My folks are in London this weekend and my dear ol' mum has a bit of crush on old 'arry Redknapp, so I am taking them to see QPR vs Charlton.
In the past I have been to the Valley to see Di Canio smash in an equaliser for West Ham in a 1-1 draw, and to see Charlton play a play-off game. I think it was about the mid 80's, and Carl LeBurn (or something like that) came off the bench. He was like an 80's version of Peter Crouch (about 8 foot 6) and all limbs - the whole crowd laughed at him whenever he went near the ball.
That is all I have to say about Charlton.
Bet you didn't see Carl Leaburn score though - few did !!!! One of the tallest strikers to grace English football -and one of the least prolific. More a target man. Charlton 1987-98 (344 apps, 53 goals) & then transferred to Wimbledon in the EPL where he scored an unexpected brace v Crystal Palace weeks after signing - but turned out to be half the four goals he scored for the Wombles in 58 apps !!!
Funny you're going to QPR v Charlton, as Leaburn finished his pro career at QPR in 2002.
And he is often seen at Hammers games these days as media liaison.
Still using his height to good effect as a security guard on Canary Wharf & in TV series cameos such as a bouncer in East Enders.
"A security guard? Not the best job considering the trouble he had controlling passes!"
Has been spotted at Upton Park recently too as he works mostly as a "fixer" for foreign TV wanting player interviews etc.:
"When I interviewed Carl for charltonlive before Crimbo he said he does extra work on East Enders quite a lot - has a mate who works there, has done a few films too. I think he does some security work but his main job now is as a 'fixer' for foreign TV, mainly at West Ham or other London clubs, when say one of the foreign channels wants to interview a player or a manager if the foreign host approached them 9 times out of 10 they would get ignored or bumped down the list, but Carl as an ex pro has some credability to approach the players and managers and arrange the interviews, you can often see him behind the dugout at Upton Park."
http://www.itsroundanditswhite.co.uk/2012/01/24/charlton-athletic-heroes-carl-leaburn/
by: Stuart Loversidge January 24, 2012
The cult hero. Every club has one. For Charlton Athletic during the early to mid nineties, it was a striker by the name of Carl Leaburn.
Your normal run of the mill cult hero tends to be a goal scorer, maybe an enigmatic winger or perhaps even a heart on the sleeve midfield man. ‘Big Carl’ was none of these things. His goalscoring record was poor at best, so poor that there were t-shirts available on match-day outside the ground reading ‘I SAW LEABURN SCORE!’ His record reads 344 games, 53 goals! But this doesn’t tell the whole story of his career.
Carl who? I hear the non-Charlton fans saying. Who is he? Well I’ll tell you, he’s only the player Peter Crouch wishes he was! He blazed a trail hand in hand with ‘bambi on ice’ Kevin Francis for the clumsy gangly target-man. Standing well over 6 feet tall and with as the commentators would say ‘a good touch for a big man’, Carl was the ultimate unselfish striker. ‘Super’ Clive Mendonca rated him as his favourite ever strike partner! Flick ons, lay-offs, you name it, he could do it (as long as it was one of these two things of course). When he was in front of goal with the ball at his feet, the outcome was often less successful. The ball could quite literally go anywhere, anywhere but in the net that is. Put the ball on his head however and it was a different story! The back post bullet header into the far corner was one of his trademarks. If only the ball was crossed to him at the back post more!