Steve Ford (footballer)
English footballer (born 1959)
Stephen Derek Ford (17 February 1959 – 20 December 2025) was an English footballer who played as a forward in the Football League for Stoke City.
Career
Ford was born in Shoreham-by-Sea and played amateur football with local side Lewes where he was a prolific goalscorer, scoring 35 times in 1980–81 which led to him being given a contract by First Division side Stoke City in 1981. He made two appearances for the club towards the end of the 1981–82 season. He left for Stafford Rangers and later played abroad for Cypriot club AEL Limassol and Irish club Finn Harps. In 1990 he joined Brighton & Hove Albion to help set up their football in the community programme a role he held for 23 years. He went on to work for Millwall, Sussex County Cricket Club, Grace Eyre Foundation as well as building an international soccer programme in the United States.
Death
Ford died on 20 December 2025 at the age of 66.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Steve Ford (footballer)” as english footballer (born 1959). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as english footballer (born 1959). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7609207. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959, 2025, 1980 and 1981.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. 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 “Steve Ford (footballer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Steve Ford (footballer) primary sources, Steve Ford (footballer) archive and Steve 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 “Steve Ford (footballer)”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Steve Ford (footballer)” 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.