Vince Hilaire was English and played for eight teams in his senior career, some of the teams were, Crystal Palace, Luton Town, Portsmouth and Leeds United. He was a midfielder with his career spacing over roughly 16 years.
career
Vincent Hilaire’s career started and the majority of it was at Crystal Palace where he recorded well over 200 appearances for the club and with the club they came first in 1977-78 Division Two where they enjoyed two seasons of Division One football before going back to Division Two in the 1981-82 season.
He enjoyed seven years at the club from just being a 17 year old to being a solid player in his twenties and looking towards more English teams for the future of his career.
He also spent one year in between his Crystal Palace years at San Jose Earthquakes on loan in 1982.
After Crystal Palace he moved to Luton Town but played very few times before in the same year moving to Portsmouth where he spent the next four years their racking up over 100 appearances. Where he spent most his time in Division Two with one season in the top flight. He then moved onto Leeds where he spent one year their before then going to Stoke City on loan for a season before Stoke bought him from Leeds.
After only contributing to a few appearances for Stoke he moved to Exeter City for a year before ending his footballing career at Waterlooville where in 1993 he hung up his boots.
International career
Vince Hilaire from his first season at Crystal Palace was already in the England Youth team before two years later getting promoted to the U-21s in 1979 spending three years their before getting a chance at England B team but sadly for him he could never get the eventual call up to the England first team.
| Senior Career | |
| 1977-1984 | Crystal Palace |
| 1982 | – San Jose Earthquakes |
| 1984 | Luton Town |
| 1984-1988 | Portsmouth |
| 1988-1989 | Leeds United |
| 1989-1990 | – Stoke City |
| 1990-1991 | Stoke City |
| 1991-1992 | Exeter City |
| 1992-1993 | Waterlooville |
| International Career | |
| 1977-1978 | England Youth |
| 1979-1982 | England U-21 |
| 1979 | England B |
Vince Hilaire Career review
Though Vince Hilaire’s career was predominantly in Division Two he was a decorative midfielder especially for teams like Crystal Palace and Portsmouth. He was very unlucky to be called up to England’s national team but he still proved to be a huge talent for whoever had them in his team.
A quote from Vince Hilaire Wikipedia shows what he had to deal with being a black footballer.
‘After about 20 minutes, the manager, then Terry Venables, told me to go and have a warm-up. I came out of the dug-out, and I started jogging around the touchline. I couldn’t believe the abuse that was coming at me… animal noises and all the names you think of calling a black person. Any name under the sun. And it frightened me a bit, so I couldn’t wait to get back in the dug-out. And I thought, ‘Well, if this is the sort of reception I’m going to get, then I don’t really want to know’ – Vince Hilaire.
