Joe Baker

Life and work

The story behind the role.

Researcher focused on expertise, athlete development, ageing and talent systems.

Joseph Henry Baker (17 August 1940 – 6 October 2003) was a professional footballer who played at club level for Hibernian, Torino, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Sunderland and Raith Rovers. At the age of 26 he achieved the feat of having scored 100 top division goals in both Scotland and England. He made eight appearances for the England national team, scoring three goals. Born to a Scottish mother and English father in Liverpool, Baker spent the first six weeks of his life in England and was then raised in Scotland until he moved to Italy aged 20. Despite self-identifying as Scottish, rules at the time meant his only international football eligibility was for his birth nation. His full England debut in 1959 made him the first professional footballer to represent England while playing for a club outside the English football league system, and the first to have never played for an English club before his full England debut.

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