Joe Baker

Joseph Henry Baker, footballer

Born: 17 August, 1940, in Liverpool

Died: 6 October, 2003, in Wishaw, aged 63

JOE Baker was the first "rock ’n’ roll footballer", bridging the gap between the post-war era of austerity and the modern game with the remarkable impact he made in four seasons at Hibernian in the late Fifties and early Sixties.

He went on to be capped by England, play in Italy and then the English league. However, it was at Easter Road that he made his name as the "Baker Boy" and he always said his days with the Edinburgh club were the best of his football life. His main regret was that he was born in England which prevented him playing for Scotland, except at schoolboy level, as, in the FIFA rule book, the place of birth qualification was replaced by family background only in 1967.

Baker’s father was in the merchant navy and his older brother, Gerry, who would also become a professional footballer and play for Hibernian, was born in the United States in 1938. When war broke out, the family returned to Britain and Joseph Henry Baker was born in Liverpool. Six weeks later, the family returned to Scotland. Joe grew up in Wishaw and went back to the Lanarkshire town when his football career ended.

As a boy, he distinguished himself as a player at St Joseph’s secondary and was signed by Coltness United. Chelsea invited him to London for trials but he left, homesick, after six weeks. The Hibs scout Davie Wyper took Baker under his wing and invited him to Easter Road for the European Cup semi-final against Reims in 1956.

Baker signed for Hibs soon after and was farmed out to junior club Armadale Thistle before making his debut against Airdrie as a 17-year-old in 1957. He really made his mark in March 1958 when Hibs met their Edinburgh rivals, Hearts, in the third round of the Scottish Cup. Hearts would go on to win the league that season and they went ahead at Tynecastle before Baker exploded into action, scoring all four goals in a 4-3 Hibs’ victory. He eventually scored 102 goals for Hibs in 117 appearances, setting a record of 42 league goals in a season.

At the beginning of the 1958-59 season, he was called up for England’s under-23 side against Poland, with Bobby Charlton and Jimmy Greaves playing alongside him as inside forwards. His first full cap came in 1959 against Northern Ireland, and he scored from 25 yards on his debut. Because he was the first England cap not to play in the Football League and because he was perceived to be a Scot, there was a press campaign against Baker’s inclusion in the national team. Baker was to say: "I never really settled with the England squad and never really felt accepted."

Indeed, he would tell the story of how he was taking a taxi from the airport to England’s training camp and got chatting to the driver, telling him he was playing for England. "He gave me a funny look and went quiet and began to whisper on his radio. The next thing I knew we were pulling over and a police car drew up. The driver jumped out: ‘That’s him there in the back’. You’d have thought I was Public Enemy No 1 and he had a madman in the back. Only a phone call to manager Walter Winterbottom cleared things up."

Baker got only eight caps for England but he almost made the cut from the original 40 players for Alf Ramsay’s World Cup squad in 1966.

His stunning career at Easter Road, which included scoring nine goals in Hibs’ 15-1 win over Peebles Rovers in a Scottish Cup tie, attracted international attention, with spectacular performances against Barcelona and Roma in European competition in 1960-61. Baker scored twice in both the Nou Camp and the Olimpico in Rome. Gigi Peronace, the Italian super agent of the Sixties, swooped to link up Baker at Torino with the other boy wonder of British football, Denis Law.

Serie A proved tumultuous for both players, but a serious road accident after a night gallivanting with Law in Turin threatened Baker’s career. He returned to Britain and joined Arsenal after only one season but was held in such regard in Torino that he was asked back 40 years later as a special guest when the club celebrated promotion from Serie B in 2001.

Baker was only 22 at the time of his car accident and was never quite the same player again. However, he still won a special place in the affections of both Arsenal and Nottingham Forest supporters. He played at Highbury from 1962-66, scoring 100 times in 156 appearances. At Forest, he was part of a strike force that saw them pipped for the league title by a single point from Manchester United in 1967. After a short, unhappy spell at Sunderland, he went back to Easter Road in 1971. Baker scored on his emotional return against Aberdeen but managed only 20 first team appearances before finishing his career with Raith Rovers, then in the Second Division.

Until last season, Baker was a club hospitality host at Easter Road and was a highly popular, easy-going figure on match days, always with a twinkle in his eye. The greatest compliment to him was that he was revered on a par with the club’s legendary Famous Five.

He was married for 41 years and is survived by his wife, Sonia, his daughter, Nadia, and his son, Colin.