John Mackie

Who is John Mackie?

John George Mackie is a former professional footballer who is best known for his time at Reading F.C. and Leyton Orient Mackie was a central defender.

From a young age John showed a talent for playing football both representing his school and the Area London School Boys team. His dream was to play for Arsenal with whom he had a try out, but was unsuccessful. Later he gained an apprenticeship at West Ham United. At the end of his two-year apprenticeship John was released by West Ham and he started work on a fruit and veg stall before joining Crawley Town in 1998, playing in the Southern Premier League. A year late he was signed by, then Reading manager, Alan Pardew and joined the then Division Two club. Pardew immediately loaned John out to Sutton United to gain more experience before he start playing for Reading on a semi regular basis. In his time at Reading John got to play against Chelsea in a League Cup game where the strike force that night consisted of Hernan Crespo and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.