George Camsell

Born in Framwellgate Moor, Durham City in 1902, Camsell worked as a miner and played for Durham City. He caught the attention of Middlesbrough after scoring 20 goals in 21 games in a season and signed for Middlesbrough on 6 October 1925 for the sum of £500. His debut was against Nottingham Forest on 31 October 1925. He scored three goals for Middlesbrough in the 1925–26 season. The Middlesbrough club record of 59 League goals in 37 games and 63 goals in all competitions in one season is held by Camsell. He accomplished this feat in the 1926–27 season, his first full season with Middlesbrough. After he had initially struggled for game time and almost joined Barnsley, he made his first appearance of the season on 18 September 1926 after Jimmy McClelland had suffered an injury. Having failed to score on that day, Camsell would only fail to score on two more occasions in the following 25 matches, taking in a run of 12 successive matches in which he scored at least once. He scored five on Christmas Day, 1926 against Manchester City and two more in the return fixture on 27 December. In February 1927, Camsell broke the record for league goals in a season by a player, having overtaken Jimmy Cookson's haul of 44 (for Chesterfield in 1925–26). 59 remains the second-highest number of league goals scored and the equal highest number in all competitions in one English league season, behind Dixie Dean's 60 league and 100 total a year later. The nine hat-tricks Camsell scored that season…

Camsell also won nine caps for England, scoring 18 goals. This is the highest goals-to-games ratio of anyone who has played more than a single international. His goals included a hat-trick in a 6–0 win against Wales on 20 November 1929 in the 1930 British Home Championship and four goals in a match against Belgium on 11 May 1929. He scored in every match he played for England; his nine consecutive scoring appearances are second only to Steve Bloomer.

During the Second World War, Camsell worked in local factories. After the war, he worked for Middlesbrough's backroom staff, firstly as a scout, where he discovered a young Brian Clough. He then became a coach and eventually the club's assistant secretary.

Camsell retired in 1963 and died in 1966, aged 63, shortly before that year's World Cup. A suite at Middlesbrough's Riverside Stadium is named after him and in 2015, calls began for a statue of Camsell to be placed outside the stadium, joining those of George Hardwick and Wilf Mannion. A club spokesman said that such an honour could not be ruled out, adding: "As a club we honour and respect our former heroes and George Camsell is certainly one of those." A statue of George Camsell was subsequently erected outside the stadium, which was unveiled to the public on 2 September 2022. It is in front of the West Stand entrance.