Samuel Morris (footballer)

Samuel Alfredo Morris de Olea (1870 – 23 August 1935), was an Anglo-Filipino football pioneer who played as a goalkeeper and midfielder for some of the earliest Catalan clubs in existence.

[1] During the second half of his career in the early 1900s, he played for Hispania AC and FC Barcelona,[2][3][4] being a member of the Hispania side that won the 1900–01 Copa Macaya, which was the very first football competition played on the Iberian Peninsula,[5] and a member of the Barça side that reached the final of the 1902 Copa de la Coronación.

[8][10] They played their first cricket matches in a field near the Hippodrome of Can Tunis, which were disputed between the club's members and on some occasions against British sailors who docked in the port of Barcelona, with the earliest example of this dating back to 28 August 1891.

[8][10] Together with their younger brother, Miguel, the three of them appeared in what is regarded to be the oldest photograph of a football team in Spain, which was these two sides before the match on 12 March.

In fact, a player named Morrison played in the team's official debut against FC Barcelona on 8 December 1899, which was probably just a press mistake and who was most likely Enrique.

[5] Together with fellow Hispania teammate Carlos Soley, Morris participated in the Copa Macaya as both a player and a referee, as the two of them officiated a game between Tarragona and Club Espanyol on 10 February 1901, which ended in a 0–2 win to the latter.

[5] During his time as a player for Hispania, the three Morris brothers joined the ranks of FC Barcelona on two occasions: the first on the occasion of the match against the officers of the British cruise ship HS Calliope on 23 November 1901, where they helped Barça to a 4–0 victory,[8][14] and the second in May of 1902, when they reinforced FC Barcelona during its participation in the Copa de la Coronación (predecessor of Copa del Rey).

After this parenthesis with Barça, the Morris brothers continued to play at Hispania AC until 1903, when the club was dissolved for lack of players, but while Enrique and Miguel then joined FC Barcelona permanently, Samuel decided to retire due to his already advanced age.

[1] In 1903, Morris played several friendly matches between teams made up of the best players in Barcelona, contesting the position of goalkeeper with the likes of Vicente Reig, José María Acha, and Juli Marial.

[18] In fact, in November 1900, a Hispania player named Morris, hence either him or Enrique, participated in a 100-meter foot sprint race, next to the Casanovas hotel, in which he retired together with Crespo.

The oldest photo of a football team in Spain. Samuel can be seen standing in the third row, the second from the left, in-between Daunt and his friend Jorge Barrié .
Samuel Morris (standing, the second from the right) in 1895