Raphael Meade

Raphael Meade
Personal information
Full name Raphael Joseph Meade[1][2]
Date of birth (1962-11-22) 22 November 1962
Place of birth Islington, England
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Playing position Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1977–1985 Arsenal 41 (14)
1985–1988 Sporting CP 41 (25)
1987–1988 → Real Betis (loan) 3 (0)
1988–1989 Dundee United 11 (4)
1989 Luton Town 4 (0)
1989–1991 Odense BK
1990 → Ipswich Town (loan) 1 (0)
1991 → Plymouth Argyle (loan) 5 (0)
1991–1992 Brighton & Hove Albion 40 (9)
1992–1993 Ernest Borel 3 (0)
1994–1995 Brighton & Hove Albion 3 (0)
1995–1996 Crawley Town 55 (17)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Raphael Joseph Meade (born 22 November 1962) is an English former footballer who played as a striker. Meade started his career with English club Arsenal, then featured for Portuguese unit Sporting CP, Spanish team Real Betis and Scottish outfit Dundee United. Meade also played thereafter for England's Luton Town, Denmark's Odense BK and fellow English sides Ipswich Town and Plymouth Argyle. Meade left Odense to sign up with Brighton & Hove Albion, wherein he was loaned out to Hong Kong club Sea Bee. At the close of his spell with Brighton, Meade signed for Crawley Town, where he brought an end to his playing days.[2]

Career

Born in Islington, Meade started his career at Arsenal as a schoolboy in 1977, and turning professional in June 1980. He went on to be a prolific scorer for Arsenal's reserves.[2] Meade made his first team debut on the 16 September 1981 in a UEFA Cup tie away to Panathanaikos where he scored from his very first touch with a bicycle kick in an eventual 2-0 win.[3][4][5] Meade then made his league debut against Manchester City on 17 October 1981 where he also scored what turned out to be the winning goal in a 1-0 victory.[6][7] He went on to make a sum of 16 appearances that season, scoring five goals in all.[8]

However, a cartilage injury ruled him out of most of the 1982–83 season, but on his return he scored twice against Brighton & Hove Albion in February 1983. He followed that up with a winning hat-trick against Watford and then a brace against Tottenham Hotspur in a 4-2 win for Arsenal at White Hart Lane in December of that year.[9][10][11] However, the signings of players such as Paul Mariner meant Meade had been pushed down the pecking order at Arsenal, and he thus made only eight appearances in 1984–85. In total he made 51 appearances and scored 16 goals in all for Arsenal.[2][8]

He was sold to Sporting Clube de Portugal in the summer of 1985. Whilst in his debut season at the Lions, Meade scored against Athletic Bilbao in the third round of the 1985-86 UEFA Cup. He went to help the club get to the quarterfinals of the tournament.[12][13] During the 1987-88 footballing season, he was loaned out to Spanish side Real Betis.[14] In August 1988 Meade left Sporting CP to sign with Dundee United for 150,000 pounds. At Dundee he suffered a spate of injuries which limited his playing time. In all, he played 22 times for Dundee United, scoring 7 goals. As such after only eight months at the club, Meade moved onto Luton Town for £250,000 in March 1989.[12] Meade soon left the Hatters to link up with Danish outfit Odense BK in January 1990. Odense then sent him on loan to Ipswich Town for the remainder of that season.[15] At the start of the following season he was again sent on loan to Plymouth Argyle. In the summer of 1991, Meade left Odense to feature for Brighton & Hove Albion. At Albion he netted twelve times in his first only season with the Seagulls.[16] With such being so, in the season thereafter he journeyed on loan to Hong Kong team Sea Bee. He then played for Crawley Town F.C. where he brought an end of his playing days.[2]

Personal life

He found himself embroiled in a highly provocative issue where a Dundee based magazine released an edition which contained an allegedly racist image of him. This proved to be a very unpopular and detrimental scenario for the publication, with the said image being highly criticised and decried at the time.[17]

References

  1. ↑ "Raphael Meade". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 4 April 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Raphael Meade". Green On Screen.co.uk.
  3. ↑ "Raphael Meade". 11v11.com.
  4. ↑ "Panathinaikos v Arsenal, 16 September 1981". 11v11.com.
  5. ↑ "Masterpiece Raphael". Twitter.com. Daily Express.co.uk.
  6. ↑ "Raphael Meade". Arsenal.com.
  7. ↑ "Arsenal v Manchester City, 17 October 1981". 11v11.com.
  8. 1 2 "Raphael Meade". Football Database.eu.
  9. ↑ "RETRO ROUND-UP: ARSENAL". Brighton and Hove Albion.com.
  10. ↑ "Arsenal v Watford, 17 December 1983". 11v11.com.
  11. ↑ "Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal, 26 December 1983". 11v11.com.
  12. 1 2 "Meade to Measures". Twitter.com. DUFC Archive.com.
  13. ↑ "Athletic out to redress Sporting balance". UEFA.com.
  14. ↑ "Charlie I'Anson: The Englishman carving out a career in Spain". BBC.com.
  15. ↑ "Raphael Meade". Pride of Anglia.com.
  16. ↑ "ALBION & IPSWICH FIVE-A-SIDE TEAM". Seagulls.co.uk.
  17. ↑ "Remembering the Scottish 'zine scene". Football Pink.net.

Sources

  • Harris, Jeff (1995). Hogg, Tony, ed. Arsenal Who's Who. Independent UK Sports. ISBN 1-899429-03-4.
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