Full name John Richard Greenwell Name Jack Greenwell | Date of birth 2 January 1884 Years Team Role Footballer | |
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Date of death 20 November 1942(1942-11-20) (aged 58) Died November 20, 1942, Bogota, Colombia Similar People Luis Enrique, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Jose Ramon de la Fuente, Andreu Fontas | ||
Jack greenwell 99 balance
John Richard "Jack"Greenwell (2 January 1884, in Crook, County Durham, Northeast of England – 20 November 1942, in Bogota, Colombia) was an English footballer and manager. He served as manager of Barcelona for seven consecutive seasons, a record that has only been beaten by Johan Cruyff and later had a second spell as Barcelona manager. In 1939 Greenwell became the only non-South American coach to date to win the South American Championship when he guided Peru to their first win. He also served as a manager with CD Castellon, RCD Espanol, Valencia CF, Sporting de Gijon, RCD Mallorca, Universitario de Deportes and Independiente Santa Fe.
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Crook Town and West Auckland
Greenwell, the son of a County Durham miner, played as a wing half for Crook Town of the English Northern League. He also played with West Auckland in their Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy success in 1909.
Barcelona
He made his debut as player for Barcelona on 29 September 1912 in a 4–2 win over FC Espanya de Barcelona. In 1913, Greenwell arranged for his former team, Crook Town to play a series of games against Barcelona. The visiting English team beat them 4–2 and then held them to 1–1 and 2–2 draws. Together with a very young Paulino Alcantara, Francisco Bru and Roma Forns, Greenwell subsequently helped Barcelona win the Campionat de Catalunya in 1912/13 and 1915/16.
After retiring as a player he was appointed manager of Barcelona by the club president, Joan Gamper, and made his managerial debut on 7 July 1917 in a 3–1 win over CE Europa. He would eventually take charge of the club for 492 games and coached the club during their first golden age. He survived early calls for his resignation after experimenting with Alcantara as a defender and went onto to lead the club to five Campionat de Catalunya and two Copa del Rey. After leaving the club in 1923, Greenwell returned to Barcelona for two further seasons in 1931, and guided the club to a sixth Campionat de Catalunya in 1931–32. As well as Alcantara the Barca team under Greenwell also included Sagibarba, Ricardo Zamora, Josep Samitier, Felix Sesumaga and Franz Platko.
RCD Espanol
After leaving FC Barcelona in 1923 Greenwell went onto manage their local rivals, RCD Espanol. In 1928 he led them into the inaugural La Liga but the club only managed to finish seventh. However RCD Espanol made up for their disappointing La Liga form by winning both the Campionat de Catalunya and their first ever Copa del Rey in 1929. With a team that included Ricardo Zamora and Ricardo Saprissa, Greenwell guided RCD Espanol through the early rounds beating Sporting de Gijon and Arenas Club de Getxo. In the quarter finals they beat Athletic Madrid 9-3 on aggregate before beating eventual La Liga champions, Barcelona, 3-1 in the semi-finals and Real Madrid 2-1 in the final. Greenwell remained in charge of RCD Espanol for one more season but failed to win another trophy.
Valencia CF
After leaving Barcelona for a second time, Greenwell joined Valencia CF for the 1933/34 season. The club only finished seventh in La Liga but won the Campeonato de Valencia and reached the Copa de Espana final. The game saw Greenwell face old acquaintances Samitier and Zamora, now playing for Real Madrid. The Madrid club, at the time known as Madrid CF, beat Valencia CF 2-1 in the final.
Universitario and Peru
Greenwell, along with his Spanish wife, fled the civil war. After briefly coaching in Turkey, in 1939 he turned up in Peru, as manager of both Universitario de Deportes and the national team. He coached Universitario as they won the national championship. The same year saw Peru host the South American Championship. Colombia, Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil all withdrew before the competition started, so the remaining five countries, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Peru formed a single mini-league with each team playing all the others once. Uruguay and Peru both won their first three games so when they met in the final round, the game was effectively a final. Peru, guided by Greenwell, won 2-1 and became South American Champions.
Colombia
In 1940 he moved to the Colombian port city of Barranquilla, and worked with the national team in their buildup to the 1942 Central American and Caribbean Games. However, the city's games were postponed due to the worsening world situation, eventually being held in 1946.
In 1942 he joined Independiente Santa Fe, with whom reached the finals of the Torneo de Cundinamarca (at the time there was no First Division in Colombia), which lost against America de Cali. Later he died there of a heart attack.
As player
Crook Town
West Auckland
Barcelona
As manager
Barcelona
RCD Espanol
Valencia CF
Universitario de Deportes
Peru
Santa Fe