Frank Soo

Stoke City

Soo played for Norwood, West Derby and West Derby Boys' Club and was scouted by both Everton and Liverpool without ever being signed by either club. He instead began his senior career with Cheshire League side Prescot Cables in late 1932, whilst working as an office clerk. He was quickly signed by Stoke City for a £400 fee on 25 January 1933, after being spotted by the club's scouts. Tom Mather handed Soo his debut at the expense of Harry Ware after picking him to play inside-left against Middlesbrough at Ayresome Park on 4 November 1933, making him the first player of Chinese descent to play in the Football League; the match ended in a 6–1 defeat. Despite the heavy defeat, he was praised as Stoke's stand-out performer. He kept his place for the 1–0 defeat to Manchester City at the Victoria Ground seven days later. He made a third appearance in a loss to Arsenal at Highbury, before being dropped for six matches. He scored his first goal in professional football on 3 January 1934, as Stoke beat Bradford Park Avenue 3–0 in the third round of the FA Cup, and then scored again as Stoke defeated Blackpool by the same scoreline in the following round 24 days later. He scored his first league goal for the "Potters" on 29 January, concluding the scoring in a 3–0 victory over Huddersfield Town. He made a total of 16 appearances during the 1933–34 season, scoring three goals, as Stoke posted a 12th-place finish in the First Division. Soo featured mainly for the…

Soo was quick and intelligent and was noted for his ability to deliver perfectly placed passes. Stan Mortensen wrote in his autobiography, Football Is My Game, that Soo was one of the four best wing-halves he ever played with (alongside George Farrow, Billy Wright and Harry Sellars), and "seemed incapable of a clumsy movement". Arsenal's Alex James described him as "modern for his time".

Padova

Soo spent the summer of 1949 coaching the Finnish club Helsingin Palloseura before entering management full-time at Isthmian League side St Albans City in May 1950. He led the "Saints" to a ninth-place finish at the end of the 1950–51 season. On 12 April 1951, he was appointed as manager of Italian club Padova following Giovanni Ferrari's dismissal as manager. The press had accused the "Patavini" players of laziness, and Soo's reputation as a stern taskmaster was seen as a good solution. Padova beat Napoli 2–0 on the final day of the 1950–51 season to avoid relegation out of Serie A, and finished just a point ahead of 19th-placed Roma. His main summer signing was Norwegian player Knut Andersen, though the transfer was only completed in December when clearance from the Scandinavian Federation was confirmed; on Andersen's debut Padova managed to beat reigning champions Milan 5–2 at the Stadio Silvio Appiani. However, the team struggled in the second half of the 1951–52 season, and Soo left the club on 13 March to return to England following his wife's death; Gastone Prendato was named as his successor at Padova, but could not keep the club out of the relegation zone by the end of the season.

Scandinavia

He signed a one-year contract to manage Swedish club Eskilstuna in May 1952, but took charge of the side after first working as head coach of the Norway national football team for the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He took charge of just one match,…

Frank Soo was born in Buxton, Derbyshire on 8 March 1914, and brought up in Liverpool. His parents, a Liverpool-based Chinese sailor father, Our Quong Soo (Chinese: 區君仕; also Ah Kwong Soo), and an English mother, Beatrice Whittam, had married in Chorlton, Manchester in 1908. The couple had moved to the village of Fairfield to open a laundry, as was commonly done by Chinese emigrants in England at the time, before eventually moving premises to West Derby, Liverpool around 1920. He had an elder brother, Norman, and several younger siblings: Phyllis, Ronald, Jack, Harold and Kenneth. His brother, Ronald, was killed on 14 January 1944 while serving as an air gunner in No. 166 Squadron. Soo married hairdressing salon proprietor Beryl Freda Lunt in Stoke-on-Trent on 12 June 1938. The couple honeymooned in Bournemouth. Freda, as she was known, was a keen autograph hunter and had initially introduced herself to Soo to ask for his signature. The couple separated in 1951, and Freda died as a result of a barbiturate overdose on 10 March 1952; it was not known whether her death was intentional or accidental.