Danny Blanchflower (1946–1965, Tottenham Hotspur, Northern Ireland and Aston Villa)

Danny Blanchflower was a cultured right-half and one of the most influential captains in the British game, born in Belfast in 1926.

He began his career with Glentoran in his home city before moving to England with Barnsley in 1949 and then Aston Villa in 1951. In 1954 he joined Tottenham Hotspur, where he spent the rest of his club career and became the club’s defining figure of the era.

He captained Tottenham Hotspur to the League and FA Cup Double in 1960-61, the first side to achieve the feat in the twentieth century, and added a second FA Cup in 1962 and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1963.

He was named Footballer of the Year twice, in 1958 and 1961, and was later ranked by The Times in 2009 as the greatest player in Tottenham Hotspur’s history.

For Northern Ireland he won 56 caps and captained the side to the quarter-finals of the 1958 World Cup.

He retired from the English game in 1964 at the age of 38 and went on to work as a journalist and a manager. He died in 1993, aged 67. He was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2003.

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Danny Blanchflower – Rookie Cards and Significant Others

His earliest cards are a run of 1950s British trade and confectionery issues, including:

• 1954 P.A. Adolph (Subbutteo) Famous Footballers #12
• 1954-55 A&BC Chewing Gum All Sport Series #44
• 1955 D.C. Thomson / The Wizard Famous Footballers #2
• 1956 Barkers Bubblegum Footballers #14
• 1956 Mitcham Foods Footballers #14
• 1956-57 Chix Confectionery Famous Footballers #30
• 1957 D.C. Thomson Adventure Football Stars #13
• 1958 Barratt Famous Footballers (A6) #28

Among the most collectable of his later cards are:

• 1958-59 A&BC Chewing Gum #88
• 1960-61 The Star The Untold Story of Spurs, unnumbered, from the Double-winning season

See the 2003 Hall of Fame Inductees or browse the full list.