 Williams while withBrentford 1907 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Charles Albert Williams | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1873-11-19)19 November 1873 | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Welling, Kent, England | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 29 July 1952(1952-07-29) (aged 78) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Goalkeeper | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1888–1889 | Phoenix | ||||||||||||||||
| 1889–1890 | Clarence | ||||||||||||||||
| 1890–1891 | Erith | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1891–1894 | Woolwich Arsenal | 19 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 1894–1902 | Manchester City | 232 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 1902–1904 | Tottenham Hotspur | 37 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 1904–1906 | Norwich City | 29 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 1906–1908 | Brentford | 59 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 376 | (1) | |||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1908–1910 | Denmark | ||||||||||||||||
| 1911–1912 | Fluminense | ||||||||||||||||
| B 93 | |||||||||||||||||
| Lille | |||||||||||||||||
| 1924–1926 | Fluminense | ||||||||||||||||
| 1928 | America FC (RJ) | ||||||||||||||||
| 1929–1930 | Botafogo | ||||||||||||||||
| 1930–1931 | Flamengo | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Charles Albert Williams (19 November 1873 – 29 July 1952) was an Englishfootballgoalkeeper and manager, who was the first goalkeeper known to have scored a goal in a first-class match.[1]
Williams started his career as a youth with minor amateur clubs Phoenix and Erith before joiningRoyal Arsenal in 1891.[2] He spent his first two seasons in and out of the first team, and started the1893–94 season, Arsenal's first in theFootball League, as regular goalkeeper, being in goal for Arsenal's very first game againstNewcastle United on 2 September 1893.
However, Williams was in goal for some of Arsenal's most heavy defeats that season, including a 6–0 defeat to Newcastle United and a 5–0 loss toLiverpool. Arsenal signedHarry Storer in the 1894 close season and duly sold Williams on toManchester City; he had played 23 first-class matches in total for Arsenal.[3]
At City, he was regular goalkeeper for eight seasons, and while there he won aSecond Division winners' medal in1898–99, and became the first goalkeeper in history to score a goal from open play, with a long clearance againstSunderland atRoker Park on 14 April 1900.[4]
After the 1901–02 season Manchester City were relegated and Williams was released. His next club wasTottenham Hotspur who signed him in May 1902.[4] His debut for Spurs occurred on 15 September 1902 and was aWestern League game againstMillwall Athletic, which Tottenham won 4–3.[4][5] AfterGeorge Clawley moved toSouthampton, Williams became first choice keeper and was more prominent in the 1903–04 season until he left the club in October 1904.[4]
He later had spells withNorwich City andBrentford,[6] making 59Southern League appearances for the latter club.[7]
Already in 1905 and 1907 there are reports of Williams taking charge of Københavns Boldklub (KB) in Denmark. In the Danish source it is written, that Williams had quit football already in 1905.[8]After retiring as a player, he became a manager and took charge of theDanish national team, whom he led through the football tournament of the1908 Olympics in London. After defeating the French B and A teams 9–0 and 17–1, Denmark lost the final gold medal match to Great Britain 2–0.
He also later managed the Danish clubB 93 and French sideOlympique Lillois.
Early 1911Oscar Cox, co-founder of recently establishedFluminense FC of Rio de Janeiro, on a visit in London, hired Williams to coach his club. For this Williams was remunerated with a monthly salary of £18 plus accommodation, food and two return voyages.[9] The man who "knows all the secrets and means of the violent sport," arrived on 16 March 1911 in Rio aboard the boatOropesa, becoming the first ever professional football coach in Brazil – Fluminense itself had been managed by aGround Committee up to this point.[10] With the club he won theChampionship of Rio of 1911 with an impressive record of six wins, no draws and no defeats and 21–1 goals. However, the next year was disappointing, with only a mediocre fifth place in the competition, now enlarged to eight clubs. During the 1912 championship he also managed the team in the first everFla-Flu derby againstCR Flamengo on 7 July 1912, which Fluminense won 3–2.
From May 1924 until September 1926 he returned to the helm of Fluminense, winning the Rio-Championship of 1924 and a second and third place in the years thereafter.
In Rio he also managedAmerica FC, with which he won theChampionship of Rio de Janeiro of 1928, defeating Fluminense in the decisive match 3–2.[11] From about April 1929 until the arrival of the Hungarian coachNicolas Ladany a year later he also managedBotafogo FC, before coaching CR Flamengo 1930–31 in 38 matches.[12]
Williams was one of eleven siblings and worked as a teenager at the Royal Woolwich Arsenal munitions factory as a "Moulder". His younger sister Ruth Ellen Williams married[13] Joseph Smith, the son of [also named] Joseph Smith - of the Royal Woolwich Arsenal Dial Square Workshop, cited in the "Founding Fathers" [section] of 'Arsenal 125 Years in the Making: The official illustrated history 1886-2011' ,[14] as unsuccessfully attempting to negotiate with the local cricket club for use of its pitch for Dial Square workshop's nascent works' football team. ""… in 1886, one Joseph Smith had tried to persuade the cricket club at the Woolwich Arsenal to allow part of their pitch to be used for football, but they would not hear of it..."
Norfolk-born Smith was among the vast numbers of Norfolk rural workers who migrated for work to London and Woolwich in the mid-19th Century.[15]
In 1894, coinciding with his transfer to Manchester City, Williams aged 20, married[16] 17 year old Edith Emily Taylor, two months before their daughter was born in Levenhulme, Manchester.[17] The couple had separated by the time of the 1911 census, when Edith and their daughter Mary Ann Williams were back living with Edith's parents in Plumstead, Kent. Edith remarried in 1928[18]
After his retirement, Williams remained in Brazil for the remainder of his life and died on 29 July 1952 in Rio de Janeiro, aged 78. Reports say he had a son, also named Charlie, who was a referee in the 1950s.
Seth Burkett, an English born writer and former player, is Charles Williams' great-great nephew. After being spotted by Brazilian football agents while his local teamStamford AFC were on tour in the country, he signed forSorriso EC, a club playing in thestate league ofMato Grosso, where he debuted in November 2009. Burkett has received plenty of media attention as the onlyEnglishman be playing professionally in Brazil. He returned to Stamford AFC, playing on the seventh level of English football, in 2010. Burkett's autobiography of his football career, with his time there and his family's personal history of Charlie Williams was documented in "The Boy In Brazil"[19] which wasThe Independent on Sunday 'Sports Book of The Week'
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