Glenn Hoddle

Tottenham Hotspur

Hoddle joined Tottenham as a junior when he was 12, and signed for the club as an apprentice on 17 April 1974. He overcame knee problems in his early teens and collected eight England Youth caps, the first of these on 18 March 1975 against Spain. He made his Spurs first-team debut as a 17-year-old substitute for Cyril Knowles against Norwich City on 30 August 1975, a game that ended 2–2. Hoddle was forced to wait until 21 February 1976 to start a First Division match and immediately announced his arrival with the winning goal. Hoddle flourished under the management of Keith Burkinshaw and despite the club's relegation to the Second Division in 1976–77 after 27 seasons of First Division football, a Hoddle-inspired Spurs side won promotion to the top flight at the first attempt. As Tottenham's transitional phase continued, Hoddle's international career began on 15 December 1976 in an Under-21 friendly fixture against Wales. He would collect another eleven caps at that level, and play twice for the England 'B' team prior to scoring on his full international debut against Bulgaria on 22 November 1979.

The 1979–80 campaign heralded the emergence of Hoddle as a top-class player; the 22-year-old midfielder scored 19 goals in 41 league appearances and was awarded the PFA Young Player of the Year award at the end of the season. In 1981, he starred as Spurs won the FA Cup for the sixth time, defeating Manchester City after a replay. The following season,…

Swindon Town

When Hoddle arrived at Swindon in March 1991, the club was struggling in the aftermath of a financial scandal which had seen them stripped of promotion to the First Division at the end of the previous season, a controversy which had negatively impacted the team's league form as they had been forced to sell several key players, including midfielder Alan McLoughlin. Hoddle prevented Swindon from slipping into the Third Division and further improvement throughout the 1991–92 season saw the Wiltshire club finish in eighth place, just missing out on a play-off place. They had briefly led the table in October. Swindon reached the playoffs of the rebranded Division One in 1993 and beat Leicester City 4–3 at Wembley, and were then promoted to the Premier League. Hoddle scored Swindon's first goal of the final. By the time he guided Swindon to promotion, Hoddle was already being linked with managerial vacancies at bigger clubs. Just days after guiding Swindon to promotion, he accepted the offer to manage Chelsea and was succeeded at Swindon by his assistant John Gorman, who had been widely expected to follow him to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea

In June 1993, Hoddle became player-manager of Chelsea. His assistant at Chelsea was the former Tottenham manager Peter Shreeves, and they reached the FA Cup final in Hoddle's first season, losing 4–0 to Manchester United. But Manchester United had won the double, and consolation for their failure to win the trophy…

Since his retirement from coaching, Hoddle has worked as a pundit for ESPN, ITV Sport and BT Sport. He began working with ESPN during Euro 2012 as a pundit. Since then, he has worked with ITV for the 2014 World Cup, Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup. He also does punditry and co-commentary for BT Sport on their telecasts of the Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League and Europa League.

Hoddle was born in 1957 in Harlington, Middlesex, to Derek Hoddle and Teresa Roberts. The family lived in Hillingdon, Middlesex. In the late 1950s and 1960, Hoddle watched his father playing for Corinthian League club Uxbridge. When Hoddle was four, the family moved to Harlow, Essex, where he attended St Alban's Primary School and the Burnt Mill Comprehensive School. Hoddle began supporting Tottenham Hotspur when he was eight. His favourite player was Martin Chivers. He first came to the attention of Tottenham when Chivers and Ray Evans went to present prizes at a local school cup final and noticed the potential of an 11-year-old Hoddle. On Chivers's recommendation, he was invited to train with the club at Tottenham's practice ground in Cheshunt. At the age of 15, Hoddle played for Harlow-based Sunday league club Longmans, alongside his father.