Sporting Galloway

This coming Sunday, 2nd May, Barcelona are playing Valencia in the Spanish La Liga.

The corresponding fixture played on 20th March 1932 is notable not just for a 3-2 win for Barcelona but also for the fact that both managers were English.

Barcelona were managed by Harry Greenwell who began his footballing career at Crook Town in County Durham. Harry went on to manage Barcelona for seven consecutive seasons, a record only beaten by Johan Cruyff.

Valencia were managed by Randolph Septimus Galloway.  Randolph served before, during and after The First World War with the Yorkshire Regiment, and it was with them that he learnt his football, representing them in various tournaments. He is pictured third from the left on the front row of the Depot football team photo.

After leaving the regiment he played professionally for Derby County, Nottingham Forest, Luton Town, Coventry City and Tottenham Hotspur. In addition to managing Valencia he also managed Sporting Gijon and Racing Santander.

The Spanish Civil War forced Randolph to seek work further afield and he went on to manage the Costa Rican national team before moving back into club management with Penarol in Uruguay, Young Fellows of Zurich and in Portugal with Sporting Lisbon and, finally, Vitoria Setubal; the hometown of one Jose Mourinho.

Not bad for a boy from Sunderland who learnt the ‘beautiful game’ under the badge of the Yorkshire Regiment.

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