Player Database: Georges Santos

By: Gainsbro Mariner
Date: 10/06/2013

Gainsbro Mariner looks back on Georges Santos, one of the few highlights of the 2002/03 season.

Georges Santos will forever be remembered amongst British football supporters for the infamous "Battle of Bramall Lane" a game in which his former club Sheffield United took on West Bromwich Albion in a First Division game during the 2001-02 season. The game saw United reduced to 6 men with Santos seeing red for a two footed lunge on Albion's Andy Johnson. The game sparked the end of his Blades career and he later moved to Grimsby.

The French born Cape Verdean International has previously played for Toulon, Tranmere Rovers and West Brom before arriving at Sheffield United in 2000. He was initially brought to Blundell Park by Paul Groves as a defensive central midfielder in December 2002 but later was converted to a centre half. His only game came in the relegation clash with Sheffield Wednesday, a game in which he towered into the area to hit a precise thunderbolt header past Kevin Pressman to cape off a 2-0 victory. For the rest of the season Santos was quickly becoming one of the few good points in a truly woeful season and by the end of the year he had received the fans Player of the year away for the 2002-03 season. During his career he only played 26 times for Grimsby, and left the club soon after relegation was confirmed.

He went on to play for Ipswich Town and Queens Park Rangers before turning down a chance to return to Blundell Park in 2006 by signing for Brighton. His stay with Brighton was short and wasn't very sweet as he was farmed out on loan to Oxford before being released. He later said in an interview that he regretted not returning to Grimsby and that had been one of his only footballing regrets. In 2007 Santos moved to Chesterfield but was released before playing a game and later went on to finish his career with Non-league clubs Alfreton Town, Farsley Celtic and Fleetwood Town. He eventually hung his boots up following the conclusion of the 2008-09 campaign.

Big George is now a football scout, he previously worked as a freelance scout before joining Sheffield United's scouting team in 2012.

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