There will be two groups of Manchester City supporter. One who remembers Alex Williams as the first black goalkeeper to regularly play in the old First Division, the one who took over from the great Joe Corrigan in the 1980s.
And the younger vintage will know Williams as the genial face of the club’s charity, City in the Community. The man who has spent 33 years giving back to the region’s streets. His association with City now in its sixth decade, Williams is calling time.
‘At Maine Road, the community team had an upstairs room in a semi-detached house,’ Williams says. ‘Next to the old social club there were two houses. One belonged to the old groundsman, Stan Gibson. We were in the other with the lottery department.
‘It was quite cosy, laughable today, but in some ways it was great because we were accessible. People would just wander through the house. I remember driving a really rickety old minibus to a school. I got pulled over and got three points because the tyres were bald. We have come a long way since those days.’
The numbers bear that out. The charity has gone from turning over £10,000 a year when Williams took charge to more than £3million now as he leaves his role as ambassador after 12 years. He has driven the growth and a training pitch was named in his honour last week, where the 61-year-old’s speech focused on gratitude to others. Those included Nedum Onuoha, who now sits on the board.
‘We’re standing there next to his pitch and he’s thanking everyone else,’ Onuoha says. ‘I had nothing to do with this but he wants to give me credit. He’s probably embarrassed, even though it’s the least we can do.’ Onuoha, the former full back, was once a kid on the community scheme. ‘He’s a legend of the club and the area
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