Chasing the Ball

The idea behind Chasing the Ball emerged in the autumn of 2016 to answer one very simple question: Did my grandfather, Robert Cowan, really play for Manchester United?

 

Growing up, I'd heard the family stories of him being a professional footballer. There were rumours he'd been with United in the 30s and vague details of him playing in France before the war. There was little hard evidence in the family albums to give me bragging rights at school and the tales scoffed in the classroom seemed destined to remain just that: tales.

 

A few years ago Robert's passport and a French identity card turned up in a box of old things. There, in official ink, was the phase 'Footballeur Professional' and, being a little older and a newspaper journalist, I decided to do what I had often talked about: research his football career. 

 

In the albums I found old photographs of Robert with men my father couldn't name. I wondered who they were and what happened to them. We found a black and white photograph of him on the football field. On the back, scrawled in pencil was the word 'Boulogne'. So I headed there. My wife Alison and I scoured the French newspaper archives. Poring over the yellowed pages of old editions we started to find references to Robert in match reports. Slowly, and with the help of historians and football fans in France, Scotland and England and the recollections of relatives, we pieced together the full story of his career and discovered just what a remarkable time he had there. And, yes, he was on the books of Man Utd. 

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I'm aware my grandfather's name will not be recognisable to many. He's not a Dixie Dean, Hughie Gallagher or Stanley Matthews, and the highpoint of his career was a journeyman footballer in the French Second Division. Yet, his story provides a fascinating insight into football in the 30s and interesting counterpoint to the game today. As modern fans, we've become accustomed to the world's best footballers moving to play in the UK that we've forgotten the time, more than 80 years ago, when British players saw their futures abroad.