Charlie Fleming

Charlie Fleming
Personal information
Full name Charles Fleming[1]
Date of birth (1927-07-12)12 July 1927
Place of birth Blairhall, Fife, Scotland
Date of death 14 August 1997(1997-08-14) (aged 70)
Place of death Edinburgh, Scotland
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
Blairhall Colliery
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1947–1955 East Fife 173 (117)
1955–1958 Sunderland 107 (62)
1958–1965 Bath City 300 (216)
1964 → Toronto City (loan)
Total 580 (395)
International career
1953 Scotland 1 (2)
1951 Rest of the UK[2] 1 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Charles Fleming (12 July 1927 – 14 August 1997) was a Scottish footballer who played for Blairhall Colliery, East Fife, Sunderland and the Scotland national team. Fleming was nicknamed 'Cannonball Charlie' for his shooting ability and is Bath City Football Club's all-time top goal scorer.

Fleming was born in Blairhall, Fife and joined East Fife from Blairhall Colliery and became an integral part of East Fife's success in the 1940s and 1950s. Fleming won the League Cup with East Fife in 1949 and 1953 and was part of the side that reached the 1950 Scottish Cup Final.[3]

During his time with East Fife he won his only international cap, scoring twice for Scotland in a 3–1 win against Northern Ireland on 3 October 1953 at Windsor Park.[4] The match counted for both the 1953–54 British Home Championship and 1954 FIFA World Cup qualification.[4]

He moved to English club Sunderland in January 1955 for £20,000 (plus Tommy Wright in exchange) where he remained for three seasons. He moved to Bath City in 1958 and scored 206 goals for Bath until his departure in 1966, making him the club's all-time record goal scorer. At Bath City he signed his ex-East Fife teammate, Bobby Black.[3] In 1964, he played in the Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League with Toronto City.[5]

  1. ^ "Charlie Fleming". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  2. ^ England Player Honours - International Representative Teams englandfootballonline.com Retrieved 27 Jun 2010
  3. ^ a b Bobby Black interview Archived February 26, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ a b Brown, Alan; Tossani, Gabriele (11 April 2019). "Scotland - International Matches 1951-1955". RSSSF. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
  5. ^ Jose, Colin (2001). On-Side - 125 Years of Soccer in Ontario. Vaughan, Ontario: Ontario Soccer Association and Soccer Hall of Fame and Museum. p. 202.