Frank Sinclair
Frank Mohammed Sinclair is a former professional football player and manager who is a coach in the Academy at Burnley.
He made 756 league and cup appearances in a 25-year playing career, scoring 27 goals. A defender, he began his career at Chelsea, turning professional in May 1990 and then making his debut in the Football League in April 1991. He played on loan at West Bromwich Albion between December 1991 and March 1992. He established himself in the first team at Chelsea during the 1992–93 Premier League campaign and went on to be named as the club's Player of the Year for 1993. He played on the losing side in the 1994 FA Cup final, before picking up a winners' medal after Chelsea beat Middlesbrough 2–0 in the 1997 final. Chelsea also won the League Cup by beating Middlesbrough 2–0 in the final the following year, and Sinclair scored the opening goal in extra time. Chelsea also won the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1998, though Sinclair was ruled out of the final due to injury.
He was sold to Leicester City in August 1998 for a fee of £2 million. He won his second League Cup final in 2000, as Leicester defeated Tranmere Rovers 2–1. He spent a total of six seasons at Leicester, five of which were spent in the Premier League, the exception being the 2002–03 First Division promotion campaign. He joined Championship club Burnley on a free transfer in June 2004. He served as a club captain from January 2005 to the summer of 2006. He joined League One side Huddersfield Town on an emergency loan in February 2007, which became a permanent transfer in the summer. He dropped into League Two to join Lincoln City in July 2008, who loaned him out to Wycombe Wanderers in March 2009; he helped Wycombe to win promotion out of League Two at the end of the 2008–09 season. He then spent the next two seasons in the Conference with Wrexham before playing for Hendon in November 2011 and Colwyn Bay in January 2012.
Born in England, he represented the Jamaica national team at the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He played five games as the team finished in fourth place after losing to Brazil in the third-place play-off match. He also played all three of his country's games at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. He featured twice in the 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup and ended his international career in October 2003 after 28 caps.
Sinclair was appointed as player-manager at Colwyn Bay in February 2013 and was named Conference North Manager of the Month in April and December 2013. He went on to serve Brackley Town as caretaker manager in October 2015 and served as Hednesford Town manager from December 2015 to April 2016. He later spent time as a coach at Stoke City, Radcliffe, Port Vale and Doncaster Rovers. He is the father of fellow professional footballer Tyrese Sinclair.
Club career
Chelsea
Sinclair was born in the London Borough of Lambeth and grew up in Clapham. He attended Pimlico School in Westminster and was offered trials at Chelsea, Arsenal and Wimbledon whilst he represented the West London district team. He later joined Chelsea as an eleven-year-old, stating that supporting the club was a major influence in his decision making. He progressed through the youth age groups, going on to sign as an apprentice in April 1988, before turning professional in May 1990. In April 1991, after a run of four consecutive defeats, Chelsea manager Bobby Campbell decided to blood some youngsters at Luton Town. Sinclair was chosen out of position at left-back, but impressed on his debut as Chelsea fought back from 3–0 down to draw the match 3–3 despite having ten men for the whole of the second half. He kept his place in the side for the next three fixtures at left-back but was subbed off at half-time in a 7–0 away defeat to Nottingham Forest and then rested for the remainder of the 1990–91 season.He made his first appearance of the 1991–92 campaign in Chelsea's first away game, a disappointing 3–0 defeat to Oldham Athletic at Boundary Park. After this performance he was dropped from the side and failed to make a matchday squad under manager Ian Porterfield. In December 1991, he was sent on a short loan spell at Third Division side West Bromwich Albion to gain some more experience. He impressed on his Albion debut, which came in a 1–1 draw away at Bradford City on 14 December. In only his second appearance for the club, he was sent off for violent conduct in the draw with Exeter City when he was involved in a clash of heads with referee Paul Alcock. Despite video evidence showing that the "butting" was accidental he was still found guilty by The Football Association and received a nine-match ban and a £600 fine. He remained at The Hawthorns and went on to make a total of six appearances for the "Baggies", scoring once before returning to Chelsea in March 1992. He made his comeback for Chelsea in a 1–0 victory over Norwich City in March and made a further six appearances that season, scoring his first Chelsea goal with a header in the 3–1 defeat to Aston Villa in April.
An ankle injury kept Sinclair out of the side at the beginning of the 1992–93 season. He returned to the first team in September in a televised match against Manchester City that Chelsea won 1–0. However, Sinclair's mentor, Paul Elliott, suffered a career-ending injury in the match. Despite this setback, Sinclair made thirty-nine appearances in all competitions, primarily at left-back, as Chelsea finished in mid-table. His impressive performances earned him the Chelsea Player of the Year award in 1993. Glenn Hoddle was appointed as manager for the 1993–94 season, replacing David Webb, and preferred using a sweeper system, which saw Sinclair convert into a central defender. He excelled in this position. However, the team's performances were poor, and the side was involved in a relegation battle for most of the campaign. Despite their poor league form Chelsea made it to the 1994 FA Cup final against Manchester United at Wembley Stadium, their first major cup final since 1972. Chelsea could not prevent United from claiming the league and cup double in a 4–0 defeat, with Sinclair conceding the penalty for a foul on Andrei Kanchelskis in the second-half, which was scored by Eric Cantona to make it 2–0. Despite the defeat Chelsea qualified for the next seasons UEFA Cup Winners' Cup as runners-up, their first European campaign in over twenty years.
Sinclair scored on the opening day of the 1994–95 season with a composed finish in a 2–0 win over Norwich City at Stamford Bridge. He scored four minutes into his debut in European football with a header in a 4–2 win over Czech side Viktoria Žižkov in the Cup Winners' Cup. He played in all but one of the European matches as Chelsea reached the semi-finals, where they were knocked out by Real Zaragoza 4–3 on aggregate. Chelsea again had a disappointing league campaign, finishing in 11th position. Still, Sinclair went on to have his best return for the "Blues" with 47 appearances in all competitions, also chipping in with further goals against Queens Park Rangers and Wimbledon. However, he featured just 15 times in the 1995–96 campaign.
He also found first-team appearances limited under player-manager Ruud Gullit during the 1996–97 season. However, he made six appearances in the FA Cup and was one of three centre-backs – the others being Frank Leboeuf and Steve Clarke – to start in the 1997 final as they beat Middlesbrough 2–0 to lift the trophy. The following season, Sinclair played in the 1997 FA Charity Shield as Chelsea lost on penalties to Manchester United after he missed the opening penalty. On 9 August, he hit the headlines after celebrating a goal against Coventry City by dropping his pants; he later explained he did this in tribute to his newborn daughter. He went on to score for Chelsea in the League Cup final, again over Middlesbrough, in a 2–0 win. His first-team chances were starting to become limited though, as new manager Gianluca Vialli built a new team, which consisted mostly of continental stars including centre-backs Frank Leboeuf and Marcel Desailly, whilst John Terry was coming through the youth team. He missed the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final victory over VfB Stuttgart due to a calf injury, though did make five appearances in the competition. Due to the injuries and competition for places, the League Cup final against Middlesbrough proved to be his final appearance for the club.
Leicester City
Sinclair was sold on to Leicester City in August 1998 for a fee of £2 million. During his time at Filbert Street Sinclair developed an unfortunate reputation for scoring own goals. This was caused initially by two own goals in consecutive weekends in 1999. The first was a great leap at Highbury to give Arsenal a 2–1 win. He managed to refrain from putting through his own net against Coventry City the following Wednesday, but then scored another at home to former club Chelsea, where he beat Tore André Flo to the ball to smash it into his own net and lose Leicester their one-goal lead. The importance of these goals was accentuated by the fact that both came in the last minute of the match. Both caused Leicester to drop points, although it wasn't enough to prevent him from remaining a first-team regular.He scored two goals in 39 appearances throughout the 1998–99 season, helping Martin O'Neill's "Foxes" to a 10th-place finish. Six of his appearances came in the League Cup, though he was not in the matchday squad for the final, a 1–0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur. He appeared 44 times in the 1999–2000 campaign, and this time, was part of the team that played in the League Cup final, and collected his second winner's medal in the competition as Leicester triumphed 2–1 over Tranmere Rovers thanks to a brace from centre-back partner Matt Elliott.
However, he was limited to 19 appearances by manager Peter Taylor during the 2000–01 season. He was then fined two weeks' wages by Leicester in September 2001 for his part in an incident at a Heathrow hotel. Sinclair, along with four Chelsea players, had gone on a five-hour drinking binge and had stripped off, swore and vomited in front of American tourists just hours after the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in America. He did though go on to re-establish himself in the starting eleven under new manager Dave Bassett. On 2 March 2002, Sinclair scored the most bizarre of his own goals. After three minutes into a game at Middlesbrough, he coolly slotted the ball past keeper Ian Walker in a seemingly laid-back situation in what proved to be the game's only goal. He held the Premier League records for most own goals until his record was overtaken by Richard Dunne.
Leicester finished the 2001–02 season in last place and were relegated out of the Premier League. The Leicester City Supporters Club voted him as their Player of the Year. Leicester made an immediate return to the top-flight in 2002–03, crowning their maiden season at the Walkers Stadium with a second-place finish in the First Division, Sinclair featuring in 37 games. In March 2004, Sinclair and his Leicester City teammates, Paul Dickov and Keith Gillespie, were arrested in Spain over sexual assault charges while on a training holiday. The charges were later dropped. Leicester released Sinclair following the club's relegation at the end of the 2003–04 season.