About Peter Ward
He Shot He Scored, It Must Be Peter Ward!
Peter with his star on the Brighton Walk of Fame
Peter Ward enjoyed a successful professional football career in both the UK and North America, and is still actively involved in the game, coaching soccer in sunny Florida, USA.
Rising from non-league Burton Albion to the England national squad within 3 years, Peter was particularly prominent at Brighton and Hove Albion FC, a football club that remembers Peter with huge pride and affection. In 1976/77 he was the top scorer in the entire English league as he netted 36 goals for Brighton and Hove Albion. This record still stands as the greatest goalscoring season in the south coast club’s history.
After Brighton, Ward joined Nottingham Forest, at the time reigning double European champions and managed by the legendary Brian Clough. He spent just over 3 seasons at Forest, during which time he was loaned to Seattle Sounders in the NASL. At Seattle Peter settled in quickly, the Sounders reached the national final and was himself voted League MVP (Most Valuable Player) - previous winners of this award include Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Johann Cruyff.
Seattle was the first of a number of clubs Ward played for in North America including Vancouver Whitecaps, Tacoma Stars and Tampa Bay Rowdies.
After retiring from the professional game Ward remained in the US where he is Director of Training at Tarpon FC and still plays at amateur level, complete with titanium knee!
Peter and his wife, Jacqueline, live happily just north of Tampa with their two Great Danes and Peter is an extremely proud father of three grown daughters, Rachael, Rebekah, and Louisa.
