Luther Blissett

Luther Loide Blissett (born 1 February 1958) is a former professional footballer and manager who played for the England national team during the 1980s.

Born in Jamaica, Blissett played as a striker, and is best known for his time at Watford, whom he helped win promotion from the Fourth Division to the First Division.

As of 2022, Blissett holds Watford's all-time records for appearances and goals, having played 503 games and scored 186 goals.

Born in Falmouth, Jamaica, Blissett began his career with Watford as an apprentice on leaving school in the summer of 1974.

He turned professional for the 1975–76 season, making three appearances in the Football League Fourth Division and scoring one goal.

Four goalless appearances came in the 1976–77 season, before he broke into the first team under new manager Graham Taylor in 1977–78, when his six goals in 33 games helped Watford win promotion to the Football League Third Division.

21 goals the following campaign played a big part in a second successive promotion which took them into the Football League Second Division.

He remained among the club's top goalscorers over the next three seasons as Watford consolidated in the Second Division and finally reached the First Division for the first time in their history in 1982, at the end of a season in which Blissett scored 19 league goals.

Blissett and his teammates made the headlines in the 1982–83 season as they surprised many by proving successful in the First Division.

Watford briefly led the league in the autumn, before finishing second to Liverpool and qualified for the UEFA Cup.

In Watford's first ever First Division season, Blissett was the division's top goalscorer that season with 27 goals.

Blissett's other clubs included A.C. Milan, who paid £1m for him in 1983 before selling him back to Watford for £550,000 in 1984, and AFC Bournemouth, for whom he had a goals-to-games ratio of nearly one goal in every two appearances.

Blissett was capped 14 times by England, scoring a hat-trick on his debut.

He subsequently moved to A.C. Milan for £1 million in June 1983, but he was not as successful as he had been in England, scoring only five goals in 30 appearances.

It has since been rumoured that A.C. Milan confused him with his Watford teammate John Barnes.

However Italian football journalist Gabriele Marcotti believes this story is untrue.

"There are two main reason for which I think it's not true," he says.

"First, even the most ignorant and provincial person could see that Blissett and Barnes looked absolutely nothing alike. Second, the fact is that at that time Milan were looking for an out-and-out goalscorer and Barnes just wasn't that type of player."

"No matter how much money you have here", Blissett famously complained about Italy, "you can't seem to get Rice Krispies," though he later claimed this was a joking response to what he considered a stupid question from a journalist.

Blissett was sold back to Watford for £550,000 after one season with AC Milan.

In his absence, Watford had reached their first FA Cup final, but lost to Everton, while new signing Mo Johnston was top scorer with 20 goals in the First Division.

On Blissett's return, Watford failed to achieve their successes of the previous two seasons, but survived another four seasons in the First Division.

Blissett scored 21 goals in his first season back in the First Division, though the Hornets could only manage a mid table finish.

He also helped them reach the FA Cup semi finals in 1986–87, but a year later they were relegated with Blissett scoring just four times in the league.

He remained with the club until November 1988, when he signed for AFC Bournemouth.

Blissett was successful at Dean Court, scoring 19 times from 30 league games in 1988–89 as the Cherries finished 10th in the Second Division, after emerging as surprise promotion contenders in only their second season at that level.

He scored 18 goals in 1989–90, though a slump in the second half of the season dragged the Cherries down the table and on the last day of the season they were beaten at home by Leeds United in a result which gave the visitor's promotion as Second Division champions and relegated the Cherries to the Third Division.

Since the mid-1990s, Luther Blissett has frequently been used as a pseudonym, most notably by members of the Luther Blissett Project.

Undeterred, Blissett continued his fine form for Harry Redknapp's team, scoring 19 goals, though it wasn't enough to earn promotion at the end of the 1990–91 campaign.

Blissett returned to Watford for a third spell at the start of the 1991–92 season.

They were still in the Second Division, and his 10 goals in the league that season were not enough for Watford to look like promotion contenders, meaning that they would be founder members of the rebranded Division One – rather than the new FA Premier League – for the 1992–93 season.

Blissett never played a first team game for Watford again, his only action in 1992–93 coming in shape of a three-match loan spell at West Bromwich Albion, which resulted in one Division Two goal.

He ended his English league career in late 1993 with a five-match spell with Division Three club Mansfield Town (where he scored once) that had followed 10 games club Bury.

After that came a five-match spell in the Football Conference at Southport, producing two goals, and four games and a goal for Derry City in the League of Ireland, before he finally retired from playing in 1995 after a season playing for Fakenham Town in the Eastern Counties Football League.

Although born in Jamaica, Blissett was eligible to play for England having moved to the country at a young age.

After making four appearances for England under-21s, Blissett became one of the first black footballers to play for the senior team.

He scored a hat-trick on his full international debut – a 9–0 win over Luxembourg, in doing so becoming the first black player ever to score for England.

He never scored in any other international, however, despite playing for England a further 13 times.

He rejoined Watford as a coach in February 1996, coming in with returning manager Graham Taylor.

After retiring from playing, Blissett turned to coaching, initially under the management of Graham Taylor at Watford, and managed Chesham United from 2006 until 2007.