Wayne Clarke (born 28 February 1961) is an English former professional footballer. Playing as a striker, he scored nearly 150 goals over the course of his career and was a member of the Everton team which finished as English league champions in 1987. He made almost 450 appearances in the Football League, playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham City, Everton, Leicester City, Manchester City, Shrewsbury Town, Stoke City and Walsall. He is the youngest of five brothers. Frank, Allan, Derek and Kelvin who all played league football. Playing career Wolverhampton Wanderers Clarke was born in Short Heath, the fifth son of Frank Clarke, Sr. He joined his home-town club Wolverhampton Wanderers as an associate schoolboy on his 15th birthday in 1976, despite competition from leading clubs, and became an apprentice when he left school the following year. Clubs that were interested in taking Clarke at the time included Arsenal and Leeds where he had trials and both Merseysider teams were keen too. Clarke and his parents also went for a meal with Brian Clough who was managing Nottingham Forest and was to be told "look, I want you to come with us" but he preferred to stay at home and signed for the Wanderers. Before any professional debut, Clarke represented England at schoolboy level. On his international schoolboys days, Clarke recalls "My first game as an England Schoolboy was at Oxford United’s old ground, we beat Northern Ireland 5-0. I scored a hat-trick playing on the wing. I scored my third goal directly from a corner kick. We played West Germany in Koblenz and the Dutch in Holland. I also played at Wembley twice, against France and Wales." Clarke signed his first professional contract in March 1978, and made his first team debut as a substitute on 9 May 1978 in a 2–1 win away to Ipswich Town aged 17, replacing Mel Eves in the final game of the 1977-78 season. Another debutant that day would be future England captain Terry Butcher. Now in the 1978/79 season, Clarke, still aged 17, was next named on the bench for Wolves by Sammy Chung for the visit of Bristol City and the travel to Southampton in September 1978 before starting games home to Ipswich, away at Everton, home to Arsenal and away at Middlesbrough by the end of October. Nigel Clough, seemingly still an admirer, came calling for Clarke again that November, this