A youth footballer in the north-east, the goalkeeper joined Middlesbrough but failed to make a first-team appearance. While appearing as a guest for local side West Auckland Wanderers in 1912 in their series of friendlies against Barcelona – yes, the Barcelona – he was spotted by club founder Joan Gramper.
Gramper was not a man with the habit of messing around, and he was so taken with the young ‘keeper that he appointed him as player-manager at the tender age of 21-years-old. Sadly for Alderson, he never made his debut for the club and he was soon sold to Newcastle United for the exorbitant sum of £30. Nonetheless, he remains to this day Barcelona’s youngest-ever manager.
In 1913 he made his first appearance for Newcastle, featuring in a 3-1 victory over Arsenal – but misfortune would strike again. The outbreak of the First World War saw football abandoned in Britain, and Alderson joined the Royal Garrison Artillery as a gunner. He remained a Newcastle player but in name only, and never represented the club again.
Based in Woolwich during the war, his appetite for football was not diminished and he searched for a local side to ‘guest’ for during wartime matches – enter Crystal Palace. His performances were appreciated and at the end of the war the south Londoners spent £50 to bring him in permanently – a tidy profit of £20 for Newcastle.
It was here his career began to take off – a strange thing to say about a man who was given the reins at Barcelona before his 22nd birthday. Alderson made his official debut in 1919 and played every minute of every game that season, before featuring in the club’s first ever Football League game against Merthyr Town in 1920; he was a crucial part of the side that were promoted as champions that season.
Then England came calling. Alderson’s sole national cap came in Paris in a dramatic 4-1 win against France in 1923 on 10th May, 1923 – exactly 101 years ago. He went on to play 205 games for Palace before joining Pontypridd in 1924, and sealed his status as the club’s first great goalkeeper.
His impact was not forgotten, and in 2005 he was voted as Palace’s third-greatest goalkeeper of all-time, behind Nigel Martyn and John Jackson – Julian Speroni and more have continued his legacy ever since.