Clubs: Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Leicester City, Crystal Palace, Vancouver Whitecaps

Steve Kember is a Croydon lad and has always been a great favourite at his local club for which he signed as an apprentice in 1963 and as a professional in 1965 on his 17^th birthday.

In his first spell with the club Steve matured under Dick Graham and quickly became an important part of the side in the late 1960s when his talented inside forward or midfield displays were one of the attractive hallmarks of Palace's performances. Steve was an ever-present in our promotion side of 1968/69 and in the top-flight he continued his good form and won his first England Under 23 caps in 1970.

Steve succeeded John Sewell as Palace's captain but in September 1971 he moved over to Chelsea for a fee quoted as £170,000 as Bert Head sought funds to drastically reshape the squad. Following an impressive career with Chelsea and Leicester City Steve returned to Selhurst park in October 1978 when Terry venables paid £40,000 to add his experience to a young team pushing for promotion to Division One.

After a spell playing for Vancouver Whitecaps in Canada for a couple of seasons Steve returned to Palace for a third time in the summer of 1981 as Youth coach and he was then appointed manager in mid November and charged with keeping Palace in Division Two. Steve succeeded in his task but he was surprisingly replaced by Alan Mullery the following summer only to return to the coaching staff in 1993/94 for Alan Smith's First Division championship side.

In 2000/01 Steve was once again called into the management hotseat as Palace looked like they would be relegated to the third tier of English football but a brilliant last gasp win away to Stockport County saved the Eagles from the drop. After the departures of Steve Bruce and Trevor Francis Steve was always on hand to take over team affairs and in the summer of 2003 he was at last handed the job on a full-time basis. Unfortunately for Steve things did not go according to plan and he left the club in November 2003 but he will always be highly respected by Palace fans.

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