May 9 - England’s Last Amateur | On This Football Day

WHILE the recent failures of the England national team might suggest otherwise, all the players in the squad are professional footballers, paid by their clubs to play football and do nothing else.

It was not always so and despite professionalism being legalised in England by the Football Association in 1885 amateurs were still a big part of the game well into the twentieth century.

On this day in 1936 a man named Bernard Joy made his first and only appearance for the full England side - he was the last amateur player to turn out for the Three Lions.

Joy was a Londoner who played for the University of London side while studying there, and joined the Corinthian-Casuals side after graduating. A centre half, he played for various other teams in the capital while with Casuals, and turned out for Fulham and Southend in the 1930s.

As well as winning the FA Amateur Cup with the Casuals, Joy also found time to sign for Arsenal in 1935, although he was brought in as a reserve and did not make his debut for the Gunners until April 1936. His senior Arsenal teammates won the professional FA Cup in 1936 but Joy was not involved in the game. Despite turning out for the Arsenal, Joy was still registered as a Casuals player, and therefore was regarded as an amateur.

He was soon to become the proudest amateur player in the land though when he was called up for the full England side for a match against Belgium in Brussels. Sadly it was not Joy unconfined (oh yes, we went there) for Bernard as his presence could not prevent the Belgians from beating England 2-3. He was 24 at the time, but it would be his only England cap, and he will surely be the last amateur to ever pull on an England jersey.

After his England appearance Joy went on to captain the British Olympic football team at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He stayed with the Gunners and even won a league title medal in the 1937/38 season after an injury to established centre-half Herbie Roberts gave him a place in the team.

After serving in the RAF in World War Two he played one more season with Arsenal in 1946/47 when football resumed after the war, but carried on playing for Casuals until 1948. He then became a journalist, and was football correspondent for the Evening Standard and the Sunday Express until he retired in 1976. Old Bernard passed away in 1984 but we are sure he probably had many a drink bought for him while on Fleet Street being the only hack to have turned out for England.

Come back tomorrow folks when one city in the north of England tries to take complete ownership of the FA Cup.