Tony Ford (footballer, born 1959)
English footballer (born 1959)
Anthony Ford (born 14 May 1959) is an English former footballer. Through most of his career, Ford was a right-sided midfielder, but in later years, he was converted to right-back. In a career that spanned 27 years, across four decades, Ford played 931 league matches, which is the all-time record for matches played in the English league by an outfield player. He is also one of the few footballers to have made over 1,100 competitive appearances.
Career
Playing career
Ford began his career at his hometown club Grimsby Town when he made his first-team debut as a 16-year-old on 4th October 1975 in an away game against Walsall. Ford is of mixed heritage (his father was a Black Barbadian) and he was the first Black player to play for the club. He spent 11 years at Blundell Park, where he made his name as one of the most talented players outside the top division. In 1986, he left Grimsby. He first had a short loan spell at Sunderland, and later joined Stoke in a permanent deal.
Ford spent two and a half years at Stoke, before being transferred to West Bromwich Albion midway through the 1988–89 season.
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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 Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7822365. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1959, 1975, 1986 and 1988.
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This entry incorporates text from “Tony Ford (footballer, born 1959)” 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.