Colin Ayre was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 professional 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...

, playing as a winger in the English, Dutch and Austrian football leagues.

Colin Ayre began his career as an apprentice at Newcastle United

Newcastle United F.C.

Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End, and has played at its current home ground, St James' Park, since the merger...

, turning professional in September 1973. However, he failed to break into the first team at St. James' Park, leaving without making a first-team appearance.

In the 1975 close season he joined Dutch side Telstar and scored twice on his debut on 17 August 1975 as Telstar won 5-1 away to Excelsior

Excelsior Rotterdam

SBV Excelsior is a professional football club from the Kralingen-Crooswijk district of Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was founded on July 23, 1902 and was formerly known as 'Rotterdamse Voetbal en Atletiek Vereniging Excelsior'...

. He scored a further goal in his third game and was a regular until early November, after which time he played only sporadically.

In September 1976, Torquay United

Torquay United F.C.

Torquay United Football Club, nicknamed the Gulls, are an English association football club based in the tourist resort town of Torquay, Devon. They played in the Conference National in 2008–09, but were promoted to Football League Two after a 2–0 win over Cambridge United on 17 May 2009 at Wembley...

 rekindled Ayre’s hopes of an English league career, his league debut coming on the 18th of September against Bradford City at Plainmoor

Plainmoor

Plainmoor is a suburb of Torquay, Devon, but is best known as the name of the stadium in which Torquay United Football Club currently play.-History:...

. This was however followed by only one more league appearance, at home to Brentford

Brentford F.C.

Brentford Football Club are a professional English football club based in Brentford in the London Borough of Hounslow. They are currently playing in Football League One....

 a week later, before Ayre left to join his hometown side Ashington

Ashington A.F.C.

Ashington A.F.C. is an English non-league football club from Ashington, Northumberland, currently playing in the Northern League Division One. The team, nicknamed "The Colliers", play their home matches at Woodhorn Lane....

.

By 1979-80 he was back at Telstar and in November 1980, he joined Austrian side Wacker Innsbruck

FC Wacker Innsbruck

FC Wacker Innsbruck was Austrian association football club from Innsbruck, Tyrol.- History :The Fußball-Club Wacker Innsbruck was established in 1915 by Jakob Hanspeter, Benedikt Hosp, Josef Leitner, Josef Albrecht and other now unknown football enthusiasts and adopted club colours of black and...

, helping them to the Austrian second division title in his first season. He played 18 times in total, before leaving in February 1982, joining Austrian second division side SPG Raika Innsbruck.