Leonard Francis Shackleton (3 May 1922 – 28 November 2000) was an English footballer. Known as the "Clown Prince of Football", he is generally regarded as one of English football's finest ever entertainers.^[2] He also played cricket in the Minor Counties for Northumberland.

Able to play at inside forward or outside forward, he scored 134 goals in 427 league and cup appearances in just over 11 seasons in the Football League, and before that scored 171 goals in 209 league and cup appearances during wartime football. His ball control skills made him one of the most talented players in the country, but his individualism and outspoken nature limited him to only five England caps in a six-year international career. He also never won a trophy or league title.

Born in Bradford, he spent his teenage years before World War II with Bradford Park Avenue, Kippax United, Arsenal, Enfield, and London Paper Mills, before he turned professional at Bradford Park Avenue in 1940. He spent the war assembling aircraft radios and playing for Bradford PA, and was sold on to Second Division rivals Newcastle United for a £13,000 fee in October 1946. He scored six goals on his Newcastle debut, but fell out with the club's directors, and was sold on to Sunderland for a British transfer record fee of £20,050 in February 1948. He scored 97 goals in 320 First Division matches for the club, with the closest he came to a trophy being the 1949–50 season when Sunderland finished third in the league, and when they reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup in 1955 and in 1956. He retired due to an ankle injury in 1957, and became a sports journalist.

Club career

Leonard Francis Shackleton was born in Bradford, England on 3 May 1922 to Leonard and Irene Shackleton; his father was a self-employed painter and decorator and his mother was a housewife.^[3] He was the elder brother to Irene and John; John went on to sign for Sunderland, though never played a first team game and quit the game to become a chiropodist and tennis coach.^[4] Shackleton attended Carlton High Grammar school, and became the first Bradford schoolboy to represent England schoolboys when he scored two goals in a 6–2 victory over Wales schoolboys; also in the team that day was future Sunderland teammate Dickie Davis.^[1]

International career

Shackleton won his first full cap for England in a 0–0 draw with Denmark on 26 September 1948.^[37] He was dropped and replaced by Stan Pearson for England's next game, before making a surprise return in a 1–0 win over Wales at Villa Park on 10 November 1948.^[37] His third cap came again against Wales, in a 4–1 victory in Cardiff on 15 October 1949.^[37] He then had to wait five years for his fourth cap, in which time the England selectors had tried 17 different players at inside-forward, with limited success.^[38] Selectors had always viewed the rebellious Shackleton with distrust, and one selector who was challenged over Shackleton's continued absence in the England team told a journalist that "we play at Wembley, not the London Palladium."^[39] He made his return again against Wales, in a 3–2 victory at Wembley Stadium.^[39] He put in his finest performance however in his final England appearance, scoring with a chipped goal in a 3–1 win over the then World Champions West Germany on 1 December 1954.^[40] He later wrote that the goal was "my most memorable scoring effort in a lifetime of soccer... I felt a keen sense of satisfaction – not because the goal made our victory over Germany certain, but because I had decided exactly how to go about scoring it long before the chance presented itself. Anticipation and fulfilment."^[41]

Style of play

Journalist Malcolm Hartley, wrote of Shackleton: "Apart from the adhesive ball control and breathtaking body swerve, Shack could hit a ball. His slender legs could crack the ball like a Bofors gun." One of his contemporaries remarked: "Once in possession, and few can match his dexterity at bringing the ball under control, the ball becomes his slave. All the skills of inside forward play – dribbling, feinting, correct positioning and accurate passing are his to command."^[42]

A showman who liked to entertain the crowd, he was able to cut the ball with sufficient spin that it would roll towards an opponent only to stop and then return to him as though on a string.^[43] He was also adept at back heeling penalty kicks into the goal.^[44] He would rarely track back and defend however, and antics were sometimes criticised as "unsportsman-like".^[43] On one occasion, 2–1 up against Arsenal with 5 minutes to go, he dribbled the ball into The Gunners' penalty area before putting his foot on it, pretending to comb his hair while looking at his watch. Other examples include mocking opposition full-backs by playing one-twos with the corner flag, literally sitting on the ball to torment defenders who could not dispossess him, and teasing a beaten goalkeeper by putting his foot on the ball on the goal line.^[2] Sunderland teammate Trevor Ford wrote in his autobiography that: "where did it [Shackleton's antics] get us? Precisely nowhere. The result was that when he did make a move, the opposing defence was in position and the attack broke down. Time and again when I thought Shack was going to slip a goalscoring pass to me he would veer off".^[45] However Billy Bingham defended Shackleton by noting that Ford had poor positional skills.^[30]

Cricket career

While playing for Sunderland, Shackleton played cricket for Wearmouth Colliery and for Northumberland in the 1948 Minor Counties Championship.^[46] His genius and humour was also evident on the cricket field. At Wearmouth, he would entertain the crowd by pretending to miss slip catches, then looking behind him as if the ball had gone to the boundary, before producing the ball from his pocket. While at Sunderland he played for Wearmouth Colliery in the Durham Senior League. He also played cricket for Lidget Green in the Bradford League, and for Northumberland in the Minor Counties League.

Journalism career and later life

Shackleton became a sports journalist after retiring as a footballer. He had been an outspoken critic of the football establishment during his playing career, particularly so of the maximum wage rule.^[47] He used his nickname, The Clown Prince of Soccer, for his 1956 autobiography. One chapter of that book was "The Average Director's Knowledge of Football". It consisted of a single blank page.^[48] The book proved to be immensely popular, and ran into five editions within three months.^[49]

Shackleton, who had also been a barber during his playing career, had three sons with his wife Marjorie. He moved to Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria on retirement and wrote Return of the Clown Prince with his son Roger. He had a heart attack in August 2000 and died on 28 November that year, aged 78.^[50]

Only after his death he became known to many and younger people, esp. to foreigners, because his fame was spread around europe by the legendary "anarcho-folk-punk-band" Chumbawamba in their "Song To Len Shackleton" (released 2002 on their "Readymades" CD)

Statistics

References

Specific

General

• Malam, Colin (2004). Clown Prince of Soccer? The Len Shackleton Story. Highdown. ISBN 1-904317-74X.