Tommy Gemmell

This article is about the Celtic player of the 1960s and 1970s. For the St. Mirren player of the 1950s and 1960s, see Tommy Gemmell (footballer, born 1930).
Tommy Gemmell

Gemmell (1971)
Personal information
Full name Tommy Gemmell
Date of birth (1943-10-16) 16 October 1943
Place of birth Motherwell, Scotland
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position Left back
Youth career
1959–1961 Coltness United
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1961–1971 Celtic 247 (37)
1971–1973 Nottingham Forest 39 (6)
1973 Miami Toros 0 (0)
1973–1977 Dundee 94 (8)
Total 380 (51)
National team
1966–1971 Scotland 18 (1)
1965–1968 Scottish League XI 5 (0)
Teams managed
1977–1980 Dundee
1986–1987 Albion Rovers
1993–1994 Albion Rovers

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.


Thomas Gemmell (born 16 October 1943) is a former Scottish footballer and manager. Although right-footed, he excelled as a left-sided fullback and had powerful shooting ability.

Playing career

In October 1961, Gemmell joined Celtic from Coltness United. He was one of the 'Lisbon Lions' who won the 1967 European Cup Final, in which Gemmell scored a spectacular equalising goal. Ironically, Gemmell should not have been in position to score the goal, as he had ignored team orders for one full-back to stay in defence at all times.[1] He also scored in the 1970 European Cup Final against Feyenoord and is currently one of only two British footballers to score in two different European Cup Finals, the other being Phil Neal of Liverpool. He made 418 appearances for Celtic and scored 64 goals. This total comprised 247 league (37 goals), 43 cup (5 goals), 74 league cup (10 goals) and 54 European (12 goals) appearances. His record for penalties was 34 goals from 37 attempts. In his book, Lion Heart, Gemmell revealed that during his time at Celtic he was on the receiving end of sectarian abuse from fellow Celtic players. Gemmell stated that he and team-mate Ian Young had been the target of colleagues who had wanted an all-Catholic team.[2]

In December 1971, Gemmell was transferred to Nottingham Forest to cover for Liam O'Kane. After a short stint in America he returned to Scotland, signing for Dundee in July 1973, and won the Scottish League Cup against former team Celtic.

He made his international debut for Scotland against England in April 1966. The following year, he played in the famous 3–2 victory over World Champions England at Wembley Stadium. He won 18 caps and scored one goal from the penalty spot against Cyprus in an 8–0 win in a 1970 World Cup qualifier.

Coaching career

Gemmell later managed Dundee and Albion Rovers. He signed Jimmy Johnstone, his former teammate at Celtic, for Dundee.[1] Johnstone later admitted that he took liberties during this time because Gemmell was his friend.[1]

On 1 August 2016, Gemmell break his hip and lay injured for 12 hours. [3]

References

Sources
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/7/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.