Michael Roger Channon (born 28 November 1948) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward, most notably for Southampton, and went on to represent the England national team in the 1970s.
[1] Within three years he had established himself as the club's main goalscorer and was consistent in front of goal at a time when Southampton were one of the less fashionable teams in English football's First Division.
[1] Now in his thirties, he continued to play regularly though his goals ratio was not good in his second spell, with only ten coming in each of his first two seasons back at the club.
[1] He joined Newcastle United in 1982 after playing 510 games for Southampton over two spells, scoring a total of 185 goals placing him top of the club's list of all-time goalscorers.
[7] His impressive career seemingly on the decline, he failed to score in nine games for Bristol Rovers before a sudden departure again, this time to Norwich City where, at the age of 34, he found some of his old touch.
Channon, in his tenth England outing, was in an attacking line-up which spent pretty much the whole match in the Poland half, trying to break the deadlock.
[24] A week later came another Channon goal against Scotland – this time from the penalty spot – but this proved an infamous England defeat as the Scots won 2–1 and their fans invaded the Wembley pitch in celebration, ripping up clods of souvenir turf and pulling down one of the crossbars.
[25] After an ill-fated move to Manchester City affected his form, Ron Greenwood chose to omit him from the starting line-up when England played the crucial World Cup qualifier in Luxembourg in October 1977.
England's failure to qualify for three major international tournaments during Channon's career leaves him as the most-capped player never to have been named to a World Cup or European Championships squad.
[31] Among owners who have had their horses with Channon are old colleagues and acquaintances from his footballing days, including Kevin Keegan, Alan Ball, Chris Cattlin and Sir Alex Ferguson.
[32] During an interview with Clare Balding broadcast on BBC One on 3 January 2009, Channon spoke about how, as a result of the broken jaw, he was subsequently fitted with metal plates in his face.