John Elsworthy

Who was John Elsworthy?

John Elsworthy was a Welsh football player. A midfielder, he was signed by Ipswich Town manager Scott Duncan in May 1949, after playing as an amateur for Newport County. He played all his professional club football for Ipswich Town. He won four championship medals during Ipswich's rise up the divisions in the 1950s. As a member of Ipswich, he won Division Three in 1954 and 1957, Division Two in 1961, and the Division One league championship in 1962. He was selected to play for the Third division South representative team in 1956/57.

Elsworthy was part of the Wales squad for the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden, but didn't travel to Sweden as the Welsh FA were too short of money to send a full squad. Although a member of the World Cup squad, Elsworthy was in fact never capped by his country. In all competitions, he played 435 games and scored 53 goals for Ipswich Town between 1949 and 1965. He was an inductee of the Ipswich Hall of Fame.

After retiring from football he ran a post office branch in Ipswich. In his later years, he suffered from Alzheimer's disease. He died in May 2009, aged 77.