Eric Thornton

Eric Thornton (5 July 1882 – 26 November 1945) was a footballer who competed in the 1900 Olympic Games, where he won a bronze medal as a member of a mixed team representing Belgium that was mostly made up of students from the Université de Bruxelles. Born in England, he represented the Belgium national team in two official matches in 1905.

Football career Although born in England and possibly an English national in 1900, Thornton became a resident in Brussels for unclear reasons and joined the city's Léopold FC as a forward in 1897, but later turned to goalkeeping and in 1907, he moved to Beerschot AC.

At the time of the 1900 Olympics in Paris, Thornton was still a forward at Léopold and was studying at the Université de Bruxelles, and like many other students of that university, he was selected to represent Belgium in the football tournament of the Olympics,

Despite being a British citizen, Thornton has the distinction of having played two official matches with the Belgium national team, both in 1905, and both against the Netherlands, conceding a total of eight goals in 1–4 and 0–4 losses. In-between these two matches, Thornton was also selected to play against France in Brussels on 7 May, but USFSA opposed it since he did not have Belgian nationality, which delayed the match for one hour since Belgium had to get another goalkeeper, Robert Hustin of Racing Club de Bruxelles.

Thornton ended his footballing career in 1911 to concentrate on his ship brokering business.

Thornton died in Antwerp on 26 November 1945, at the age of 63.

Honours Université de Bruxelles Summer Olympics: Bronze medal (1): 1900