Swansea City's 'pioneer' overseas footballer

Football players from as many as nine countries could feature in the Swansea City team facing Hull City on Saturday.

But 90 years ago, the Vetch Field crowd was welcoming the club's first ever overseas player.

Born in Sabathu, India, John Edward "Jack" Armand joined the Swans from Leeds United for £500 - about £23,000 in today's money - before the start of the 1929-30 season.

He would go on to score 10 goals in 54 appearances over two seasons.

Armand made his debut in a 2-2 home draw with Stoke City in League Division Two.

He was born into an Anglo-Indian family on 11 August 1898.

In 1919 he was selected for a British and Empire Army XI to play France to mark the World War One armistice.

After the war his regiment was based in Newport, where he had an unsuccessful trial for Newport County FC.

While stationed in Yorkshire in 1922, Leeds United agreed to buy him out of the army and he went on to reward them with 24 goals in 79 matches.

This record helped Leeds achieve two promotions during his seven years at the club.

After promotion to the top flight, he found himself behind the likes of Percy Whipp, Jack Swan and Joe Richmond in the Leeds United pecking order.

He dropped a division and joined the club then known as Swansea Town in search of more regular football.

Securing his services would have been a major coup for the club, according to Gwyn Rees, a regular contributor to Swansea City's match day programme.

"It's very difficult to find any newspaper archive or programme notes about Jack, but it's safe to say he must have been some player for the Swans to have forked out £500," Mr Rees explained.

"You have to remember that at this stage the club was still only 17 years old, so never mind the fee, signing someone from England would have seemed exotic, let alone a player from India."

In his first season at the Vetch, Armand flourished in his favoured position of inside forward - but found things tougher in his second.

Mr Rees suspects this was due to a change of position. Whatever the reason, he was sold to Ashton International.

Armand would go on to play for Southport, Newport County, Scarborough and finally Denaby United, retiring shortly before the outbreak of World War Two.

Once he had hung up his boots, he would go on to work as a metal worker and latterly the manager of an amusement arcade before retiring in Grimsby, where he died in the summer of 1974.

"Nowadays we take for granted that a striker can come from the Ivory Coast or a number 10 from Kosovo, but Jack was one of the pioneers who made that international outlook possible."