Vivian Woodward

Vivian John Woodward (3 June 1879 – 31 January 1954) was an English footballer who enjoyed the peak of his career from the turn of the 20th century to the outbreak of the First World War. He played for Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea.

Internationally, Woodward captained Great Britain to gold medals at the 1908 Olympics in London and in Stockholm in 1912, and made a combined 59 international appearances for a combination of England, England Amateurs, and Great Britain. His combined record for England of 75 goals in 53 matches (1.42 goals a game) is still the highest international record of any player to have scored more than 50 goals for their country, whilst his record of 75 goals was the highest combined total of international goals scored by any English footballer until Harry Kane scored his 75th and 76th goals for England in October 2025. Woodward took part in ten British Home Championships, lifting the trophy eight times. In the 1903-04 Home Championship, Woodward was the top scorer with 4 goals, whilst in the 1908-09 tournament he was the joint top goalscorer with 3 goals. Woodward is the 5th highest all-time record goalscorer of the Home Championship with 14 goals in total.

He served in the British Army during the First World War, and as a result missed out on Chelsea's run to their first-ever FA Cup final in 1915. Woodward's injuries during the war caused his retirement from football. He then served on Chelsea's Board between 1922 and 1930 as a director of the club.

Club career An architect by profession, Woodward began his career at Clacton Town. Following spells at Harwich & Parkeston and Chelmsford, he joined Tottenham Hotspur in March 1901, who in the same year would win the FA Cup. Woodward's debut for Tottenham occurred in the Southern League on 6 April 1901 in a home match against Bristol City which Spurs won 1–0. Due to work and cricket commitments, he did not begin to appear regularly for the team until the 1902–03 season. In nine seasons at White Hart Lane, he made 169 appearances and scored 73 goals. Tottenham was elected to the Second Division of the Football League for the 1908–09 season, and Woodward scored Spurs' first-ever goal in the Football League in September 1908 against Wolverhampton Wanderers that finished 3–0. He helped the team win promotion to the First Division that season.

Before the start of the 1909 season, Woodward decided to retire to concentrate on his architectural practice and cricket. He had a short spell back with Chelmsford, but was persuaded to join David Calderhead's Chelsea on 20 November 1909. He went on to play in a total of 116 games for them, scoring 34 goals. He was their leading scorer in the 1912–13 season with ten goals.

At the start of the First World War Woodward enlisted in the British Army and as a result did not play many matches during the 1914–15 season. He was given special leave to join Chelsea at Old Trafford for the FA Cup Final as Bob Thomson was injured, however Thomson recovered and Woodward refused to play, believing it was immoral to deny Thomson his chance to play in an FA Cup final as Woodward himself had not played in any of Chelsea's matches in their run to the final.

In January 1916, Woodward was injured in the right thigh by a German grenade whilst fighting in the War. Following this injury he was unable to return to top-tier football, returning to his first club, Clacton Town before retiring.

International career He made his England debut in 1903, scoring twice in a 4–0 win against Ireland. Between 1903 and 1911, he won 23 full caps and scored 29 goals, setting an English record that would last until the 1950s. He also played in three unofficial international matches against South Africa in 1910, scoring a further four goals. At the time, England only usually played three matches a season, for the British Home Championship, but two tours to central Europe in 1908 and 1909 netted Woodward 15 goals (over half his total). He held the overall England goalscoring record, either jointly or alone, for 47 years – longer than any other player until surpassed by Tom Finney in 1958. With his 28th and 29th goals, the last of his career, he overhauled Steve Bloomer against Wales in March 1911, and was not himself overtaken until Tom Finney scored his 30th (and last) goal in October 1958.

He also turned out 44 times for England Amateurs and scored 57 goals. England Amateurs played most of its internationals against the full representative sides of Europe, whose football was much less developed than that of the British at the time, and this huge gap between them often resulted in the Europeans getting trashed by the English, and Woodward would thus often score several goals per match. For instance, in one match against France in 1906, the Times and Sporting Life credit Woodward with eight goals in a 15–0 win, although FIFA's official record of the match credits him with only four goals. However, he did score six against Netherlands in 1909.

The Home Nations did not recognise its matches against England Amateurs, and thus, 12 goals in 14 of his appearances are considered unofficial, four against Ireland, six against Wales, and 2 goals in an unofficial match against Sweden on 12 June 1914 as this game was not regarded as a full international by the Swedish Football Association. However, the remaining 30 appearances for England amateurs and 46 goals (including 6 matches and 5 goals for Great Britain at the Olympics) were made in matches recognised as full internationals only by the opposition's Football Associations, though not by the FA, UEFA or FIFA, which means that Woodward scored a total of 75 goals in 53 matches that were considered official internationals by the opposing sides, which could make him the first footballer to score 50 international goals, ahead of Imre Schlosser, who achieved it on 3 June 1917. Woodward scored a combined total of 10 international hat-tricks for the England teams, 4 for the main side and 6 for the Amateurs, all of which in friendlies sept for the one he netted against Wales at the 1907–08 British Home Championship on 16 March 1908, which is also the only one he netted against a Home Nation. His hat-trick tally also includes a 6-goal haul in a 9–1 win over the Netherlands on 11 December 1909, and four 4-goal hauls, two for each of the England teams.

Woodward also represented the Football League XI and the Southern League XI.

Military career He joined the 17th Battalion of the Middlesex Regiment. It was known as a "Football Battalion" and it included many members of Woodward's former team Tottenham Hotspur. He attained the rank of captain. National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals

Scores and results of England listed first, score column indicates score after each Woodward goal. + List of international goals scored by Vivian Woodward No. Cap Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition 1 14 February 1903 Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, England 4–0 1902–03 British Home Championship 2 3 2 March 1903 Fratton Park, Portsmouth, England 2–1 4 4 April 1903 Bramall Lane, Sheffield, England 1–2 5 27 March 1905 Anfield, Liverpool, England 3–1 1904–05 British Home Championship 6 7 15 February 1908 Solitude, Belfast, Northern Ireland 3–1 1907–08 British Home Championship 8 16 March 1908 Racecourse Ground, Wrexham, Wales 7–1 9 10 11 6 June 1908 Cricketer Platz, Vienna, Austria 6–1 Friendly 12 8 June 1908 Hohe Warte Stadium, Vienna, Austria 11–1 13 14 15 16 10 June 1908 Millenáris Sporttelep, Budapest, Hungary 7–0 17 13 February 1909 Park Avenue, Bradford, England 4–0 1908–09 British Home Championship 18 19 29 May 1909 Millenáris Sporttelep, Budapest, Hungary 4–2 Friendly 20 21 31 May 1909 8–2 22 23 24 25 1 June 1909 Hohe Warte Stadium, Vienna, Austria 7–1 26 27 28 13 March 1911 The Den, London, England 3–0 1910–11 British Home Championship 29

England amateurs Scores and results of England amateur is listed first and the score column indicates the score after each Woodward goal. + List of international goals scored by Vivian Woodward 2 3 4 5 2 1 April 1907 De Diepput, Den Haag, The Hague, Netherlands 8–1 63 21 December 1907 Feethams, Darlington, England 12–2 7 8 94 23 March 1908 Park Royal Stadium, London, England 12–0 10 11 125 18 April 1908 Sukkelweg, Bruxelles, Belgium 8–2 13 14 156 20 April 1908 Viktoria field, Berlin-Mariendorf, Germany 5–1 16 177 20 October 1908 White City, London, England 12–1 1908 Summer Olympics First round 18 19 9 24 October 1908 2–0 1908 Summer Olympics Final 2010 17 April 1909 White Hart Lane, London, England 11–2 Friendly 21 2211 20 May 1909 Landhof, Basel, Switzerland 9–0 23 24 25 26 12 22 May 1909 Stade de la F.G.S.P.F., Paris, France 11–0 27 13 6 November 1909 Anlaby Road, Hull, England 7–0 2814 11 December 1909 Stamford Bridge, Fullham, England 9–1 29 30 31 32 33 34 15 4 March 1911 Crystal Palace Park, London, England 4–0 35 17 25 May 1911 Spitalacker, Bern, Switzerland 4–1 36 19 16 March 1912 Anlaby Road, Hull, England 4–0 37 21 30 June 1912 Stockholms Olympiastadion, Stockholm, Sweden 7–0 1912 Summer Olympics Quarter-finals 38 22 2 July 1912 4–0 1912 Summer Olympics Semi-finals 3924 9 November 1912 County Ground, Swindon, England 4–0 Friendly 40 41 25 21 March 1913 Viktoria field, Berlin-Mariendorf, Germany 3–0 42 26 24 March 1913 HBS Craeyenhout, The Hague, Netherlands 1–2 43 27 15 November 1913 Anlaby Road, Hull, England 2–1 44 28 24 February 1914 Stade du Vivier d'Oie, Bruxelles, Belgium 2–0 45 30 10 June 1914 Råsunda IP, Solna, Sweden 5–1

England amateurs (non-official) Scores and results of England amateur is listed first and the score column indicates the score after each Woodward goal.

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