Mark Stein (footballer)

South African footballer (born 1966)

Following his retirement, Stein became a sports physiotherapist and has held the role of first team physio at Barnet, Crawley Town and Rotherham United.

Stein was born in Cape Town and moved with his family to London in the 1970s. Both his brothers Brian and Edwin plus Mark decided to become professional footballers, Mark joining Luton Town in 1983. He turned professional in January 1984 and earned three caps with the England under 19 team but he was unable to live up to the heights expected of him at Kenilworth Road and had a short loan spell at Aldershot. In 1987–88, he helped Luton win their first – and only to date – major trophy as they achieved a shock 3–2 over Arsenal in the Football League Cup final, with Stein coming on as a substitute in the final. In June 1988 he moved on to Queens Park Rangers where he spent the 1988–89 season scoring seven goals in 42 appearances. Stein also played in the 1994 FA Cup final and, in total, he scored 25 goals in 63 games for the West London club, but by the 1996–97 season had lost his place in the first team due to the arrival of new strikers Mark Hughes, Gianluca Vialli and Gianfranco Zola. He returned to Stoke on a short term loan, scoring four goals in 11 games in 1996–97, the club's final season at the Victoria Ground. He finally left Chelsea in the summer of 1998 when he signed for AFC Bournemouth after a loan spell. His spell at Dagenham & Redbridge, in the Conference from 2001 to 2003, was notable for its ending, as Stein resigned over the club's refusal to investigate allegations of racist comments made by Daggers manager Garry Hill against Fitzroy Simpson. Mark cited his father's work as a South African anti apartheid activist as inspiration for this; "My Dad was a political activist who fought against racism in South Africa all his life. So why should I have to put up with it here?" Stein ended his career playing for Isthmian League Division One North club Waltham Forest, scoring three goals in seven appearances in the 2003–04 season.

On 28 June 2007, Stein was appointed the new physiotherapist at Barnet after taking on a temporary role at the end of the 2006–07 season. On 22 September 2010, he took up a full time role as physiotherapist at Crawley Town.

He is the younger brother of former Luton Town striker Brian Stein; another brother, Ed Stein, played for Barnet. The Stein brothers were born in South Africa, and arrived in the United Kingdom in 1968 when their father Isaiah Stein, an activist with the African National Congress and former boxer, fled the country to escape police persecution and torture for his political activities. Isaiah continued his activism in Britain, serving as a member of the South African Non Racial Olympic Committee. On 12 July 2008 he played for the England XI in the Gordon Banks Charity Match at the Britannia Stadium.