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This article may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help by adding relevant internal links, or by improving the article's layout. (September 2008) |
| Billy Steel | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | William Steel | |
| Date of birth | 1 May 1923 | |
| Place of birth | Denny, Stirlingshire, Scotland | |
| Date of death | 13 May 1982 | |
| Playing position | Forward | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1939-19?? 19??-1941 1941-1947 1947-19?? 19??-19?? |
Leicester City St Mirren Greenock Morton Derby County Dundee |
? (?) ? (?) ? (?) 124 (35) ? (?) |
| National team | ||
| 1947-1953 | Scotland | 30 (12) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Billy Steel (1 May 1923 – 13 May 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Leicester City, St Mirren, Greenock Morton, Derby County, Dundee and the Scotland national team.
He was born in Denny, Stirlingshire.
His £15,500 transfer from Greenock Morton to Derby County in 1947 was a then British transfer record.[1].Talk to any of the old time Rams supporters and the name “Billy Steel” always crops up. 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.
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 two League Cup wins and the Scottish Cup Final.
The last part of Billy’s story and life were spent in America; he emigrated there in 1954 and played for a while for Los Angeles Danes, later making a living in advertising.
Sadly Billy died in 1984 at the age of just 59.
He won a total of 30 caps 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 | May 18, 1947 | Stade Heysel, Brussels | .svg){kind=small} Belgium |
1-1 | 1-2 | Friendly |
| 2 | May 24, 1947 | Stade Municipal, Luxembourg City |  Luxembourg |
2-0 | 6-0 | Friendly |
| 3 | May 24, 1947 | Stade Municipal, Luxembourg City | Luxembourg |
3-0 | 6-0 | Friendly |
| 4 | April 9, 1949 | Wembley Stadium, London |  England |
2-0 | 3-1 | BHC |
| 5 | April 27, 1949 | Hampden Park, Glasgow |  France |
1-0 | 2-0 | Friendly |
| 6 | April 27, 1949 | Hampden Park, Glasgow | France |
2-0 | 2-0 | Friendly |
| 7 | October 1, 1949 | Windsor Park, Belfast |  Ireland |
3-0 | 8-2 | BHC |
| 8 | November 1, 1950 | Hampden Park, Glasgow |  Northern Ireland |
3-1 | 6-1 | BHC |
| 9 | November 1, 1950 | Hampden Park, Glasgow | Northern Ireland |
4-1 | 6-1 | BHC |
| 10 | November 1, 1950 | Hampden Park, Glasgow | Northern Ireland |
5-1 | 6-1 | BHC |
| 11 | November 1, 1950 | Hampden Park, Glasgow | Northern Ireland |
6-1 | 6-1 | BHC |
| 12 | May 12, 1951 | Hampden Park, Glasgow |  Denmark |
1-1 | 3-1 | Friendly |
External links
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