Football's Pioneering Managers: John Toshack
Born on 22 March, 1949, John Benjamin Toshack began his playing career with hometown club Cardiff City. In 1965, he became the youngest player to appear for the Bluebirds and quickly forged a reputation as a strong centre-forward.
After averaging nearly a goal every other game for Cardiff, Toshack earned a transfer to Liverpool, where he would form a fine strike partnership with Kevin Keegan that was so prolific that the BBC conducted a scientific experiment to see if there was telepathy between the pair.
Despite a trophy-laden spell with the Reds, in which he won two league titles and the European Cup, the latter part of his Liverpool career was beset by injuries and, on St. David’s Day 1978, he joined Swansea City as player-manager aged just 28.
Toshack’s impact on the club was immediate, guiding Swansea to three promotions in four seasons and peaking with a sixth-place top-flight finish in the 1981/82 season.
This success prompted commentators to tout Toshack as Bob Paisley’s long-term successor as Liverpool manager, not least after he removed his Swansea tracksuit jacket to display a Liverpool shirt as the two sides lined up to commemorate the life of Bill Shankly after his death in 1981.
However, the success could not be maintained and, after two relegations, he left the south Wales club in 1984. Toshack’s managerial career then took an unexpected turn.
After a year with Sporting Lisbon, he joined Real Sociedad in 1985 for the first of three spells in San Sebastián, winning the Copa del Rey in 1987 and finishing runners-up in La Liga the following season. Success in the Basque Country saw him headhunted by Real Madrid, who he led to the 1989/90 league title before leaving the following season.
Toshack later won honours with Deportivo La Coruña, Beşiktaş, Khazar Lankaran in Azerbaijan and Moroccan club Wydad Casablanca as he continued an itinerant coaching career until 2018.
Internationally, Toshack represented Wales 40 times between 1969 and 1980, scoring 13 goals and helping his country reach the 1976 European Nations Cup quarter-final. He later had two unsuccessful spells as Welsh national coach in 1994 and between 2004 and 2010 that were marred by player disquiet.
But Toshack is credited with being the godfather of Wales’ recent revival by reforming the youth development system and blooding the likes of Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey as teenagers. His contribution to Welsh football as both player and manager was recognised in 1982 when he was awarded an MBE.