George Raynor

George Sidney Raynor (13 January 1907 in Hoyland Common, Yorkshire – 24 November 1985) was an English professional footballer and one of the most successful international football managers ever. One of his greatest achievements was taking the Sweden national football team to a World Cup final, and he also managed them to an Olympic gold medal.

Playing career

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's') in 1939 in order to train soldiers in the British Army. The Football Association had requested that all professional footballers become PTI's 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, Raynor 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 Stanley Rous. Thereafter, as Brian Glanville notes (with some poetic licence) in his The Story of the World Cup, "the FA whisked him in 1946 from reserve team trainer at Aldershot to the team managership of Sweden".

George Raynor (cricketer)

George Sydney Raynor (9 October 1852 – 1 September 1887) was an English clergyman, a schoolmaster and a cricketer who played in first-class cricket matches for Cambridge University in 1872 and 1873. He was born at Sandsend, Lythe, North Yorkshire and died at West Wickham, Kent.

Raynor was educated at Brentwood Grammar School, from where he won a scholarship to Winchester College, and at St John's College, Cambridge. At Winchester, he was a right-handed middle-order batsman and a right-arm fast bowler, but at Cambridge he batted very low in the batting order. The 37 not out that he made in the match against Surrey in 1872 constituted more than half of his total first-class runs and was made from No 11 in the batting line-up. In the previous match, he had taken five wickets in the second innings of the Gentlemen of England game for 44 runs, and this was the best bowling performance of his first-class career. He was picked for the 1872 University Match against Oxford University, but was not successful, failing to take a wicket. In 1873, he played only a single match, again with little success, and was not selected again.