Billy Steel
Encyclopedia
Billy Steel was a Scottish
footballer
who played for St. Mirren
, Morton
, Derby County
, Dundee
and the Scotland national team
.
One of Scotland's greatest inside forwards, Billy Steel combined a brilliant footballing brain with a busy work ethic and explosive shot. Billy was the subject of two record transfer fees during his career. As well as receiving 30 caps for Scotland, Steel made four appearances with the Scottish League, was a Scottish Cup finalist in 1952, and was a Scottish League Cup winner in 1952 and 1953. He scored a memorable goal for Great Britain against the Rest of Europe in 1947. (United Kingdom national football team
- match of the century). He was inducted into Scottish Football Hall of Fame
in 2006.
, (BAOR) who, in 1944 to 1946, were re-establishing footballing connections with other teams on the Continent. The team "visited" France, Holland, Poland, Switzerland, the Channel Islands and Germany, and Steel played along with such notables as Leslie Compton
, Eddie Hapgood
, and Matt Busby
. Demobbed in December 1946 he returned to Morton.
.. Billy was not always popular at the Baseball Ground especially among his fellow professionals. One dressing room incident ended in Billy being threatened with being hung on a cloakroom peg by a member of his own team!
Players often accused Steel of saving his best performances for when the Rams travelled down to play the London teams. He was further disliked for his "moonlighting", though in the days of the maximum wage for footballers he could hardly be blamed. But he received payments for articles that he wrote for several newspapers, enabling him to have a more luxurious life style than his teammates.
Steel was brought to Derby County after playing just a few first team games for Morton and he was a good buy, going on to play for three seasons at the Baseball Ground. In that time he made 124 appearances, scoring 35 goals.
in 1951-52 and 1952-53. He was also a finalist in the 1951-52 Scottish Cup. He retired as a player in 1954.
On 3 April 2009, Steel was inducted into Dundee
's Hall of Fame.
for Scotland, scoring 12 goals. He was selected for a Great Britain XI for a match against FIFA in 1947, despite having played only a handful of league games for Morton.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
footballer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
who played for St. Mirren
St. Mirren F.C.
St Mirren Football Club are a Scottish professional football club based in Paisley, Renfrewshire who play in the Scottish Premier League, having been promoted from the First Division in 2005–06.St...
, Morton
Greenock Morton F.C.
Greenock Morton Football Club are a Scottish professional football club, who currently play in the Scottish Football League First Division. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs....
, Derby County
Derby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
, Dundee
Dundee F.C.
Dundee Football Club, founded in 1893, are a football club based in the city of Dundee, Scotland. They are nicknamed The Dee or The Dark Blues and play their home matches at Dens Park. Their shirt colour is dark blue. Dundee currently play in the Scottish First Division, having been relegated from...
and the Scotland national team
Scotland national football team
The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. Scotland are the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside England, whom they played in the world's first international football match in 1872...
.
One of Scotland's greatest inside forwards, Billy Steel combined a brilliant footballing brain with a busy work ethic and explosive shot. Billy was the subject of two record transfer fees during his career. As well as receiving 30 caps for Scotland, Steel made four appearances with the Scottish League, was a Scottish Cup finalist in 1952, and was a Scottish League Cup winner in 1952 and 1953. He scored a memorable goal for Great Britain against the Rest of Europe in 1947. (United Kingdom national football team
United Kingdom national football team
No United Kingdom national football team currently exists, as there are separate teams representing England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in football. These national teams compete in the World Cup and European Championships and other internationals. A UK team has played in friendly...
- match of the century). He was inducted into Scottish Football Hall of Fame
Scottish Football Hall of Fame
The Scottish Football Hall of Fame is located at the Scottish Football Museum. Inductees are picked each year by fans and a committee selects the eight finalists who are inducted at an annual dinner....
in 2006.
Early career
While still contracted to Morton, Billy Steel played for the British Army of the RhineBritish Army of the Rhine
There have been two formations named British Army of the Rhine . Both were originally occupation forces in Germany, one after the First World War, and the other after the Second World War.-1919–1929:...
, (BAOR) who, in 1944 to 1946, were re-establishing footballing connections with other teams on the Continent. The team "visited" France, Holland, Poland, Switzerland, the Channel Islands and Germany, and Steel played along with such notables as Leslie Compton
Leslie Compton
Leslie Harry Compton was an English footballer and cricketer who played for Arsenal and Middlesex respectively...
, Eddie Hapgood
Eddie Hapgood
Edris Albert "Eddie" Hapgood was an English footballer, who captained both Arsenal and England during the 1930s....
, and Matt Busby
Matt Busby
Sir Alexander Matthew "Matt" Busby, CBE, KCSG was a Scottish football player and manager, most noted for managing Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 1970–1971 season...
. Demobbed in December 1946 he returned to Morton.
Derby County
His £15,500 transfer from Morton to Derby County in 1947 was a then British transfer recordBritish football transfer record
The progression of the British football transfer fee record tracks the increases in the record for the highest transfer fee paid or received by British association football clubs. A transfer fee is the sum of money paid by one club to purchase the contract, and therefore the playing services, of a...
.. Billy was not always popular at the Baseball Ground especially among his fellow professionals. One dressing room incident ended in Billy being threatened with being hung on a cloakroom peg by a member of his own team!
Players often accused Steel of saving his best performances for when the Rams travelled down to play the London teams. He was further disliked for his "moonlighting", though in the days of the maximum wage for footballers he could hardly be blamed. But he received payments for articles that he wrote for several newspapers, enabling him to have a more luxurious life style than his teammates.
Steel was brought to Derby County after playing just a few first team games for Morton and he was a good buy, going on to play for three seasons at the Baseball Ground. In that time he made 124 appearances, scoring 35 goals.
Dundee
Steel left Derby in September 1950 to return to his native Scotland, Dundee paying a Scottish record transfer fee of £22,500. He helped the club to win the Scottish League CupScottish League Cup
The Scottish League Cup is a football competition open to all Scottish Football League and Scottish Premier League clubs. At present it is also known as the Scottish Communities League Cup owing to the sponsorship deal in place with the Scottish Government. In the past it has been sponsored by...
in 1951-52 and 1952-53. He was also a finalist in the 1951-52 Scottish Cup. He retired as a player in 1954.
On 3 April 2009, Steel was inducted into Dundee
Dundee F.C.
Dundee Football Club, founded in 1893, are a football club based in the city of Dundee, Scotland. They are nicknamed The Dee or The Dark Blues and play their home matches at Dens Park. Their shirt colour is dark blue. Dundee currently play in the Scottish First Division, having been relegated from...
's Hall of Fame.
International football
He won a total of 30 capsCap (sport)
In sports, a cap is a metaphorical term for a player's appearance on a select team, such as a national team. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of association football...
for Scotland, scoring 12 goals. He was selected for a Great Britain XI for a match against FIFA in 1947, despite having played only a handful of league games for Morton.
International goals
- Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.
# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition 1 18 May 1947 Stade Heysel, Brussels BrusselsBrussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
1–1 1–2 Friendly 2 24 May 1947 Stade Municipal Stade Josy BarthelStade Josy Barthel is the national stadium of Luxembourg, home to the Luxembourg national football team and also used for athletics. It is located on route d'Arlon, in Luxembourg City.It was first constructed in 1928 and it was entirely rebuilt in 1990...
, Luxembourg City2–0 6–0 Friendly 3 24 May 1947 Stade Municipal Stade Josy BarthelStade Josy Barthel is the national stadium of Luxembourg, home to the Luxembourg national football team and also used for athletics. It is located on route d'Arlon, in Luxembourg City.It was first constructed in 1928 and it was entirely rebuilt in 1990...
, Luxembourg City3–0 6–0 Friendly 4 9 April 1949 Wembley Stadium Wembley StadiumThe original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007...
, LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
2–0 3–1 BHC 1949 British Home ChampionshipThe 1949 British Home Championship was a football tournament played between the British Home Nations. The tournament was notable for it being the final competition the Home Nations competed in before they joined the FIFA World Cup and thus the last time it was the most important international...5 27 April 1949 Hampden Park Hampden ParkHampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland...
, GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
1–0 2–0 Friendly 6 27 April 1949 Hampden Park Hampden ParkHampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland...
, GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
2–0 2–0 Friendly 7 1 October 1949 Windsor Park Windsor ParkWindsor Park is a football stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland and the home ground of Linfield F.C. and the Northern Ireland national football team. It is also where the Irish Cup and Irish League Cup finals are played.-History:...
, BelfastBelfastBelfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
3–0 8–2 BHC 1950 British Home Championship1950 British Home Championship was one of the most significant competitions of the British Home Championship football tournament. This year saw the competition doubling up as Group 1 in the qualifying rounds for the 1950 FIFA World Cup. It was the first time that either England, Wales, Scotland or...8 1 November 1950 Hampden Park Hampden ParkHampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland...
, GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
3–1 6–1 BHC 1951 British Home ChampionshipThe 1951 British Home Championship football tournament was the Home Nations follow-up to England's disastrous appearance at their first World Cup, the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. There the much vaunted English had been beaten by the USA and Spain. The Scots had refused to go, and the Welsh and...9 1 November 1950 Hampden Park Hampden ParkHampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland...
, GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
4–1 6–1 BHC 1951 British Home ChampionshipThe 1951 British Home Championship football tournament was the Home Nations follow-up to England's disastrous appearance at their first World Cup, the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. There the much vaunted English had been beaten by the USA and Spain. The Scots had refused to go, and the Welsh and...10 1 November 1950 Hampden Park Hampden ParkHampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland...
, GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
5–1 6–1 BHC 1951 British Home ChampionshipThe 1951 British Home Championship football tournament was the Home Nations follow-up to England's disastrous appearance at their first World Cup, the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. There the much vaunted English had been beaten by the USA and Spain. The Scots had refused to go, and the Welsh and...11 1 November 1950 Hampden Park Hampden ParkHampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland...
, GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
6–1 6–1 BHC 1951 British Home ChampionshipThe 1951 British Home Championship football tournament was the Home Nations follow-up to England's disastrous appearance at their first World Cup, the 1950 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. There the much vaunted English had been beaten by the USA and Spain. The Scots had refused to go, and the Welsh and...12 12 May 1951 Hampden Park Hampden ParkHampden Park is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The 52,063 capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland...
, GlasgowGlasgowGlasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
1–1 3–1 Friendly
Career Summary
Billy Steel had springs for muscles, a choirboy's face that masked a devouring, often ruthless determination to achieve football perfection, a caustic tongue that frequently angered team-mates more bitterly than opponents, and a style and ability that, in this modern age, would have the wealthy clubs of Europe bidding frantically for his transfer. Unlike so many of his predecessors, who were indelibly stamped with the style of their birthplace, Steel was classless. No one watching this chirpy little man in action could have said from which soccer school he graduated. His touch was Scottish of course, but later in his career he welded to that eternal grace an iron physique. He belonged to the elite corp of players: the global greats.
His secret was that of Denis LawDenis LawDenis Law is a retired Scottish football player, who enjoyed a long and successful career as a striker from the 1950s to the 1970s....
, an agile brain, a puma's pounce, and extraordinary gymnastic ability that put him a move ahead of his colleagues. There was nothing svelte about Steel: he exuded vitality, he had the killer instinct of a boxing champion, he was the type of aggressive attacker who was so keen to win that he would have sworn at his best friend if he felt he hadn't been pulling his weight.