John Ritchie (footballer, born 1941)

John Ritchie

Personal information
Full name	John Henry Ritchie
Date of birth	(1941-07-12)12 July 1941
Place of birth	Kettering, England
Date of death	23 February 2007(2007-02-23) (aged 65)
Position(s)	Forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1960–1962	Kettering Town	76	(40)
1962–1966	Stoke City	110	(64)
1966–1969	Sheffield Wednesday	89	(34)
1969–1975	Stoke City	159	(71)
Total		434	(209)
International career
1965	United Kingdom	1	(1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

John Henry Ritchie (12 July 1941 – 23 February 2007) was an English footballer. He is Stoke City's all-time record goalscorer.

Ritchie began his career with his hometown club Kettering Town before joining Stoke City in 1962. In his first full season as a professional Ritchie scored an impressive 30 goals and hit 81 goals in 135 appearances. He was surprisingly sold by Tony Waddington to Sheffield Wednesday in November 1966 for £80,000. After scored 45 goals for Wednesday in three seasons Waddington decided that selling Ritchie was a mistake and re-signed him for £28,000. He continued to be a prolific goalscorer for Stoke City and helped them win their first major trophy, the 1972 Football League Cup and reach two FA Cup semi finals. He remained at Stoke until September 1974 when a broken leg ended his career. He had scored 176 goals for Stoke in 351 matches making him Stoke's record goalscorer.^[1]