Aston Villa F.C.
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Aston Villa is one of the two professional football (Soccer) teams in
Birmingham,
England (the other being
Birmingham City F.C.). They are part of the
English Football League and currently play in the
Premier League.
History
Aston Villa Football Club was formed in 1874 by members of the Villa Cross Wesleyan Chapel in Aston, Birmingham. Members of the Aston Villa cricket team were looking for a way to stay fit during the winter months and decided to adopt the new sport of football. Little did they know that the team they formed would go on to become the most famous and admired football club in the world by the end of Queen Victoria's reign.
The club won its first FA Cup in 1887, by which time football had become professional. However, a Scottish draper and director of Aston Villa, William McGregor wanted his club to compete in a league much like American baseball teams did. So he wrote to the 12 leading clubs in England proposing the formation of a league. The reason the Football League was never called the English League is because McGregor intended Scottish and Welsh teams to join eventually. Aston Villa were one of the dozen teams that competed in the inaugural Football League in 1888 finishing runners-up. By 1920 Villa had won the League Championship and FA Cup six times each. However the club did not win another major trophy until 1957, when it again won the FA Cup. In more recent times, Aston Villa have won the League Cup twice in the 1990s (1994 and 1996) and as well as runners-up in the old First Division/new Premier League (1989-1990 and 1992-1993 seasons).
The club colours are Claret top with Sky blue sleeves, White shorts with claret and blue trim, Sky blue socks with claret and white trim. They were the original wearers of these famous colours and due mainly to their success in the early years of the football league, other teams, most notably West Ham Utd and Burnley adopted the same club colours.
Aston Villa's current home venue is Villa Park having previously played at Aston Park (1873-1876) and Perry Barr (1876-1897). They have a training ground at Bodymoor Heath in north Warwickshire.
Aston Villa is one of four English football teams that have won the European Champions Cup. They did so in 1982 on 26th of May in Rotterdam, beating Bayern Munich 1-0 thanks to Peter Withe's 67th minute goal.
Honours
Managers
- Aug 1884 - May 1926: George Ramsay
- August 1926 - May 1934: 1935: 1936 - September 1939: 1945 - August 1950: 1953: 1958: Eric Houghton
- December 1958 - July 1964: Joe Mercer
- July 1964 - May 1967: 1968: 1970: 1974: 1982: 1984: 1986: 1987: Billy McNeill
- May 1987 - July 1990: Graham Taylor
- July 1990 - May 1991: 1994: Ron Atkinson
- November 1994 - February 1998: 2002: John Gregory
- January 2002 - February 2002: 2003: Graham Taylor
- May 2003 - Present : Juan Pablo Angel(Forward)
- Johnny Dixon(Forward)
- Dion Dublin(Forward)
- Andy Gray(Forward)
- Eric Houghton(Winger)
- David James (Goalkeeper)
- Olof Mellberg(Defender)
- Paul Merson(Midfielder)
- David Platt(Midfielder)
- George Ramsay(Forward)
- Gareth Southgate(Defender)
- Darius Vassell(Forward)
- Billy Walker(Forward)
- Peter Withe(Forward)
- Dwight Yorke(Forward)
Related Links
