Wales
Playing position Left Back
Club information
Current club Swindon Town FC (Youth manager)
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1981–1982 Chelsea 0 (0)
1982 Newport County 0 (0)
1982–1985 Cardiff City 75 (4)
1985 Merthyr Tydfil - (-)
1985–1988 Bath City 106 (30)
1988 Newport County 6 (1)
1988–1991 Swindon Town 93 (9)
1991–1992 Crystal Palace 9 (0)
1991 β†’ Newcastle United (loan) 6 (0)
1992–1996 Swindon Town 146 (28)
1996–1998 Reading 40 (1)
1997 β†’ Wycombe Wanderers (loan) 5 (0)
1998–2001 Bath City 81 (8)
National team
1983 Wales U21 1 (0)
1990–1994 Wales 23 (3)
Teams managed
1998–2001 Bath City
2001- Swindon Town FC (youth manager)
2011 Swindon Town
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Paul John Bodin (born 13 September 1964) is a former Wales international footballer. A left-back, Bodin's domestic career is probably best remembered for his two spells at Swindon Town.

Contents

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Career

Bodin began his career with Chelsea as a schoolboy, but then moved onto a brief spell with Newport County after being released. He instead joined his home town club Cardiff City and was handed his professional debut on the opening day of the 1982–83 season against Wrexham. He helped the side to promotion to Division Two in his first year, finishing as runners-up to Portsmouth. In total, he spent three seasons at Ninian Park before being released and the Welshman fell into non-league with Bath City, before returning to the Football League with Newport.[1]

Bodin left Newport for Swindon Town in March 1988 for a fee of Β£30,000 as cover for Phil King - and his first few appearances for the club were terrible - leading Town fanzine Bring the Noise to describe him as being "no better than an average Conference player".

When King left for Sheffield Wednesday in November the following year, Bodin became the club's first choice left back, and his performances began to improve - so much so that he became a regular choice for his country. He was almost ever-present in 1989/1990, a season which resulted in his first appearance for Swindon at Wembley, in the ill-fated Play-Off Final win over Sunderland.

After the illegal payments scandal, Swindon were forced to sell players, and shortly after Ossie Ardiles left the club, Bodin also left - Crystal Palace paying over £½ million for his services. Bodin failed to settle in London, and after Ardiles took him to Newcastle United for a short loan spell, he returned to the County Ground just ten months after he had left - Glenn Hoddle paying half the fee that Palace had.

Hoddle played Bodin as a more attack-minded wing back, making better use of Bodin's crossing ability. He also installed Bodin as the club's penalty taker - moves which were to come to fruition the following season, when he scored a total of twelve goals from his new position. Five of these goals came from the penalty spot - the last of which was possibly the most pressurised kick ever to be taken by a Swindon player - the penalty which gave Swindon the lead in the dying minutes of the 1993 Play-Off Final win over Leicester City at Wembley.

Bodin performed well again in the Premiership, scoring seven league goals, including penalty strikes against Manchester United and Arsenal. By now, he was a regular choice at international level - missing a crucial penalty for Wales in their World Cup qualifier with Romania - had he scored, Wales may well have qualified.

He remained as the Town's first choice left back for two more seasons, despite two successive relegations and the arrival of Jason Drysdale - and he helped the club to the Second Division championship in 1996, before leaving the club at the end of that season.[2]

After a spell with Reading, he returned to Bath City to take up a position as player-manager. In 2001 his position was dropped to a part-time role due to financial troubles at the club and he subsequently resigned. Bodin is now a coach within Swindon Town's youth team set-up, where his son Billy currently plays.[3] In April 2011 he was appointed caretaker manager of Swindon Town following the departure of Paul Hart.[4]

Following the arrival of Paulo Di Canio, Bodin rebuffed advances from Torquay to become assistant manager under good friend Martin Ling, and opted to sign a new long term deal with the club following the revelations he had been working without a contract for 3 and a half years.[5]

Wales career

For four years Bodin was a regular fixture for the Welsh national football team under the management of Terry Yorath and Mike Smith, attaining 23 caps. He was noted for missing a penalty in Wales' final and decisive 1994 World Cup qualifier at home to Romania, a game Wales needed to win in order to qualify but they subsequently lost 2-1.

International goals

Cap Date Venue Opposition Att. Result Goals
1 20/05/1990 Cardiff Costa Rica 5,977 (W) 1-0 0
2 11/09/1990 Copenhagen Denmark 8,700 (L) 0-1 0
3 17/10/1990 Cardiff Belgium 13,000 (W) 3-1 0
4 14/11/1990 Luxembourg Luxembourg 6,800 (W) 1-0 0
5 06/02/1991 Wrexham Ireland 9,186 (L) 0-3 0
6 27/03/1991 Brussels Belgium 25,000 (D) 1-1 0
7 01/05/1991 Cardiff Iceland 3,656 (W) 1-0 1
8 29/05/1991 Radom Poland 12,000 (0) 0-0 0
9 05/06/1991 Cardiff Germany 38,000 (W) 1-0 0
10 11/09/1991 Cardiff Brazil 20,000 (W) 1-0 0
11 16/10/1991 Nuremberg Germany 43,000 (L) 1-4 1
12 13/11/1991 Cardiff Luxembourg 23,000 (W) 1-0 1
13 19/02/1992 Dublin Ireland 15,100 (W) 1-0 0
14 29/04/1992 Utrecht Holland 18,000 (L) 0-4 0
15 03/06/1992 Tokyo Argentina 31,000 (L) 0-1 0
16 17/02/1993 Dublin Ireland 9,500 (L) 1-2 0
17 31/03/1993 Cardiff Belgium 27,002 (W) 2-0 0
18 28/04/1993 Ostrava Republic of Czechs & Slovaks 16,000 (D) 1-1 0
19 06/06/1993 Toftir Faroe Islands 4,209 (W) 3-0 0
20 17/11/1993 Cardiff Romania 40,000 (L) 1-2 0
21 20/04/1994 Wrexham Sweden 4,694 (L) 0-2 0
22 23/05/1994 Tallinn Estonia 3,500 (W) 2-1 0
23 07/09/1994 Cardiff Albania 15,791 (W) 2-0 0

References

External links