Editing Len Shackleton (section)

{{Short description|English footballer (1922–2000)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox football biography
| name                = Len Shackleton
| image               = 
| caption             = 
| fullname            = Leonard Francis Shackleton
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1922|5|3|df=y}}
| birth_place         = [[Bradford]], England
| death_date          = {{death date and age|2000|11|28|1922|5|3|df=y}}
| death_place         = [[Grange-over-Sands]], England
| height              = {{height|ft=5|in=9}}<ref name="page 19"/>
| position            = [[Inside forward]], [[outside forward]]
| youthyears1         = 1936–1938| youthclubs1 = [[Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C.|Bradford Park Avenue]]
| youthyears2         = 1936–1938| youthclubs2 = → Kippax United (loan)
| youthyears3         = 1938–1939| youthclubs3 = [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]]
| youthyears4         = 1938–1939| youthclubs4 = → [[Enfield F.C.|Enfield]] (loan)
| youthyears5         = 1939     | youthclubs5 = [[London Paper Mills F.C.|London Paper Mills]]
| years1              = 1940–1946| clubs1 = [[Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C.|Bradford Park Avenue]] | caps1 =   7| goals1 =  4
| years2              = 1946–1948| clubs2 = [[Newcastle United F.C.|Newcastle United]]           | caps2 =  57| goals2 = 26
| years3              = 1948–1957| clubs3 = [[Sunderland A.F.C.|Sunderland]]                     | caps3 = 320| goals3 = 97
| totalcaps           = 384| totalgoals = 127
| nationalyears1      = 1935–1936| nationalteam1 = [[English Schools' Football Association|England Schoolboys]]                           | nationalcaps1 = 3| nationalgoals1 = 2
| nationalyears2      = 1948–1954| nationalteam2 = [[England national football team|England]]| nationalcaps2 = 5| nationalgoals2 = 1
}}

'''Leonard Francis Shackleton''' (3 May 1922 – 28 November 2000) was an English [[Association football|footballer]]. Known as the "Clown Prince of Football", he is generally regarded as one of English football's finest ever entertainers.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/1045604.stm |title=BBC SPORT &#124; FOOTBALL &#124; Len Shackleton: Clown Prince |publisher=BBC News |date=29 November 2000 |access-date=31 August 2010}}</ref> He also played [[cricket]] in the [[Minor Counties Cricket Championship|Minor Counties]] for [[Northumberland County Cricket Club|Northumberland]].

Able to play at [[inside forward]] or [[outside forward]], he scored 134 goals in 427 league and cup appearances in just over 11 seasons in [[the Football League]], and before that scored 171 goals in 209 league and cup appearances during wartime football. His ball control skills made him one of the most talented players in the country, but his individualism and outspoken nature limited him to only five [[England national football team|England]] caps in a six-year international career. He also never won a trophy or league title.

Born in [[Bradford]], he spent his teenage years before [[World War II]] with [[Bradford Park Avenue A.F.C.|Bradford Park Avenue]], Kippax United, [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]], [[Enfield F.C.|Enfield]], and [[London Paper Mills F.C.|London Paper Mills]], before he turned professional at Bradford Park Avenue in 1940. He spent the war assembling aircraft radios and playing for Bradford PA, and was sold on to [[Football League Second Division|Second Division]] rivals [[Newcastle United F.C.|Newcastle United]] for a £13,000 fee in October 1946. He scored six goals on his Newcastle debut, but fell out with the club's directors, and was sold on to [[Sunderland A.F.C.|Sunderland]] for a British transfer record fee of £20,050 in February 1948. He scored 97 goals in 320 [[Football League First Division|First Division]] matches for the club, with the closest he came to a trophy being the 1949–50 season when Sunderland finished third in the league, and when they reached the semi-finals of the [[FA Cup]] in 1955 and in 1956. He retired due to an ankle injury in 1957, and became a sports journalist.