Gerry Hitchens

Hitchens was born in the village of Rawnsley, Staffordshire, near Cannock, and began his career as a coal miner. He played in Shropshire with Highley Youth Club and Highley Miners Welfare between 1952 and 1953. He appeared in a county cup final for the Miners at Aggborough, the home stadium of local club Kidderminster Harriers. His performance was being watched by the Harriers club secretary Ted Gamson, who went on to offer Hitchens a contract in September 1953. After several seasons in the reserves, Hitchens played fourteen games for the first team, scoring six goals.

Despite interest from West Bromwich Albion and Aston Villa, Hitchens moved to Cardiff City in January 1955 for a fee of £1,500. Hitchens got off to a good start by scoring within three minutes of the kick-off when making his League debut against Wolverhampton Wanderers in April 1955. Hitchens was then playing inside-forward but he subsequently took over the centre-forward berth and was top scorer in the subsequent two seasons. Hitchens moved on to Aston Villa in 1957 for £22,500, where he spent four seasons, scoring 96 goals in 160 appearances. The 26-year-old played his final game on 29 Apr 1961 in a 4-1 First Division home victory over Sheffield Wednesday, playing with Charlie Aitken in his first Villa game. He made his debut for England in 1961, scoring after just 90 seconds in an 8–0 drubbing of Mexico, and two weeks later scored twice more in Rome as England beat Italy 3–2. This brought him to the attention of Inter Milan, who signed him in the summer of 1961 for £85,000. Hitchens was Internazionale's top scorer with 16 goals in his first season. He played for England in the 1962 World Cup in Chile, and won a total of seven caps, scoring five goals. When chosen to appear for England in the World Cup, Hitchens became the first Englishman to represent his country while on the books of a foreign club. Inter won Serie A in 1963, making him the second Englishman to win the Italian title after Jimmy Greaves and the last until Ashley Young did so for the same club in…

Cardiff City

Welsh Cup: 1955–56 Aston Villa

Second Division: 1959–60 Inter Milan

Serie A: 1962–63 Torino

Coppa Italia runner-up: 1962–63, 1963–64