John Ritchie (footballer born 1941)
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | John Henry Ritchie | ||
| Date of birth | 12 July 1941 | ||
| Place of birth | Kettering, England | ||
| Date of death | 23 February 2007 (aged 65) | ||
| Playing position | Forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1960–1962 | Kettering Town | 76 | (40) |
| 1962–1966 | Stoke City | 110 | (64) |
| 1966–1969 | Sheffield Wednesday | 89 | (34) |
| 1969–1975 | Stoke City | 159 | (71) |
| Total | 434 | (209) | |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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John Henry Ritchie (12 July 1941 – 23 February 2007) was an English footballer. He is Stoke City's all-time record goalscorer.
Ritchie began his career with his hometown club Kettering Town before joining Stoke City in 1962. In his first full season as a professional Ritchie scored an impressive 30 goals and hit 81 goals in 135 appearances. He was surprisingly sold by Tony Waddington to Sheffield Wednesday in November 1966 for £80,000. After scored 45 goals for Wednesday in three seasons Waddington decided that selling Ritchie was a mistake and re-signed him for £28,000. He continued to be a prolific goalscorer for Stoke City and helped then win their first major trophy, the 1972 Football League Cup and reach two FA Cup semi finals. He remained at Stoke until September 1974 when a broken leg ended his career. He had scored 176 goals for Stoke in 347 matches making him Stoke's record goalscorer.
Born in Kettering, Ritchie is Stoke City's top marksman of all-time having scored 176 goals in 347 games during two spells at the club, from June 1962 to November 1966, and from July 1969 to May 1975.
In September 1961 Stoke City manager Tony Waddington was in a telephone conversation with a fellow manager who bemoaned the fact despite finding a fine non-league player his club could not afford him. At the end of that conversation Waddington rang around several colleagues to ask about John Ritchie, and he learned of a big strong striker who had scored 40 goals for non-league Kettering Town. Impressed by what he heard Waddington contacted Kettering and completed the deal immediately despite never seeing him play. Ritchie actually took a pay drop to join Stoke as he had been working in a local shoe factory and playing part-time. In his first season at Stoke Ritchie only made sporadic appearances while Dennis Viollet and Jackie Mudie held sway in the first team.
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