Charlie Williams

Whilst he is known as the man who coached Denmark to the silver medal at the 1908 London Olympics, Charlie Williams had a colourful career as both a player and coach.

Having played for local junior sides as a youngster, he joined Arsenal (then Woolwich Arsenal) as an 18-year-old goalkeeper and signed professional forms in June 1893. Having made his début for them in an FA Cup game against Sunderland in January 1893, he was in their team when they played their first ever Football League game later in the year against Newcastle United. After 23 games for The Gunners, Williams moved to Manchester City in 1894 and went on to play 221 League games for them, until his last game in January 1902. During his time there, in a game against Sunderland on 14 April 1900, Williams scored City’s only goal in a 3-1 defeat, and is one of the few goalkeepers to have scored a goal in the Football League. It is almost certain that he was the first to have achieved the feat. Williams was part of the City team that won their first ever League title, that of the second division in 1898/99.

After Manchester City, Williams played in the Southern League with Tottenham Hotspur, Norwich City and Brentford before retiring from playing in the 1907/08 season. He then turned to coaching, and between 1908-10 was coach to the Denmark national side, leading them to second place at the 1908 London Olympics. He then became the first professional coach in Brazil when he took charge at Fluminense in 1911 and guided them to the Rio de Janeiro Championship (Campeonato Carioca) that year. After one season he returned to Europe and coached at B93 in Denmark and Olympique Lillois (now just Lille OSC) in France, before going back to Brazil to join Fluminense for a second time in 1924, when he again won the Rio title. He also coached at America FC (winning the Rio title in 1928), Botafogo and Flamengo, before eventually retiring in 1931. He remained in Brazil after ending his career, and died in Rio in 1952.