Johnny Dexter was a fictional footballer

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 who appeared in three different comic strips in the British boys' comic Roy of the Rovers

Roy of the Rovers

Roy of the Rovers is a British comic strip about the life and times of a fictional footballer named Roy Race, who played for Melchester Rovers...

during the 1970s, 80s and 90s. He was amongst the most popular characters in the comic, being the only one other than Roy himself ever to appear on the cover of one of the comic's annuals

Annual publication

An annual publication, more often called simply an annual, is a book or a magazine, comic book or comic strip published yearly. For example, a weekly or monthly publication may produce an Annual featuring similar materials to the regular publication....

, and is still fondly remembered by fans of the "golden age" of British sports-themed comics.

The Hard Man

Dexter made his debut in the very first issue of the weekly Roy of the Rovers comic, dated 25 September 1976, starring in the strip The Hard Man. Johnny was the titular character, so named because of his rugged style of play and fiery temper, which often got him into trouble with referees. He initially played for Danefield United, but was transferred to Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 team Real Granpala, where he first encountered Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 manager Viktor Boskovic, who followed him back to Danefield when he returned there.

The strip was written by Barrie Tomlinson and usually drawn by Doug Maxted. The tone of the strip was generally light-hearted, with large doses of humour provided by the camp antics of the fat, bald-headed Boskovic, who was fond of kissing his players when they performed well, and often fainted during moments of high drama. Johnny also regularly found himself involved in off-pitch slapstick, including one memorable storyline in which he travelled to Italy to discuss signing for a top Serie A

Serie A

Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...

 team. After rebuffing the team's owner, he ended up in prison and then was forced to try and flee the country dressed in drag.

The Hard Man ran for nine years, but came to an end (as part of a larger overhaul of the comic) when a rising star named Bobby Williams took Dexter's first team place during a pre-season tour of the continent. When Johnny returned for pre-season training he put in a transfer request, which Viktor accepted. Somewhat bizarrely considering his status as a former England international

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...

, the only club to make a bid for Johnny was the worst club in the Football League, Burnside Athletic, who had finished bottom of the Fourth Division in three of the previous four seasons. Johnny was granted a free transfer and appeared in the "Hard Man" strip for the last time on 10 August 1985.

Dexter's Dozen

Upon moving to Burnside, Dexter began appearing in a new story entitled Dexter's Dozen. Barrie Tomlinson remained the writer, but Mike White took over as the artist, using a much more realistic style than the comedic art which had been seen in The Hard Man. This was in keeping with the initial tone of the new story, which eschewed comedy in favour of a serious depiction of the struggles of the lowly club. Soon, however, the tone shifted somewhat, as Boskovic was re-introduced, taking over as Burnside's manager and once again displaying his trademark antics, including making the team wear clown

Clown

Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...

 costumes during the half-time interval of a match where they were performing especially poorly, and making them train atop a huge piece of apparatus resembling an assault course

Assault course

An assault course is a special sort of trail that combines running and exercising. It was more popular in the 1970s than it is now. It is heavily used in military training...

, going so far as to push players off the top into a vat full of water if they under-performed. The strip ran for only one season, during which Dexter was able to lead his new club to promotion, with the final episode appearing in the comic dated 16 August 1986.

Melchester Rovers

During the summer of 1986, the Melchester Rovers

Melchester Rovers

Melchester Rovers are a fictional football team with whom Roy Race spent most of his illustrious career in the British comic strip Roy of the Rovers, which first appeared in Tiger at its inception in 1954.- Early years :...

 team depicted in the main Roy of the Rovers strip had been decimated by a terrorist atrocity which had killed several players, and Dexter joined the club as one of manager Roy Race's new signings as he re-built the team (making him one of a number of players who migrated from their own strip to the main RotR strip during the comic's lifetime). He continued to play for Rovers until the demise of the weekly comic in 1993 and then went on to appear for them during the subsequent short-lived Roy of the Rovers Monthly, his temper causing rifts with both Blackie Gray and Mervyn Wallace during their spells as Rovers manager. He also memorably had an on-pitch fight with his own team-mate, Roy's son Rocky. While with the Rovers he helped them win the Littlewoods Cup

Football League Cup

The Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or, from current sponsorship, the Carling Cup, is an English association football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...

 in 1987, the Football League Championship in 1988 and 1992, and the FA Cup

FA Cup

The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...

 in 1990.

Managerial career

When the Roy of the Rovers strip was revived in the BBC's Match of the Day

Match of the Day

Match of the Day is the BBC's main football television programme. Typically, it is shown on BBC One on Saturday evenings during the English football season, showing highlights of the day's matches in English football's top division, the Premier League...

magazine in 1997, Dexter was depicted as the iron-willed manager of FA Premier League

FA Premier League

The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier...

side Castlemere, whom he led to the FA Cup Final in 1999 where they lost out to Melchester Rovers.