Mark Walters

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Mark Walters
Personal information
Full name	Mark Everton Walters
Date of birth	June 2, 1964 (age 42)
Place of birth	Birmingham, England
Playing position	Midfielder/Winger
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1981–1987 1987–1991 1991–1996 1993–1994 1994–1995 1996 1996–1999 1999–2002	Aston Villa Rangers Liverpool → Stoke City (loan) → Wolves (loan) Southampton Swindon Town Bristol Rovers Total	181 0(32) 106 0(32) 094 0(14) 009 00(2) 011 00(3) 005 00(0) 115 0(27) 082 0(13) 603 (123)
National team
1991	England	001 00(0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Mark Everton Walters (born June 2, 1964) is a former professional footballer from Birmingham, England. He was an attacking goal scoring winger.

Contents 1 Club career 1.1 Aston Villa 1.2 Rangers 1.3 Liverpool 1.4 Southampton 1.5 Swindon Town 1.6 Bristol Rovers 2 England career 3 Retirement 4 Career honours 4.1 Aston Villa 4.2 Rangers 4.3 Liverpool 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Club career

[edit] Aston Villa

Walters began his career as an apprentice at Aston Villa, after signing professional forms he quickly showed why Ron Saunders signed him by making his debut under new manager Tony Barton on 28 April 1982 at the tender age of 17 in the 4-1 league defeat to Leeds United at Villa Park.

Walters appeared 234 times and scored 48 goals in the 5 years he spent at his boyhood favourites before an offer of £550,000 from Scottish side Rangers tempted Walters into a move north of the border.

[edit] Rangers

Due to English clubs being banned from European competition, teams such as Rangers, who were managed by former Anfield great Graeme Souness, were finding it easier to attract English players and signed internationals like Terry Butcher, Trevor Steven, Gary Stevens, Chris Woods and Ray Wilkins with Walters becoming one of these players on New Years Eve 1987.

He has been referred to as the first black player to play for Rangers. However, Walter Tull signed for Rangers during the First World War but was killed in the conflict before he could play. He made his debut 2 days later, on 2 January 1988 in the Old Firm derby match with Celtic at Parkhead. His wasn't a day to remember as Rangers lost 2-0 and he was subjected to racist abuse from opposing Celtic fans who threw fruit on to the pitch. This caused the second half of the match to be delayed as Celtic's ground staff had to clear the thrown fruit, mostly bananas, from the pitch. [1] Academic research highlights that even Walters own team's fans were guilty of Racial abuse. [2] Whilst at Ibrox Walters was part of the side that won the Scottish Premier League in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and the Scottish League Cup in 1988 and 1990 thus enjoying the most successful spell of his career in terms of trophies won.

On 13 August 1991, after 143 appearances in which he scored 51 goals (better than 1 in 3), he followed Souness to Liverpool, which was somewhat ironic seeing as his middle name is Everton, Liverpool's fierce city rivals.

[edit] Liverpool

Liverpool paid £1.25 million for Walters services and he made his debut 4 days after signing, when he came on as a 65th minute substitute for Steve McMahon in the 2-1 league win over Oldham Athletic at Anfield on 17 August 1991. His first goal for the club was an 88th minute penalty in the 2-1 league win over Notts County at Meadow Lane on 7 September 1991.

Souness brought Walters back to England hoping that he would terrorize the 1st Division defences as he had done in Scotland, however, this didn't really materialize with the performances expected too few and far between. He did remain a regular in the side and helped Liverpool to the 1992 FA Cup final, although he was an unused sub as his team-mates beat 2nd Division Sunderland 2-0.

By the time Liverpool beat Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in the 1995 Coca-Cola Cup final, again an unused sub, Walters was being used less as Roy Evans was employing 3 centre-halves with Rob Jones and Stig Inge Bjørnebye as wing-backs and 3 midfielders.

He had already been sent out on loan to Stoke City (9 games, 2 goal) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (11 games, 3 goals) during the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons, so it wasn't to much of a surprise that, after not appearing at all during the first half of the 1995-96 season, Walters was allowed to leave which he did when he joined Southampton on a free on 18 January 1996.

[edit] Southampton

Walters was signed by David Merrington in January 1996 to assist in Saints' desperate fight against relegation from the Premiership. He made his debut as a substitute against Middlesbrough on 20 January 1996 and made a total of 5 league and 4 FA Cup appearances, but struggled to make any real impression in a poor team. His final appearance was in a dreadful match away to Queens Park Rangers, which Saints lost 3-0 meekly surrendering in a shoddy second half. At the end of the season, with Saints' Premiership status secured for another season, Walters was released, moving on to Swindon Town.

[edit] Swindon Town

Mark joined Swindon Town on a free on 31 July 1996 and made his debut on 17 August in the 2-0 defeat to Norwich City at Carrow Road. His first goal for the Robins came via a 26th minute penalty during the 2-1 league win over Tranmere Rovers on 14 September 1996.

Walters settled at The County Ground but, again, his form went from one extreme to the other, sometimes he could be mesmerizing but in other games he would go missing - a trait he hadn't been able to remove from his game since returning from Scotland.

Walters played a total of 126 matches for Swindon in which he scored 28 goals when he was released on 17 November 1999 moving to Bristol Rovers.

[edit] Bristol Rovers

Having been told that he was no longer required by Swindon the 35 year-old joined Ian Holloway's Bristol Rovers side on a free transfer. He spent 3 years at the Memorial Stadium playing 96 times and scoring 14 goals before he finally hung up his boots on 26 April 2002, 5 weeks before his 38th birthday.

[edit] England career

Walters represented England at schoolboy and under 21 levels before he earning his 1 and only full cap under Graham Taylor whilst he was with Rangers. It came the day after his 27th birthday, on 3 June 1991 in the 1-0 friendly victory over New Zealand in Auckland.

[edit] Retirement

Mark joined Coventry Preparatory School as a Saturday morning football coach for the 4 to 11 year-olds in February 2003; he then became a member of staff in January 2006, coaching years 3 through 8. He is also head coach of the under 14s at Aston Villa's academy. He also gets involved with the groups that are trying to kick racism out of football.

Although now retired Mark still plays in the Sky Sports masters football competitions for Rangers where his dazzling displays are one of the highlights of the tournament. He is also an honorary member of the Rangers Supporters Trust.^[1]

[edit] Career honours

[edit] Aston Villa

Winner

• 1983 European Super Cup

Runner up

• 1987-88 Football League Second Division Promotion (Level 2)

[edit] Rangers

Winner

• 1989 Scottish League Cup
• 1988-89 Scottish Premier League (Level 1)
• 1989-90 Scottish Premier League (Level 1)
• 1991 Scottish League Cup
• 1990-91 Scottish Premier League (Level 1)

Runner up

• 1989 Scottish FA Cup
• 1990 Scottish League Cup

[edit] Liverpool

Winner

• 1992 FA Cup
• 1995 League Cup

Runner up

• 1993 Charity Shield

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official players at Liverpoolfc.tv
• Player profile at LFChistory.net
• Mark Walters career stats at Soccerbase
• Mark Walters index at Sporting-heroes.net