Ian Love
Welsh footballer (born 1958)
Ian James Love (born 1 March 1958) is a Welsh former professional footballer who played as a forward. He made 52 appearances in the Football League during spells with Swansea City, Torquay United and Cardiff City.
Career
After playing local league football, Love joined Barry Town in 1979. In two spells with Barry and one with Merthyr Tydfil, he impressed enough to be offered a professional deal by Swansea City in 1986. He scored nine goals in 41 league appearances for the side. He also scored in the first leg of the 1988 Football League Fourth Division play-off final as Swansea won promotion to the Third Division.
He was sold to Torquay United for £2,000 in March 1989 but left the club soon after. He joined Cardiff City on non-contract terms, making two league appearances before returning to Barry Town.
The public source identifies “Ian Love” as welsh footballer (born 1958). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Love, Welsh and footballer.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Ian Love”, the useful work is to connect “welsh footballer (born 1958)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q58303142. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1958, 1979, 1986 and 1988.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Ian Love”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Ian Love primary sources, Ian Love archive and Love research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ian Love”?
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- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Ian Love” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.