Leicester Fosse's First-Ever Foreign Pre-Season Trip
The Club's supporters first heard of the overseas trip with a short article appearing in the Leicester Daily Mercury, the city's main newspaper, on 17 June, 1913. Sweden was not an entirely unknown country to Leicester Fosse. The previous season, a Swedish centre-forward called Karl Gustafsson had been on Fosse’s books and he would go on to score against them on the tour.
In addition, two Fosse players, goalkeeper Ron Brebner, who signed from Northern Nomads in May 1913, and Douglas McWhirter, snapped up in March 1912, played for the Great Britain football team which won a Gold medal at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics. However, owing to an early indifference towards the tour, neither Brebner nor McWhirter went on the trip of 1913.
Perhaps because Fosse had just completed a disappointing season, which saw them finish 15th in Division Two, the party consisted of only 11 players and three directors. The Club’s manager, Jack Bartlett, did not even join the continent on the tour. The team was: Bown, Clay, Berrington, Burton, Webber, King, Douglas, Mills, Mortimer, Benfield and Waterall.
It took five days for news of Fosse’s historic first game overseas to reach the Leicester public. The match was against the combined clubs of Orgryte and Gothenburg and 5,000 spectators were in attendance. Despite the handicap of having only completed their long rail journey to Gothenburg immediately before the match, Fosse won the game. The journey, by boat and train, took two days.
The Swedes scored first but Benfield equalised with a beautiful header and Mortimer, a new signing who went on to score 10 goals in the five games, gave Fosse the lead with a neat shot from a pass by Mills. Mortimer then headed in just before half-time following good work by Douglas. Bown saved well on many occasions but the Swedes scored again to make the score 3-2.
The second half was fast and furious and both goals had narrow escapes. Fosse, however, held out for the win. After the match, the visitors were entertained at a banquet attended by prominent members of the Swedish FA and a large number of local citizens. The Daily Mercury reported that ‘unbounded hospitality was shown to the visitors’.
The opening match was deemed such a success that it was decided to extend the tour by another game and by another two days.
Fosse’s second game was against a Stockholm Select XI, the contest taking place in the Stockholm Olympic Stadium, described as ‘one of the best-equipped grounds in the world’. 10,000 spectators watched the match and the Daily Mercury reported that ‘the natives showed great enthusiasm'.
They wrote: “The English were anxious to uphold their prestige and the Swedes were anxious to show that they had made rapid strides to perfect the game.”
Fosse won 4-0. Douglas, Clay and King were singled out for praise, as was Mortimer; 'who is proving that his goal-scoring feats during the last three seasons in which he notched about 220 goals have not been in the nature of flukes.'
Three more victories followed. A Swedish International Federation side, fielding the ex-Fosse Player Gustafsson at centre-forward, was twice beaten 4-2 at another of Stockholm’s stadia, the Rasunda (below). The gates for these games were 6,000 and 8,000. The Daily Mercury reported that, numbered amongst the 8,000 crowd, was Prince Eugene of Sweden, ‘who honoured proceedings with his presence’.
Mortimer scored another four goals in these games, including a hat-trick. In between these games, Fosse defeated Gefle IF 5-1. After the tour’s final game, the Fosse and the Swedish players were entertained to dinner by the Swedish Ambassador at one of the leading restaurants in Stockholm.
Speeches were made, English songs were sung and the Fosse players were presented with a ‘handsome silver cup’ which sadly is not now in the Club’s trophy collection. The referee for all of the games was also praised. He was Danish international centre half Nils Middleboe.
The Daily Mercury said that he was likely to be seen playing in the English First Division the following season (which he was, for Chelsea). Leicester Fosse weren’t able to take up the offer of another tour to Sweden the following year in the summer of 1914, when the First World War broke out.
However Leicester’s 1913 tour of Sweden, which opened with their first-ever game abroad 104 years ago this week, was truly groundbreaking. It was the first of many subsequent overseas tours which have seen Leicester City play in many countries around the world.
Research by Club Historian John Hutchinson.