A Bermudian footballer inducted into the island’s hall of fame in 2006 was a trailblazer for other athletes in Britain.

Arnold Woollard’s life was transformed when he was spotted at age 18 at BAA Field by Phillip Hutton, the director of Northampton Town Football Club, who was visiting Bermuda in 1949.

The young player from Pembroke arrived in Liverpool by boat that August, becoming Bermuda’s first professional footballer.

Clyde Best, another Bermudian football legend, called him “a super guy — he paved the way for the rest of us”.

Mr Woollard’s stature and reputation as a footballer was considered unusual for the lower-profile role of defender

Mr Woollard told The Royal Gazette in 1982 that the training in England, where Northampton Town were then in Third Division South, was “very, very hard” — but he got stuck in.

Northampton’s coaches switched him to the full-back position, with BAA team-mate George Sousa ascribing the move to his “very powerful kick”.

He would never play up front in the English leagues because he was too valued in defence.

In Mr Woollard’s first year with the team, Northampton — nicknamed the Cobblers — enjoyed unprecedented success, making it to the fifth round of the FA Cup.

In 1952, Mr Woollard signed for Peterborough United, in the Midland Football League, but was not with them for long before the call came from Newcastle United, of the top-flight First Division.

The news generated a buzz of excitement back home.

Newcastle were dominant in British football for a spell, including a winning run for the FA Cup in 1955, the last of three in five seasons — but the Tynesiders, despite the most loyal of support bases in Europe, have not tasted glory at the highest level since.

The Black and White Alphabet Book, which gives Newcastle’s history, states: “Woollard caught the eye of the Newcastle officials following outstanding performances for Peterborough in a giant-killing FA Cup run during 1952-53.”

Mr Woollard played ten games for Newcastle before he got picked up by Bournemouth in June 1956 for £2,000, which he said was “at the time their most expensive signing”.

However, he viewed his time with Newcastle, dubbed the Magpies, as the highlight of his professional career.

Mr Woollard wrote on his résumé: “That season, 1956-57, turned out to be a big year for Bournemouth in the FA Cup.”

They were ultimately beaten by Manchester United on “a hotly disputed penalty”, he said.

“The United team consisted mostly of the players who, sadly, were to perish in the Munich air crash the following season.”

Mr Woollard played 161 times for Bournemouth.

In 1961-62, he was asked by the Bournemouth manager if he would agree to sign for Northampton Town in a swap deal for a winger, Ron Spelman. He agreed.

Soon after, Mr Woollard decided it was “time to think of the future” and in 1963 returned to Bermuda to find employment at the Bank of Butterfield.

He also went back to BAA, and in 1964 was a member of the Bermuda team that played Iceland in the island’s first international friendly.

It was a respectable showing, with Bermuda losing 4-3.

In 1967, Mr Woollard decided to “hang up my boots for good”.

He had joined the ranks of the island’s top footballers, recalling in 1982: “I enjoyed my football life over there, but the game has changed since I was playing.

“Then, it was a game. Now it’s a business. The maximum pay when I was playing was £30 a week. Just look at the pay now — it is astronomical.”

Mr Woollard returned to England to live in 1988, but visited Bermuda regularly to see brother Wilbur and sister Carol Dunstan.

He told the Bermuda Sun in 2001: “During my pro career, I had the good fortune to play with such greats as Jackie Milburn, Frank Brennan at Newcastle and against Danny Blanchflower, Johnny Haynes, Jimmy Hill and Billy Wright, among many others.”

The Sun wrote: “While his celebrity has been somewhat overlooked on his home turf, Mr Woollard, of course, will never be forgotten in the English towns and cities where he made an impression; places where football nostalgia attracts an almost religious fervour.

“The fact that he is so little known here stems from the fact that his playing career ended almost four decades ago and that defensive players do not grab the headlines the way goalscorers do.”

Arnold Woollard is survived by his wife, Wendy.

• Arnold James Woollard, Bermuda’s first professional footballer, was born on August 24, 1930. He died in October 2023, aged 93