Joe Baker

Hibernian

Shortly after leaving school, Baker became a Junior-level player with Coltness United. While there he was chosen for select sides of both the Lanarkshire and East of Scotland Junior Associations. He spent a month on trial with Chelsea as a youngster, but was not signed. He signed professional terms with Hibernian, and was then farmed out to another Junior team, Armadale Thistle. In his first season with Hibs, 17-year-old Baker scored all four in a 4–3 victory over city rivals Hearts in the 1958 Scottish Cup quarter-final. He played in Hibs' 1958 Scottish Cup final 1–0 loss to Clyde in front of over 95,000 fans. He also scored nine goals in a Scottish Cup tie against Peebles Rovers. Baker was Hibs' top goalscorer for four consecutive seasons, scoring a club record 42 goals in 33 league games during the 1959–60 season. In all he scored 102 goals in just 117 league games, and 159 goals in all competitions for the Edinburgh club. In 1961 Baker was transferred after the Hibs board refused to give him a £5 increase from his existing wage of £12 a week. Gerry Baker signed for Hibernian from Manchester City in November 1961, six months after Joe had left Easter Road.

Torino

On 31 May 1961, Baker signed in Turin for Torino for £75,000. Another forward raised in Scotland, Denis Law, joined Torino from Manchester City in the same close-season. Baker and Law both made their senior competitive Torino debut in a 2–0 Serie A defeat at Sampdoria on 27 August…

Baker was selected twice by the Scottish Schools team. Despite Scottish parentage, spending all but the first six weeks of the first 20 years of his life living in Scotland and self-identifying as Scottish, rules at the time meant his birthplace made him only eligible to play international football only for England; "I was the first Scottish League player to play for England and it was a hard thing to take because I was a Scot, as far as I was concerned." His brother Gerry was similarly only eligible to represent his birth nation (the United States, for whom he played seven times). He made his England debut against Northern Ireland in November 1959, which made him the first professional player to be capped for England while playing for a club outside the English football league system. It also meant that he was the first player to play for England without having ever played for an English club (Owen Hargreaves was the next player to do this, in 2001). Baker won eight caps for the senior England side, five while he was playing for Hibs and three while with Arsenal. These later caps were won when he earned a brief recall to the England side in 1965. Despite scoring in a 2–0 win over Spain, Baker did not make the squad for the 1966 FIFA World Cup.

Baker later became Albion Rovers manager on two occasions, but never pursued a full coaching career, instead running a pub and working for Hibernian's hospitality service. He died at the age of 63, after suffering a heart attack during a charity golf tournament, dying in Wishaw General Hospital soon after.