Joe Baker

Joseph Henry Baker (17 August 1940 – 6 October 2003) was a professional footballer who played at club level for Hibernian, Torino, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and Raith Rovers. At the age of 26 he achieved the feat of having scored 100 top division goals in both Scotland and England.

He made eight appearances for the England national team, scoring three goals. Born to a Scottish mother and English father in Liverpool, Baker spent the first six weeks of his life in England and was then raised in Scotland until he moved to Italy aged 20. Despite self-identifying as Scottish, rules at the time meant his only international football eligibility was for his birth nation. His full England debut in 1959 made him the first professional footballer to represent England while playing for a club outside the English football league system, and the first to have never played for an English club before his full England debut.

Early years Joe Baker's mother Elizabeth was Scottish. While sources conflict as to whether his father George, a seaman, was Scottish or Liverpudlian, an interview in "The Topical Times Football Book 1959", quotes Baker stating of he and his elder brother Gerry, "Both our parents were Scots". After the outbreak of World War Two, the family moved to Liverpool when George volunteered for the Merchant Marine. The family then evacuated from "badly bombed Liverpool" They attended Park Street Junior School then St Joseph's Secondary School, both in Wishaw. He then joined Motherwell Boys' Guild (a juvenile club), to play on Saturday afternoons as well as for the school in the mornings. He gained two Scottish Schools international caps (in matches against England and Wales). Away from football, he started en engineering apprenticeship.

Torino On 31 May 1961, Baker signed in Turin for Torino for £75,000.

Baker had a successful 1966–67 season at Forest as the club finished runners-up to the club that would win the following season's European Cup: Matt Busby's Manchester United (whose team included Baker's ex Torino teammate, Denis Law). In three years at Forest, Baker scored 41 goals in 118 league games.

Sunderland, return to Hibs and Raith Rovers Baker then moved to Sunderland for a fee of £30,000, and spent the following two seasons playing for the Black Cats. His brother Gerry was similarly only eligible to represent his birth nation (the United States, for whom he played seven times).

He made his England debut against Northern Ireland in November 1959, which made him the first professional player to be capped for England while playing for a club outside the English football league system. It also meant that he was the first player to play for England without having ever played for an English club (Owen Hargreaves was the next player to do this, in 2001).

Baker won eight caps for the senior England side, five while he was playing for Hibs and three while with Arsenal.

Managerial career and later life

Baker later became Albion Rovers manager on two occasions, but never pursued a full coaching career, instead running a pub and working for Hibernian's hospitality service. He died at the age of 63, after suffering a heart attack during a charity golf tournament, dying in Wishaw General Hospital soon after.