Former Barrow wing-half Keith Eddy has died at the age of 77 after a globe-trotting career.
Walney-born Eddy left Barrow for Watford and then Sheffield United and ended up with New York Cosmos playing alongside footballing legends Pele and George Best.
He then coached Toronto Blizzard and ended up starting and owning a club in Tulsa to promote development in soccer in Oklahoma. He settled there with his wife and two daughters.
Much of his movement in football was down to the manager Ken Furphy who first tempted him away from Barrow in 1966.
Eddy had actually made his debut for Barrow in a League Cup-tie in 1962 in which they beat Workington 3-2 and he scored. That was a few games into Furphy’s debut season as a manger at Borough Park.
However, it was his performance in a 9-1 defeat at Workington in the League Cup in September 1964 which really marked Furphy’s card.
There was talk of a switch from Holker Street to West Cumbria which never came but when Furphy moved to manage Watford he didn’t forget what he had seen in young Eddy.
Talking to the Watford programme editor a few years ago Eddy recalled: “I was becoming disillusioned with it at the time. There was talk of me being transferred every week but nothing ever happened so I told them if something wasn’t sorted before the season started then I would leave which I did.
“I was playing for my hometown club, which I should have felt proud of, but there were older players who were coming to the end of their careers who were on substantially more money and I thought it wasn’t right.
“After me not showing up for the pre- season, the club secretary said they would like me to go and talk to Watford, Brighton and somebody else who I can’t remember now. I went to Watford first and I never went anywhere else.”
He played in 146 games for Barrow from 1962-66, scoring five goals before joining Watford at a cost to the Vicarage Road club of £1,250.
While at Watford, he played 240 games scoring 26 goals and was skipper when they won the Third Division title in 1968-69.
In 1972 he moved to Sheffield United, again under Furphy where he stayed for over four seasons, making 114 appearances and netting 16 goals.
Finally in 1977, he joined Furphy for a third time with New York Cosmos playing alongside legends of the game, including Pelé, Franz Beckenbaur and Best.
In the article for the Watford programme he was asked for his memories of Pele.
“He was a very nice guy and very much a diplomat. He would never say or do anything that might be construed as a bit ‘iffy.’
“I remember during the first year, the two of us would go to the press conferences, me as captain and him because he was Pele, but nobody ever asked me a question!
“Every so often he would get asked a controversial question and then he would say, ‘Keith will answer that one.’ He was a super nice guy with a lot of talent even though he was older and on the way down as it were.
“He would have games at that time where he wasn’t in it a lot and would get frustrated with teams who put one, sometimes two, men to mark him so it was hard to give him the ball.
“Then he’d have games where you’d stand there and marvel at him. I remember him scoring a goal, I think it was in Hawaii, the way he collected the ball turned and flicked it over the guy and hit it on the volley was amazing. I was playing sweeper at the time and I just stood there and applauded him.
“He was an exceptional talent. He had great vision and a low centre of gravity which made him very hard to knock off the ball plus he was tough and knew how to look after himself.
“He was a tremendous success in America, for the way he developed the game here,” he recalled.
Eddy had started his career with Walney Rovers, then Holker Old Boys He was captain of the North Lancashire schoolboys team and played for Bolton Wanderers youth team before turning professional with Barrow in 1962 at the age of 17.
