Mel Hopkins


Mel Hopkins was a Wales international footballer. He played at left back.

Club career

The son of a miner, he was signed by Tottenham Hotspur at the age of 15, when spotted playing for his local boy's club. He was taken on as an apprentice after just one trial. Mel Hopkins made his debut in January 1952 and winning a League and FA Cup double in 1961. In 1959, he suffered a serious injury following a collision with Ian St John, smashing his nose and upper jaw, an injury which would keep him out of football for two years.
In total, Hopkins played 219 games for Spurs, before leaving Spurs for Brighton and Hove Albion in October 1964 for a transfer fee of £8,000. He scored 2 goals and played 58 games for Albion. A brief spell at Ballymena United in Northern Ireland 1967 was followed by a move to Bradford Park Avenue in January 1969, where he played 30 games, retiring in 1970.

International career

Hopkins played for his country between 1956 and 1963, earning 34 caps including playing for the Wales squad for the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden, where they lost narrowly to Brazil in the quarter-finals.
In 2003, Hopkins was given a merit award by the Football Association of Wales.