Carl Harris was yet another young Welsh star unearthed by Jack
Pickard - the Welsh scout whose other great discoveries included John
Charles, Gary Sprake and Terry Yorath. Don Revie signed him up after
he was rejected by Burnley, and Harris repaid Revie's confidence in
him when he scored on his debut at the age of 18. He was a frequent
occupant of the bench, but maintained a decent scoring record, which
he carried on when he became more of a regular in the side in
1978-79. He won all of his Welsh caps while at Leeds, and was also
Leeds' leading scoring in 1980-81, but when Leeds were relegated he
moved on to Charlton where injuries started to dog his career. He
played on and off throughout the 1980s before finishing his career at
Exeter City.
Cheers to Rochdale's programme editor Mark Wilbraham for one of the
photos.
John F. Tweddle says: Had a Brilliant game against Middlesbrough at
Ayresome Park in October 1977. He ran the Middlesbrough defence
ragged, and although Leeds lost the game 2-1, he scored a tremendous
individual goal, which has stayed in my memory forever. What a pity
this great ball playing artist never reached his truly great
potential.
Stephen Greenslade says: Carl is my cousin and as such I idolised
him as a small boy. He was once subject of 700,000 bid from Arsenal,
in the days when 1 million pound transfers were still considered
somewhat obscene. When, being out of contract, he finally moved to
Charlton when I was aged 12, I was devastated. However, the silver
lining was that at the time he had a straight choice between a
transfer to The Valley and a move to Old Trafford, he chose Charlton,
you can't ask for more from a Leeds player than that!
Jeff Pearse says: I saw Carl play when he joined Rochdale. Even at
that stage in his career his skills were superb and he thrilled the
crowd with his runs up the wing. I remember one game in particular
against Cardiff City when he dribbled the ball from well inside his
own half, beating most of the team before putting the ball into the
Cardiff net. As you might expect he was the favourite player of my
son, who was then 10 years old.
daz says: where can i contact carl for an autograph?
Simon Parfitt says: I used to go and watch leeds as often as
possible. Carl was my favorite player. I believe he was the Ryan Giggs
of his era. He had balance, ball control, speed, agility and most of
all pride and passion. I believe carl could have got more out of
fottball at the end of his career. I suppose he's one of the minority
that just stay away from the game all together. Good Luck in whatever
you doing now Carl
Dean says: Carl has got a business down here in Neath called Neath
Port Talbot removals. Helped me move house last year. Worked his
socks off and as cheap as chips too! Doesn't have much interest in
the game now and didn't want to talk too much about football when he
had a break. I was hoping for a few interesting anecdotes.
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