:Sid Wood (footballer)

Frank Sidney Wood was born in Dalston, as the youngest of three brothers: Thomas William, born in Edmonton, and Jack, born in 1872 in Tottenham. In 1881 the family lived at 22, Tilson Road, still a mere four hundred yards from White Hart Lane.

Shortly after arriving in Paris, his older brother Jack, together with other football pioneers in the city, mostly made up of a curious group of upper-middle-class Anglo-British, such as William Sleator, Walter Hewson, and Robert MacQueen, formed the White Rovers Football Club in a meeting at the Café Français on rue Pasquier in Paris, where they voted narrowly to play association football rather than rugby union rules, thus founding one of the first football club in Paris.{{cite web |url=https://www.scottishsporthistory.com/sports-history-news-and-blog/the-father-of-french-football-a-tailor-from-worcester |title=The father of French football: a tailor from Worcester |website=www.scottishsporthistory.com |date=8 February 2016 |accessdate=24 February 2025 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.olympedia.org/athletes/5002661 |title=Jack Wood |website=www.olympedia.org |access-date=24 February 2025 }} Sid, who was either already in Paris or arrived with or soon after Jack, was one of the club's first players; however, several sources state that the name of Jack's brother was Tom; the result of a mistake that peristed through time, probably from a confusion with Robert MacQueen, who was the one with a brother named Thomas, who died during the First World War in 1917.

The White Rovers joined the USFSA in March 1894, and on 15 April of the same year, the club defeated CA Neuilly 13–0 in the quarter-finals of the inaugural USFSA championship, in which Sid Wood served as a linesman.{{Cite web |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hxkpjd&view=1up&seq=386 |title=Championnat d'association - White Rovers Football Club contre Cercle athlétique de Neuilly |trans-title=Association Championship - White Rovers FC against CA Neuilly |language=fr |website=babel.hathitrust.org/ |date=21 April 1894 |access-date=24 February 2025 }} Among his Rovers teammates in 1894, there were Ernest Cotton, Emile Cox, MacQueen, and his brother Jack, who was named team captain in October 1894. In July 1895, Sid Wood helped Rovers to a 2–1 win over Standard AC.{{Cite web |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k423875w/f523.image.r=wood.zoom |title=White Rovers (équipe première) contre Standard Athletic Club (équipe première) |trans-title=White Rovers (first team) against Standard AC (first team) |language=fr |website=gallica.bnf.fr |publisher=Le Journal de la jeunesse |page=523 |date=1 July 1895 |accessdate=24 February 2025 }}

File:Le Club Français de football, en janvier 1898.jpg on 26 December 1897.]]

At some point in either 1896 or 1897, Sid Wood left Rovers to join Club Français, and likewise, on 26 December 1897, he started as a defender in the very first football match in the history of the Parc des Princes, which was refereed by his brother Jack as Club Français was defeated 1–3 by the English Ramblers.{{Cite web |url=https://www.retronews.fr/journal/journal-des-sports/27-decembre-1897/4054/5388398/1 |title=Ramblers contre Club Français |trans-title=Ramblers against Club Français |language=fr |website=www.retronews.fr |publisher=Le Journal des sports |page=1 |date=27 December 1897 |accessdate=24 February 2025 }} A few months later, on 28 March 1898, he started for Club Français in the 1898 Coupe Manier final at the Vélodrome de Vincennes, helping his side to keep a clean-sheet in a 10–0 win over Paris Star.{{Cite web |url=https://www.retronews.fr/journal/journal-des-sports/28-mars-1898/4054/5388478/2 |title=La Coupe Manier |language=fr |website=www.retronews.fr |publisher=Le Journal des sports |page=2 |date=28 March 1898 |access-date=24 February 2025 }} In the following week, on 3 April, he started in the final of the 1898 USFSA Football Championship against Standard AC at Courbevoie, which ended in a 2–3 loss.{{Cite web |url=https://www.retronews.fr/journal/journal-des-sports/4-avril-1898/4054/5388448/2 |title=Le Championnat de France – Victoirie du Standard |trans-title=The French Championship – Victory of Standard |language=fr |website=www.retronews.fr |publisher=Le Journal des sports |page=2 |date=4 April 1898 |access-date=24 February 2025 }}

A few months later, on 13 December 1898, the Woods (Jack and Sid) were among the five players from Club Français who featured in a selection of the best Parisian players in a friendly match against a German national selection in front of 200 people; Paris lost 1–2.{{Cite web |url=https://www.retronews.fr/journal/journal-des-sports/13-decembre-1898/4054/5388930/3 |title=Football Association - Le match Franco-Allemand |trans-title=Football Association - The Franco-German match |language=fr |website=www.retronews.fr |publisher=Journal des sports |page=3 |date=13 December 1898 |accessdate=24 February 2025 }}

;Club Français

• USFSA Football Championship:
• Runner-up (1): 1898
• Coupe Manier:
• Champions (1): 1898

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Category:Year of birth missing

Category:Year of death missing

Category:Footballers from the London Borough of Hackney

Category:English men's footballers

Category:Men's association football defenders

Category:English expatriate sportspeople in France

Category:Expatriate men's footballers in France

Category:English expatriate men's footballers

Category:Club Français players