Jlloyd Samuel
Popular defender with Aston Villa and Bolton Wanderers who played music on the team coach
JLLOYD SAMUEL, who has died in a car accident aged 37, was a cheerfully familiar figure in the Premier League during the first decade of the century, as a defender with Aston Villa and then Bolton Wanderers, before concluding his career with a commendably adventurous stint in Iran.
Although once called up by England, which he had represented at youth level, Samuel arguably enjoyed only intermittent success as a player, hampered as he was by injuries and lapses in confidence.
None the less, he was well liked by fans for his positive attitude, and appreciated in particular by team-mates for his willingness to switch in or out of sides as needed. Fond of music, he often took on the role of DJ in dressing rooms and on coaches.
After a short but important loan spell at Gillingham that aided his development, Samuel began to establish himself as a left-sided full-back at Villa in 2001, aged 20, when he displaced Alan Wright. He played alongside the likes of Gareth Southgate (now England manager), Gareth Barry, Lee Hendrie and Darius Vassell.
Although he looked less assured the following season and lost his place, he returned to favour under David O’leary and played all of Villa’s Premier League games between 2002 and 2004. That latter season, he scored a late but unavailing goal in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final as Villa went down to Bolton.
His form was such that Svengoran Eriksson summoned him for the squad to play a match against Sweden, though in the event he was an unused substitute.
Under Martin O’neill, Samuel played second fiddle to Wilfred Bouma and also had injuries, and after 200 games with the club opted for a fresh start at Bolton in 2007.
He played all their league matches in 2008-9, as well as in the notable defeat of Atletico Madrid in the Uefa Cup. Having switched loyalties to Trinidad, his country of birth, he was also capped twice at international level.
When injury again intervened, he left Bolton in 2011 after 80 matches and had a short spell at Cardiff before moving, not without misgivings, to Tehran to play for Esteghlal. To his delight, he found life in Iran much more pleasant than his preconceptions, though he had to wash and carry his own kit and get used to a sheep being sacrificed on the pitch. He also missed being able to wear shorts in the street in summer.
Yet he got to play before 100,000 fans as the side won the title and the cup, with him in a midfield role, and then experienced the Asian Champions League. Having learnt to speak passable Farsi, he moved to the Paykan club (named after the Iranian car), returning to Britain in 2015 after more than four years and 115 games in Iran.
Jlloyd Tafari Samuel was born in San Fernando, Trinidad, on March 29 1981. He moved to London as a child and was educated at St Joseph’s Academy, Blackheath. On Sundays he played football for Senrab, the amateur club which has unearthed such talents as John Terry and Ledley King, contemporaries of Samuel in the same side.
He was initially on the books as a youth at West Ham, originally as a centre half, and then at Charlton, from where he was poached by Villa, necessitating a settlement at tribunal. Samuel made his debut in a League Cup match in 1999.
After his return from Iran, he launched a range of training shoes and had been keeping fit as player-coach at Egerton, a club in the Cheshire League near his home. Very much a family man, he was involved in a car crash after dropping his children at school.
He is survived by his wife Emma and their son and two daughters.
Jlloyd Samuel, born March 29 1981, died May 15 2018