Garry Thompson

Who is Garry Thompson?

Garry Thompson is a former professional footballer and football manager, who played as a striker. His younger brother, Keith Thompson, was also a professional footballer.

He began his 20-year-long career at Coventry City as a trainee and earned his first professional contract at that club. A fast and exciting player, he was a fans favourite and was part of the Sky Blues team which reached the 1981 League Cup semi-final. He was also a prominent member of the Aston Villa team that gained promotion to the old first division in the 1987–88 season. Besides Coventry, Thompson went on to play for West Bromwich Albion, Sheffield Wednesday, Aston Villa, Watford, Crystal Palace, Queens Park Rangers, Cardiff City and Northampton Town, making a total of 487 league appearances and scoring 124 league goals. Thompson played his final professional game for Northampton in 1997. Whilst at Cardiff in December 1993 it was his goal which gave them a 1–0 win over South Wales rivals Swansea, however the goal and the victory sparked off a mass pitch invasion and subsequent violence in what was to become one of the most notorious moments in Welsh football.

Although he spent several seasons as an inventive and influential player at top-flight clubs, he was never selected for the England international squad, though his name was regularly mentioned prior to call-ups. His non-selection is thought to be because he never played for any of the more illustrious top-flight English clubs rather than a lack of international-class ability. This was all the more surprising considering he played six times as an England Under-21 international whilst playing at his peak during the 1981–1982 season, scoring on three occasions.