Haaland and Dixie Dean rightly immortalised ... but don’t forget goal machine George Camsell
He came up one goal short of 60 in the league, although it did not matter for another year, at which point the considerable shadow of Dixie Dean eclipsed George Camsell to the point where, when erling Haaland threatens the biggest hauls in english football, he barely merits a mention.
Not beyond Middlesbrough, anyhow, because there Camsell’s status is secure. They unveiled a statue in his honour at the Riverside Stadium earlier this season and his 345 Boro goals live on in Teesside footballing folklore.
Camsell was an inter-war goal machine. The first man to break the barrier of 50 goals in an english season, in 1926-27. He finished with 59 league goals in 37 games, including nine hat-tricks as Middlesbrough won the Division Two title and promotion.
With four in the FA Cup, he amassed 63 in all competitions. It was a record by a distance and expected to stand the test of time but this was a fine age to be a forward. The offside law had been relaxed, and Dean smashed in 60 to set a new league record in the very next season. He added three more in the FA Cup to tie with Camsell on 63 goals in all competitions.
Dean’s 60 is rightly immortalised. Unlike Camsell’s it came in the top flight. It led everton to a third title. And it is difficult to see it ever being beaten. Not even by Manchester City’s Haaland, who is still 25 goals short with only four to play.
Sixty-three in all competitions remains a live target for him, however, with a dozen required and up to seven games remaining for Manchester City, although he has more chance of getting there if he takes the penalties he is supposed to take.
Penalties didn’t mean much to Camsell either. He took three in his record season of 1926-27, scoring the first two and missing in the FA Cup against Millwall, after which he refused to take another.
Boro were awarded six more that season, taken by others, so he could have been out on his own ahead of Dean.
Camsell was Middlesbrough’s top scorer for 10 years in a row and still banging in goals in his late 30s when the outbreak of the Second World War ended his professional playing career.
For england, he was no less prolific, with two goals on his debut against France in 1929. With four more against Belgium, two against Ireland and three against Wales, he scored 11 in his first four internationals. Then the 14- man selection committee dropped him without explanation and left him out for four years.
In Middlesbrough, they assumed an anti-northern bias, the same conclusion drawn on Merseyside as they wondered why Dean won just 16 caps — and only four after turning 22.
Dean once claimed england had dropped him for a game in Paris because he refused the soup at the pre-match meal. Camsell, who won his first cap in Paris, may have been the beneficiary of Dean’s selective palate.
Camsell won a belated recall and never failed to score when representing his country. When his england career ended in 1936, he was on 18 goals in nine appearances and one short of the record of scoring in 10 in a row, set by Steve Bloomer in the 19th century.
One short of Dean. One short of Bloomer. Two names that still resonate and good company to keep.
Post-war, Camsell returned to Ayresome Park to serve various roles as a scout, trainer and assistant secretary until retirement in 1963. He died at the age of 63, four months before england won the World Cup.
His most celebrated achievement as a scout was to discover Brian Clough, a young striker who went on to score 204 goals in 222 games for Middlesbrough and remained grateful for Camsell’s influence.
‘He was reputed to be the bravest centre forward in the whole Football League,’ said Cloughie.
Who better to remind us of one of football’s forgotten heroes at a time when the enormous goalhauls are in vogue once more and Boro have eyes on another promotion?