Don Revie - Playing Career

Playing Career

Revie was born in Middlesbrough on 10 July 1927. He signed as a footballer for Leicester City in August 1944. Leicester City originally thought him not good enough to turn professional, but he was taken under the wing of Leicester player Sep Smith who began to mentor Revie on many of his ideas about the game. He also learned the rudiments of the bricklaying trade outside football. From there he went on to play for Hull City in 1949 (transfer fee £20,000), Manchester City in 1951 (£25,000), Sunderland in October 1956 (£22,000) and Leeds United in November 1958 (£12,000). The combined transfer fees paid over his career were at the time (1958) a record in English football.

Revie won six caps for England, was Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year in 1955 and won an FA Cup winners medal with Manchester City in 1956. At Manchester City the playing tactic of using a deep-lying centre forward (Revie's position, evolved from the more traditional inside right), and based on the style of the successful Hungarian national team, and in particular Nándor Hidegkuti, who invented the role. This helped Manchester City to a 3–1 victory over Birmingham in the 1956 FA Cup Final, a game best known for goalkeeper Bert Trautmann playing the last 18 minutes of the match with a broken neck.