Frank Soo
Encyclopedia
Frank Soo was an English
professional football player and manager of mixed Chinese
and English
parentage. Soo played as an inside forward.
, Derbyshire
,Frank Soo is a different person than Hong Y.Soo - of Births 1914 (1) Liverpool district Vol 8b p 159 and brought up in Liverpool
. His parents, Liverpool-based Chinese sailor father Our Quong Soo (can also be transliterated as Ah Kwong Soo) and English mother Beatrice Whittam, had married in Chorlton, Manchester in 1908. Frank had a number of siblings; an elder brother Norman (born 1909 in Chorlton), and younger siblings: Phyllis, Ronald, Jack, Harold and finally Kenneth in 1931. By 1920 the family had settled in West Derby, Liverpool. His brother, Ronald, was killed on 14 January 1944 while serving as an air gunner
in No. 166 Squadron
. He is buried at Hanover Cemetery, Germany.
Soo was one of the first ethnic minority footballers to play in the Football League.http://www.englandfootballonline.com/TeamBlack/Black.html
Having later lived in several countries, his address at the time of his death was given as New Cheadle Hospital, Cheadle, Staffordshire
.
, moving to Stoke City
in January 1933. By the time of the Second World War
, Soo had established himself as a crowd favourite at Stoke, playing alongside such celebrated players as Stanley Matthews and Freddie Steele. During the war, he guested for Everton
, Chelsea
, Reading
, Millwall
and Brentford
and played nine times for the England national football team
between 1942 and 1945 (in Wartime and Victory internationals), the first non-white person ever to play for the national team (albeit in semi-official matches only) and the only person of East Asian descent to date. He also played for several FA
representative teams not officially described as "England".
In September 1945, after playing 173 league games for Stoke, Soo moved to Leicester City
for a fee of £4,600, rejoining the manager who had signed him for Stoke, Tom Mather
. He moved to Luton Town
in July 1946 for a fee of £5,000, playing a further 71 league games before joining non-league Chelmsford City
directly from Luton for a reported fee of £2,500 in the 1948-1949 season for whom he made 82 first team appearances and scored 10 goals,mostly directly from free kicks.
, a post he held until July 1952.
In October 1950 he gave a talk at Littleport Town FC in Littleport, Cambridgeshire
, when he was an FA Coach.
He was subsequently coach of Padova
for the end of the 1950–51 season and the start of the 1951/52 season.
Later in 1952 he became coach of the Norway national football team
and then Swedish
side IFK Eskilstuna
, taking over at Örebro SK
in 1953, Djurgårdens IF in 1954, IK Oddevold
in 1956 and AIK
in 1958
In June 1959 he was appointed as manager of Scunthorpe United
, but left in May 1960 after his one season in charge had seen Scunthorpe finish a respectable 15th in Division Two. Afterwards he had a spell as manager of St Albans City. He subsequently returned to Scandinavia
, taking over as coach of IS Köping in 1962, IFK Stockholm
in 1963, Fredrikstad in 1964 and AB Copenhagen in 1965. He later coached a number of teams in Copenhagen
and Malmö
before taking over as coach of Höganäs BK
in 1972.
He also had a spell as manager of the Israel
national team.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
professional football player and manager of mixed Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
parentage. Soo played as an inside forward.
Personal life
Soo was born in BuxtonBuxton
Buxton is a spa town in Derbyshire, England. It has the highest elevation of any market town in England. Located close to the county boundary with Cheshire to the west and Staffordshire to the south, Buxton is described as "the gateway to the Peak District National Park"...
, Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
,Frank Soo is a different person than Hong Y.Soo - of Births 1914 (1) Liverpool district Vol 8b p 159 and brought up in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. His parents, Liverpool-based Chinese sailor father Our Quong Soo (can also be transliterated as Ah Kwong Soo) and English mother Beatrice Whittam, had married in Chorlton, Manchester in 1908. Frank had a number of siblings; an elder brother Norman (born 1909 in Chorlton), and younger siblings: Phyllis, Ronald, Jack, Harold and finally Kenneth in 1931. By 1920 the family had settled in West Derby, Liverpool. His brother, Ronald, was killed on 14 January 1944 while serving as an air gunner
Air gunner
An air gunner a.k.a. aerial gunner is a member of an air force aircrew who operates flexible-mount or turret-mounted machine guns or autocannons in an aircraft...
in No. 166 Squadron
No. 166 Squadron RAF
No. 166 Squadron RAF was a Royal Air Force squadron that formed just after the end of World War I. It was the first and one of only three to be equipped with the Handley Page V/1500 heavy bomber.-History:...
. He is buried at Hanover Cemetery, Germany.
Soo was one of the first ethnic minority footballers to play in the Football League.http://www.englandfootballonline.com/TeamBlack/Black.html
Having later lived in several countries, his address at the time of his death was given as New Cheadle Hospital, Cheadle, Staffordshire
Cheadle, Staffordshire
Cheadle is a small market town near Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, with a population of 12,158 according to the 2001 census. It is roughly from the city of Stoke-on-Trent, north of Birmingham and south of Manchester...
.
Playing career
Soo began his career with Prescot CablesPrescot Cables F.C.
Prescot Cables F.C. is a football club based in Prescot, Merseyside. It was established in 1884 and has also been known as Prescot and Prescot Town...
, moving to Stoke City
Stoke City F.C.
Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts...
in January 1933. By the time of the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Soo had established himself as a crowd favourite at Stoke, playing alongside such celebrated players as Stanley Matthews and Freddie Steele. During the war, he guested for Everton
Everton F.C.
Everton Football Club are an English professional association football club from the city of Liverpool. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of English football...
, Chelsea
Chelsea F.C.
Chelsea Football Club are an English football club based in West London. Founded in 1905, they play in the Premier League and have spent most of their history in the top tier of English football. Chelsea have been English champions four times, FA Cup winners six times and League Cup winners four...
, Reading
Reading F.C.
Reading Football Club is an English association football club based in the town of Reading, Berkshire who currently play in the Championship...
, Millwall
Millwall F.C.
Millwall Football Club is an English professional football club based in South Bermondsey, south east London, that plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its name despite having last played in the...
and Brentford
Brentford F.C.
Brentford Football Club are a professional English football club based in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow. They are currently playing in Football League One....
and played nine times for the England national football team
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
between 1942 and 1945 (in Wartime and Victory internationals), the first non-white person ever to play for the national team (albeit in semi-official matches only) and the only person of East Asian descent to date. He also played for several FA
The Football Association
The Football Association, also known as simply The FA, is the governing body of football in England, and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. It was formed in 1863, and is the oldest national football association...
representative teams not officially described as "England".
In September 1945, after playing 173 league games for Stoke, Soo moved to Leicester City
Leicester City F.C.
Leicester City Football Club , also known as The Foxes, is an English professional football club based at the King Power Stadium in Leicester...
for a fee of £4,600, rejoining the manager who had signed him for Stoke, Tom Mather
Tom Mather
Tom Mather , was a football player and manager.-Career:Mather was assistant secretary of both Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers before taking the manager's job at Bolton at the beginning of the First World War, remaining at the club until 1915 when he was called up by the Royal Navy...
. He moved to Luton Town
Luton Town F.C.
Luton Town Football Club is an English professional football club based since 1905 at Kenilworth Road, Luton, Bedfordshire. The club currently competes in the fifth tier of English football, the Conference National, for the third consecutive season during the 2011–12 season.Formed in 1885, it was...
in July 1946 for a fee of £5,000, playing a further 71 league games before joining non-league Chelmsford City
Chelmsford City F.C.
Chelmsford City F.C. is an English semi-professional football club based in the town of Chelmsford, Essex. The club are currently members of the Conference South and play at the Melbourne Stadium.-Chelmsford:...
directly from Luton for a reported fee of £2,500 in the 1948-1949 season for whom he made 82 first team appearances and scored 10 goals,mostly directly from free kicks.
Managerial career
In April 1950 he was appointed as manager of PadovaCalcio Padova
Calcio Padova is an Italian football club, based in Padua, Veneto. The club was founded in 1910. Padova is playing in Serie B, having last been in Serie A in 1996...
, a post he held until July 1952.
In October 1950 he gave a talk at Littleport Town FC in Littleport, Cambridgeshire
Littleport, Cambridgeshire
Littleport is the largest village in East Cambridgeshire, England, approximately north of Ely and south-east of Welney. It lies on the Bedford Level South section of the River Great Ouse, close to Burnt Fen and Mare Fen...
, when he was an FA Coach.
He was subsequently coach of Padova
Calcio Padova
Calcio Padova is an Italian football club, based in Padua, Veneto. The club was founded in 1910. Padova is playing in Serie B, having last been in Serie A in 1996...
for the end of the 1950–51 season and the start of the 1951/52 season.
Later in 1952 he became coach of the Norway national football team
Norway national football team
The Norway national football team represents Norway in association football and is controlled by the Football Association of Norway, the governing body for football in Norway. Norway's home ground is Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo and their head coach is Egil Olsen...
and then Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
side IFK Eskilstuna
IFK Eskilstuna
IFK Eskilstuna is a Swedish football club located in Eskilstuna in Södermanland County. In their early seasons IFK had a proud record as a Allsvenskan club but they now play in Division 3 Västra Svealand which is the fifth tier of Swedish football....
, taking over at Örebro SK
Örebro SK
Örebro SK, also known as ÖSK or just Örebro, is a Swedish football club based in Örebro. The club, formed on 28 October 1908, is currently playing in the highest Swedish league, Allsvenskan.-The first years:...
in 1953, Djurgårdens IF in 1954, IK Oddevold
IK Oddevold
IK Oddevold is a Swedish football club located in Uddevalla, the name "Oddevold" being an older form of Uddevalla. The club, formed on 3 July 1932, currently plays in Sweden's third-flight league, Division 1...
in 1956 and AIK
AIK Fotboll
AIK, , an abbreviation for Allmänna Idrottsklubben, , when needed internationally AIK Stockholm, is a Swedish football club based at Råsunda stadium in Solna, a municipality in Stockholm County bordering to Stockholm City Centre...
in 1958
In June 1959 he was appointed as manager of Scunthorpe United
Scunthorpe United F.C.
Scunthorpe United Football Club is an English association football team based in the town of Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, who play in the Football League One....
, but left in May 1960 after his one season in charge had seen Scunthorpe finish a respectable 15th in Division Two. Afterwards he had a spell as manager of St Albans City. He subsequently returned to Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, taking over as coach of IS Köping in 1962, IFK Stockholm
IFK Stockholm
IFK Stockholm is multi-sports club in Stockholm, Sweden. It is most known for its football team.- Background :The club was formed 1 February 1895 as IF Kamraterna by two young students, Louis Zettersten and Pehr Ehnemark, and was the first IFK club...
in 1963, Fredrikstad in 1964 and AB Copenhagen in 1965. He later coached a number of teams in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
and Malmö
Malmö
Malmö , in the southernmost province of Scania, is the third most populous city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg.Malmö is the seat of Malmö Municipality and the capital of Skåne County...
before taking over as coach of Höganäs BK
Höganäs BK
Höganäs BK is a Swedish football club located in Höganäs in Skåne County.-Background:Höganäs Bollklubb were founded in 1913 and for many years before and after the Second World War played in Division 2, which at that time was the second tier of Swedish football...
in 1972.
He also had a spell as manager of the Israel
Israel national football team
The Israel national football team is the national football team of Israel, controlled by the Israel Football Association .Israel National Football is the direct successor of the Eretz Yisrael National Team during British Mandate...
national team.
International games played
- 9 May 1942: Wales 1 - England 0 (Ninian Park, Cardiff, attendance 30,000)
- 25 September 1943: England 8 - Wales 3 (Wembley Stadium, London, attendance 80,000)
- 22 April 1944: Scotland 2 - England 3 (Hampden Park, Glasgow, attendance 133,000)
- 30 September 1944: France XI 0 - FA Services XI 5 (Parc des Princes, Paris, attendance 30,000)
- 1 October 1944: Belgium 0 - FA Services XI 3 (Stade du Daring Club, Brussels, attendance 28,000)
- 14 October 1944: England 6 - Scotland 2 (Wembley Stadium, London, attendance 90,000)
- 3 February 1945: England 3 - Scotland 2 (Villa Park, Birmingham, attendance 65,780)
- 14 April 1945: Scotland 1 - England 6 (Hampden Park, Glasgow, attendance 133,000)
- 26 May 1945: England 2 - France 2 (Wembley Stadium, London, attendance 65,000) ("Victory International")
- 21 July 1945: Switzerland 3 - England 1 (Neufeld Stadion, Bern, attendance 35,000) (Unofficial international - Swiss FA 50th anniversary)
- 15 September 1945: IrelandIreland national football team (IFA)The Ireland national football team represented Ireland at association football, it was organised by the Irish FA , and is the fourth oldest international team in the world. It mainly played in the British Home Championship against England, Scotland and Wales...
0 - England 1 (Windsor Park, Belfast, attendance 45,061) - 20 October 1945: England 0 - Wales 1 (The Hawthorns, Birmingham, attendance 54,611)
Career statistics
| Club | Season | League | FA Cup | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Stoke City Stoke City F.C. Stoke City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire that plays in the Premier League. Founded in 1863, it is the oldest club in the Premier League, and considered to be the second oldest professional football club in the world, after Notts... |
1933–34 | 14 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 3 |
| 1934–35 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | |
| 1935–36 | 35 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 40 | 0 | |
| 1936–37 | 31 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 0 | |
| 1937–38 | 42 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 45 | 5 | |
| 1937–38 | 42 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 44 | 3 | |
| Total | 173 | 5 | 12 | 5 | 185 | 10 | |
| Luton Town Luton Town F.C. Luton Town Football Club is an English professional football club based since 1905 at Kenilworth Road, Luton, Bedfordshire. The club currently competes in the fifth tier of English football, the Conference National, for the third consecutive season during the 2011–12 season.Formed in 1885, it was... |
1946–47 | | | |||||
| 1947–48 | | | ||||||
| 1948–49 | | | ||||||
| Total | 71 | 4 | 71 | 4 | |||
| Career Total | 244 | 9 | 12 | 5 | 256 | 14 | |