John Toshack was a Liverpool legend, famed for his great goal scoring and his fantastic strike partnership with Kevin Keegan.
Toshack began his football career with his home town club Cardiff City, signing his first professional contract in 1966, on his 17th birthday. Toshack remained at Cardiff for four seasons and scoring seventy-five goals.
Bill Shankly signed Toshack, after Liverpool's original target Frank Worthington had failed a medical and the rest, as they say, is history. Toshack signed from Cardiff for 110,000 in November 1970 and became an instant hero when he scored against local rivals Everton in his second match for Liverpool.
Toshack will be remembered for his great aerial ability, that would become a feature of Liverpool's attack for many years, and his great partnership with Kevin Keegan which terrorised defences in England and Europe, scoring nearly 200 goals for Liverpool between them.
During his time at Liverpool John Toshack scored 96 goals, and he was part of the Liverpool team that won the First Division titles in 1973, 1976 and 1977, the FA Cup in 1974, and the UEFA Cup in 1973 and 1976.
1975-76 was Toshack's beat season at Liverpool, playing in fifty competitive matches for the club in four different competitions winning the League and UEFA Cup winners medals.
Unfortunately Toshack had numerous injuries during his time at Liverpool, which blighted his career, injury also meant that he missed the last part of the 1976-77 season and he could only watch as his team won the European cup for the first time in 1977.
After making only a few appearances in the first team the following season, Toshack left Liverpool to become player-manager at Swansea City. John Toshack made 247 appearances for Liverpool and scored 96 goals.
Toshack made an emotional return to Anfield in 1981 with his Swansea side, a few days after Bill Shankly died, just before the minutes silence in memory of Shankly, Toshack removed his Swansea tracksuit top, revealing a red Liverpool shirt with his number 10 on the back. It was an emotional moment which will be remembered by many Liverpool fans and demonstrated just how much playing for Liverpool and Bill Shankly had meant to him.
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