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Eddie
Thomson at Heatrs
Picture
from www.LondonHearts.com
For
an excellent career profile whilst at Hearts go to the www.LondonHearts.com site at Eddie Thomson
This
tribute by Mike Smith at The Official Hearts FC
site
(click to see) says it all,
A life cut
short is tragic enough. When it’s the life of
someone who put so much into the profession he loved,
it is even more so. Eddie Thomson, a centre half who
graced the maroon jersey of Hearts and, later, the
red of Aberdeen lost his fight with cancer on 20
February 2003 – just five days short of his 56th
birthday.
Fittingly
for a man who served Heart of Midlothian so well,
Eddie Thomson was born in Midlothian, in the village
of Rosewell in 1947. He was signed by another Hearts
legend, Tommy Walker, in 1966 and was to become one
of Hearts most consistent performers in the seven
years that followed. The late 1960s/early 1970s were
not exactly the most rewarding of times for Hearts
but along with Jim Cruickshank and Donald Ford,
Thomson was one of the mainstays of a rather average
Hearts team. Hearts slide to the backwater of
Scottish football gathered apace in the 1970s but
it’s safe to say this would have accelerated had
it not been for Thomson and his ilk.
Some of
Hearts transfer decisions in those days were
difficult to fathom, none more so than the sale of
Eddie Thomson to Aberdeen in 1973. Hearts received
£60,000 for Eddie – plus an ageing Ernie
Winchester – and with all due respect, it’s
not difficult to figure out which club got the better
of the deal. Thomson scored just seven goals for the
Jambos in seven years but his job was to prevent
goals, not score them, and there were few better
centre halves in Scotland at that time. Had he worn
the colours of Rangers or Celtic, he would surely
have been capped for Scotland.
Eddie
played 213 games for Hearts, and was an ever-present
during the league campaign of 1970-71 where he formed
a formidable partnership with another Hearts great,
Alan Anderson. Thomson’s importance to Hearts
was emphasised when injury forced him to miss the
Scottish Cup tie against Hibs in February 1971 –
and Hearts lost 2-1 at Tynecastle.
Two years
later, manager Bobby Seith saw fit to sell Eddie to
Aberdeen where he proved a fine servant to The Dons
until his departure in 1977. Aged 30, Thomson tried
his luck across the Atlantic Ocean with San Antonio
Thunder in the North American League before heading
to Australia and Hakoah Eastern Suburbs. It seemed
remarkable that a player of Thomson’s ability
was now plying his trade on the other side of the
world but Eddie fell in love with Australia and would
settle down for good Down Under.
Hakoah
changed their name to Sydney City, Thomson became
coach and his coaching skills became second to none.
Sydney City won three successive league titles in the
early 1980s and Eddie also hit a treble as he became
the only man to win the Australian Coach of the Year
award three times in the mid 1980s. He then moved to
Sydney Olympic where more success saw him inevitably
called up by the Australian national side, first as
Assistant Coach to Frank Arok then, as Head Coach in
1990. Eddie held the number one football position in
Australia for six years. After a brief spell in
Japan, Eddie returned to Australia where he remained
a national hero.
Eddie’s
fight with cancer has been well documented on the
Kickback section of Hearts website and he was clearly
fondly remembered by older Hearts fans who recall his
days in Gorgie. Our deepest sympathies go to
Eddie’s family and they can rest assured a
generation of Hearts supporters will never forget one
of the finest players ever to grace Tynecastle.
Many thanks to Hearts FC - Official site for allowing me to show
the tribute here. There is a further tribute by Mike
Smith at ScottishFitba - the
definitive Scotland website. Independent news and stats
from footymad.net
Here's
some further tributes to Eddie from news sites on the
Net...
SportServer.com - Eddie
Thomson, former Socceroos coach and NASL player, dead at
55
reports
SYDNEY,
Australia (February 21, 2003 9:52 a.m. EST) - Former
Australian national team coach Eddie Thomson has died
after a long battle with cancer, Soccer Australia
said on Friday.
The Scottish-born Thomson, who was 55, coached the
Australian team from 1990 to 1996, a period that
including the 1994 World Cup campaign and the 1992
and 1996 Olympics.
Thomson was born in Rosewell, Scotland on Feb. 25,
1947 and played 162 games for Heart of Midlothian
before transferring to Aberdeen in 1973.
He spent three years at Aberdeen, incorporating a
tour to Australia with the club in 1974.
After playing 253 league games over 10 years in
Scotland's top division, he moved to the North
American Soccer League in 1976 where he linked up
with San Antonio Thunder.
In 1977, the first year of Australia's National
Soccer League, Thomson came to Australia to join
Sydney City as a defender.
In 1980 he transferred from player to coach of Sydney
City. He won the Australian club championship three
times from 1980-82
Thomson, whose first match as national coach was
against South Korea in Seoul on 6 Sept. 1990,
resulted in a 1-0 loss.
He left the national coach post in 1996 but not
before setting the foundations for the future crop of
Socceroos.
In his last few games he brought in youngsters Harry
Kewell and Lucas Neill into the senior team. Both
Kewell and Neill star in the English Premier League.
Thomson returned to the club level and coached
Japanese team Sanfrecce Hiroshima for four years
before returning to Australia in 2000.
Thomson is survived by wife Pauline and children,
Steven and Claire.
Former Socceroo coach
Eddie Thomson loses 18-month battle with cancer -
smh.com.au by Michael Cockerill
Former
Socceroo coach Eddie Thomson died early yesterday
after a long battle against cancer.
Thomson,
who was four days short of his 56th birthday, passed
away in Sydney after 18 months of fighting the
disease, and according to close friends remained
philosophical right until the end.
"His
spirit was unbelievable," Raul Blanco, another
former national coach, said recently.
Thomson was
born in the small Scottish village of Rosewell just
outside Edinburgh. The son of a miner and youngest of
seven children, he knew from an early age that
football was his passport to a better life.
While two
brothers became doctors and another a truck driver,
Thomson never had any doubts about his preferred
vocation. Every Christmas he got the same present - a
pair of football boots and a soccer ball made in
Pakistan.
He left school at 15
to work in a tweed mill while honing his talents in
pick-up games at the weekend. A tough, reliable
central defender, his big break came at the age of 17
when he signed professional forms for his hometown
club, Heart of Midlothian.
"I was walking
around Rosewell with a blazer and tie for the first
time in my life, and all my mates were bagging
me," he once recalled.
Thomson made his
league debut in his first season, eventually gaining
three caps for Scotland's under-21 side before going
on to captain Hearts for four seasons. After a
three-year spell with Aberdeen, he left Scotland in
1976 to begin his travels, playing one season in the
US with San Antonio Thunder before arriving in
Australia in time to join Sydney City for the start
of the new national league in 1977.
After winning a
championship as a player in that first season,
Thomson graduated to the coaching ranks in time to
help Sydney City to three consecutive titles. His
first title, in 1980, was his last season as a
player.
Although Sydney City
collapsed in 1987, they are still regarded as the
NSL's benchmark club and Thomson's contribution,
which included being voted NSL Coach of the Year
three times, was enormous.
During his time with
Sydney City, who were backed by the Hakoah Club at
Bondi, Thomson developed a close friendship with club
president and Westfields founder Frank Lowy, and
became well-respected within the local Jewish
community.
In 1983 Thomson was
introduced to the national team set-up as part-time
assistant to coach Frank Arok, and remained there
until a falling-out with Arok at the Seoul Games in
1988. In 1990 he succeeded Arok as national coach and
took Australia through 59 internationals and two
World Cup campaigns before resigning to accept an
offer from Japanese side Sanfrecce Hiroshima in 1996.
Sadly, Thomson's
spell with the national team was marred in 1994 by
the Stewart Report into the transfer of Australian
players to overseas clubs. Former Supreme Court judge
Donald Stewart recommended Thomson be sacked for his
alleged involvement in the transfer of Socceroo Ned
Zelic from Sydney Olympic to German club Borussia
Dortmund. A subsequent Senate Inquiry said there was
no credible evidence to "justify such a severe
penalty".
Thomson returned to
Australia from Japan two years ago, spending six
months travelling around the country in a campervan
with his wife, Pauline. It was during the trip that
he was diagnosed with cancer, but despite the illness
and regular sessions of chemotherapy, he was a
regular spectator at NSL games until recently. During
his last public appearance, at Parramatta Stadium
just before Christmas, he received a standing ovation
from the crowd as he was inducted into Soccer
Australia's Hall of Fame.
Thomson is survived
by his wife, son Steven and daughter Claire.
At
NSWASF WEB SITE, EDDIE THOMSON - RIP reports
The
Australian soccer fraternity is in mourning after the
passing of one of the greats of Australian soccer -
former national team coach Eddie Thomson. Eddie
passed away late last night in Sydney, aged 55, after
a long and brave battle against cancer. Eddie is
survived by wife Pauline and children Steven and
Claire.
Eddie, who excelled both as a player and as a coach,
is best known for a coaching career that included
three consecutive National Soccer League
Championships with Sydney City, and a lengthy tenure
as National Coach (1990 - 1996) - a period that
including the 1994 World Cup campaign and both the
1992 and 1996 Olympics.
Eddie watched, and no doubt thoroughly enjoyed, the
historic win over England last week by an Australian
team that featured many players brought into the
national team as young players under Eddie's
tutelage.
Eddie Thompson biography
Eddie Thomson was born in Rosewell, Scotland on 25
February 1947 and played as a junior at Whitehall
Welfare and Penicuik Athletic. He transferred to
Heart of Midlothian in 1966 and played 162 league
games for Hearts until transferring to Aberdeen in
1973. He spent three years at Aberdeen, incorporating
a tour to Australia with the club in 1974. After
playing 253 league games over 10 years in Scotland's
top division, he moved to the North American Soccer
League in 1976 where he linked up with San Antonio
Thunder.
In 1977, the first year of the National Soccer
League, Thomson came to Australia to join Sydney City
- then known as Hakoah Eastern Suburbs. Playing
mainly as a defender he was a vital part of the
Sydney City team which took out the inaugural NSL
Championship in 1977, and also finished in the top
three in the following two seasons.
In 1980 he transferred from player to coach. His
talent in the coaching sphere was immediately
apparent, as he took out three consecutive NSL
Championships in his first three years as coach. This
was an era in which the NSL Champion team was that
team which finished on top of the competition table,
and Sydney City's 1982 final margin of nine points
ahead of second placed St George stands as the
national league’s record Championship-winning
margin. With Sydney City he also finished at the top
of the northern division ladder in 1984 and 1985, and
won the National Cup in 1986. In 1987 he moved to the
Olympic Sharks, taking the club to the 1989 Grand
Final before departing early in the 1989/90 season to
concentrate on his national role.
Thomson’s record in his ten years as NSL coach
was phenomenal. He was Coach of the Year a record
three times (1981, 1984 and 1985) and won
Championship honours as coach a record three times as
well (1980 to 1982). His win-draw-loss tally in 272
games coached stands at 139-73-60. No other NSL coach
with 100 or more games in the national league has
come close to winning more than twice as many games
as he lost.
His national coaching duties commenced in 1984 when
he took charge of the Australia B team in a
tournament against prominent overseas clubs. His
first game at the helm of Australia B was a 0-0 draw
against Glasgow Rangers in Melbourne. In 1985 he
became assistant to head coach Frank Arok, and in
1990 he took full charge of the national team
following Arok’s departure.
Thomson’s first match as national coach was
against South Korea in Seoul on 6 September 1990, a
1-0 loss. Leading in to the 1994 World Cup qualifiers
he gained some impressive results, including wins
over 1992 European Championship semi-finalists
Sweden, and a memorable 1-0 victory over the USA in
Florida. In the 1994 World Cup qualifiers Australia
breezed through the Oceania qualifiers and won a
grueling two-legged play-off against Canada, only to
meet to the might of Argentina in the final play-off.
Argentina, who had made the final of the previous
World Cup, was inspired by the highly publicised
return of Maradona for the confrontation with the
Aussies. Watched by millions around the world,
Thomson’s Socceroos drew the first match 1-1 in
Sydney and lost the away leg with an own goal 1-0.
Despite not qualifying for WC94, Australia had shown
that it could well and truly match it with the
world’s most powerful nations - thanks largely
to the coach who had been part of the team for the
past ten years.
Thomson also assumed the coaching role of the 1992
and 1996 Australian Olympic teams. To reach the
Olympics Australia needed to win Oceania and then
play-off against a team from another confederation.
Thomson’s Olyroos reached the semi finals in
Barcelona ’92 in one of the best performances
ever by an Australian team in a major finals
tournament.
He left the national coach post in 1996 but not
before setting the foundations for the future crop of
Socceroos. In his last few games he raised eyebrows
by bringing little known youngsters Harry Kewell and
Lucas Neill into the senior team. He returned to the
club level and coached Japanese team Sanfrecce
Hiroshima for four years before returning home to
Australia in 2000.
EDDIE THOMSON - 35 YEARS AT THE TOP
Playing career
1966-1973 Heart of Midlothian (Scotland First
Division) - 162 games
1973-1976 Aberdeen (Scotland First Division) - 91
games
1976 San Antonio Thunder (North American Soccer
League) - 19 games 1977-1980 Sydney City (National
Soccer League) - 66 games
Club coaching career
1980-1986 Sydney City (National Soccer League)
1987-1989 Olympic Sharks (National Soccer League)
1996-2000 Sanfrecce Hiroshima (J-league)
National coaching career
1984 Australian B team
1985-1989 Australian senior team assistant
1990-1996 Australian senior team
1990-1996 Australian Olympic team
National Soccer League honours
As a player: two Championships (Sydney City 1977 and
1980)
As a coach: three Championships (Sydney City 1980,
1981, 1982), three times Coach of the Year (Sydney
City 1981, 1984 and 1985), one National Cup (Sydney
City 1986), two Grand Finals (Sydney City 1985,
Olympic Sharks 1989)
Thanks
once again to Peter McConnell for informing me of this
news.
Further
February 2003 news can be found at ...
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