Charlie Williams
Goalkeeper 1902-1905
Born on 19th November 1873 in Welling, Kent, England.
Charlie Williams was a player and coach who led a very varied career in football.
Having starred for amateur clubs Phoenix and Erith in his native Kent, he went on to play for Royal and Woolwich Arsenal from 1891 and kept goal in their first Football League fixture in 1893. Made 19 appearances for the South London side.
Signed for Manchester City from Woolwich Arsenal when City first formed in June 1894 as Ardwick and in his eight years there, he played over 200 times for the Citizens, becoming famous for being the first goalkeeper to score a goal from open play against Sunderland on 14th April 1900. Charlie represented the Football League, won a Second Division Championship winners medal with City in 1898-99. Williams signed for Spurs in May 1902 as an understudy to George Clawley. becoming a regular in the Southern League from September 1903 to October 1904 making 36 league appearances and five in the FA Cup. During his time at Tottenham, he won London Premier League, South Eastern League and Western League.
He left Spurs in April 1905 and joined Norwich City, where he made 29 appearances and then moved on to Brentford a year later, where he played 58 games.
It was said that he had been training Kobenhavns Boldklub in Denmark even before he had retired, but he went into coaching full-time on his retirement from the game, where he trained the Danish Olympic team, Le Havre (France) and Rio Grande del Sol of Brazil. His move to Brazil came in 2011, when Englishman Oscar Cox – founder of Fluminense, came to London and hired Williams as the club’s coach and the first professional coach in Brazil. Took them to the Championship of Rio, unbeaten in all six games and in 1912 managed the club to victory in their first ever derby with rivals Flamengo.
Charlie returned to Europe in 1912 to coach B93 (Denmark) and Olympique Lillois (France), before returning to brazil in 1924 to Fluminense to win the Rio Championship again. He then took over at America FC in Rio, moving to the same position at Botofogo and finally he coached Flamengo for a year before retiring in 1931. Remaining in his adopted country, his son (also Charlie) was a referee in Brazil according to some reports and his great-great nephew (Seth Burkett) was signed up by Sorriso EC after being spotted on tour there with Stamford AFC, returning to England after a year as the only Englishman playing professionally in Brazil.
Charlie Williams died in Rio de Janeiro on 29th July 1952.