John Sydney Langdon
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John Sydney Langdon | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1854 |
| Died | 1899 (aged 44–45) Seville, Spain |
| Citizenship | British |
| Occupations |
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John Sydney Langdon (1854–1899) was a Gibraltarian medical doctor who played a crucial role in the amateur beginnings of Sevilla CF, being one of its founders in 1890, and then serving the club as its first-ever doctor, and even as a linesmen in the first official football match in Spain.[1]
John Sydney Langdon was born in Gibraltar in 1854, as the son of an English soldier,[1] and in the early 1870s, the teenage Langdon and his brother William most likely participated in the football matches organized by the British colony of Gibraltar, and even in a few friendlies against neighboring local teams of La Línea and San Roque in Cádiz.[2] At some point in the mid-1870s, the Langdon brothers left Gibraltar, but while William went to Huelva as an executive of the Río Tinto Company, John, then a young doctor, settled at number 9 calle Don Remondo in Seville with his young French wife, and the couple only had one son, Charles Gustave, known in Spain as Carlos Gustavo, born in 1887.[1][3] At some point before his death he became a doctor at the British consulate.[4]
Langdon was one of the founding members of Sevilla CF in January 1890, being appointed as the club's first-ever doctor.[1][5] Two months later, on 8 March 1890, Langdon was one of the two linesmen in the first official football match in Spain, in which Sevilla claimed a 2–0 win over Recreativo de Huelva.[1][6] The other linesmen was Huelva's Bower, which means that were the first assistant referees in the history of Spanish football.[7] The referee was the president of Sevilla, Edward F. Johnston, who was also born in 1854.[4]