George Raynor

Raynor first played football in the non-Leagues for Elsecar Bible Class, Mexborough Athletic and Wombwell. When he did sign professional forms, Raynor's career took him only on an uninspired jaunt around the Football League. His first professional club was Sheffield United whom he joined in 1930, making only one first team appearance in the two years he was with the club. Between 1932 and 1939, he played for four different League clubs, the last of these (Aldershot) in the truncated season before the start of the War. He signed up as a physical training instructor (PTI) in 1939 in order to train soldiers in the British Army. The Football Association had requested that all professional footballers become PTIs if they were not inclined to see active service. Raynor was posted to Iraq and, whilst in the course of working as a training instructor in Baghdad, he helped a fellow teacher club together a group of students into a team which toured the neighbouring states as a representative of Iraq. His work in Iraq came to the notice of the Secretary of the FA Stanley Rous. Thereafter, as Brian Glanville notes (with some poetic licence) in his The Story of the World Cup for The Sunday Times (1973), "the FA whisked him in 1946 from reserve team trainer at Aldershot to the team managership of Sweden". During 1939, he was a 'guest' WW2 player with Aldershot, Bournemouth, Bury, Clapton Orient with one appearance, Crystal Palace and Hull City. Source: Neilson N. Kaufman, historian Leyton…

Nine years after these triumphs, Raynor was made redundant after a seven-month stint managing Doncaster Rovers in the English Fourth Division. But perhaps nothing illustrates the contrast between Raynor's international profile and his English one better than the fact that during his career he managed Lazio and later found work as a manager with Skegness Town. He published a book in 1960 called Football Ambassador at Large.

Manager

Sweden

FIFA World Cup Runners-up: 1958 Third place: 1950 Olympic Games Champions: 1948 Third place: 1952 AIK

Svenska Cupen: 1949, 1950 Individual

Swedish Football Hall of Fame: Inducted, 2006