Football Jamaica Discussions

Lloyd Lindbergh "Lindy" Delapenha (5 May 1927 – 26 January 2017) was a Jamaican footballer and sports journalist. He was an old boy of the prestigious boys' school Munro College in Jamaica where he was a football player. He was the first Jamaican to play professional football in England.


Footballing career - The Spot Kick King



Above alongside team mate Bosco Jankovic at 'Boro.

After a phenomenal performance as a schoolboy athlete, taking part in 16 events over a one-and-a-half-day period, he served with the British Armed Forces in the Middle East following World War II. During his service, an English football scout saw him playing football for the British army.





This gained him a trial with Arsenal, but he did not sign for the club, and in April 1948 he joined Portsmouth. There, he became the first Jamaican to play professional football in England. Although it is claimed he was the first non-white player to appear in the English Football League First Division, he was actually predated by several other non-white players, including Arthur Wharton, who played a First Division match for Sheffield United as far back as 1894-95.



He went on to win a league championship medal with Portsmouth in 1948. In April 1950, after a successful few years with Portsmouth, he transferred to Middlesbrough where his career took off. He played on the wing or inside-forward, and became Boro's leading scorer in the 1951-52, 1953–54 and 1955–56 seasons. In total he scored 93 league and FA Cup goals in 270 appearances.



He moved to Mansfield Town in June 1958, contributing 27 goals in 115 appearances over two years, before retiring from League football in 1960.



Delapenha played non-league football, Hereford United and Burton Albion. He won the Southern League Cup in 1964 with Burton.


He moved back to Jamaica in 1964.



Broadcasting career


Having returned home, Delapenha played cricket for a short time and represented Boys' Town at football, taking them from Division 3 up to Division 1. Soon after though, he became director of sports at the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation.



At the JBC, he had various roles including co-ordinating coverage of cricket, the Commonwealth Games, and helped bring international football to Jamaica. He stayed there for 30 years before JBC was sold and his services were no longer required.


He died on 26 January 2017 at the age of 89, after a stroke.

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Recent Mentions:

Spanish star Alvaro Negredo is set to add his name to an impressive list of centre-forwards – all of them foreigners – who have graced the Boro front line over the last 20 years or so.

It’s all part of a general belief throughout the Riverside, stretching all the way up to chairman Steve Gibson, that you need a top striker to provide pitch presence if you want to keep pace with the big boys.

In modern times it started with the Italian battering ram, Fabrizio Ravanelli, in 1996, and continued through such household names as Alen Boksic, Mark Viduka, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Yakubu.

There were others who fell by the wayside, the obvious one being Brazilian flop Afonso Alves.

Yet it’s become something of a Boro tradition to bring in top foreign forwards to show that the club means business.

Hopefully it will mean goals, but such top strikers also inspire the squad as a whole, and put bums on seats.

Naturally you have to pay over the odds for these big-name forwards. If they can fit into the team and produce the goods then it is money well spent.

In fact you must speculate to accumulate in the Premier League. Norwich City didn’t over-extend themselves last season in the top flight and were relegated at the first attempt.

Boro have never been afraid to bring in non-English stars, of course. They were masters at exploiting the Scottish market before the Second World War, when Boro’s directors regularly made successful border raids.

In the 1950s, Jamaican-born striker Lindy Delapenha scored 93 goals in 270 Boro appearances and was a popular player with the fans.