Andrew Francis Walker (born 6 April 1965 in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

) is a Scottish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

, who played as a striker for several clubs in Scotland and England, including Motherwell, Celtic, Bolton Wanderers,

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

, and

Ayr United Ayr United Football Club are a football club in Ayr, Scotland, who play in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League. Formed in 1910 by the merger of Ayr Parkhouse and Ayr F.C., their nickname is ...

. He also made three full international appearances for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. Since retiring as a player, Walker has become a television pundit.

Playing career

Walker started his professional career with Motherwell in 1984, helping the club to gain

promotion Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

before moving to Celtic in the summer of 1987 for a fee of £350,000. His first season at

Celtic Park Celtic Park is the home stadium of Celtic Football Club, in the Parkhead area of Glasgow, Scotland. With a capacity of 60,832, it is the largest football stadium in Scotland, and the eighth-largest stadium in the United Kingdom. It is al ...

was hugely successful, as ''the Bhoys'' won the double in 1987–88, their centenary season, and Walker himself earned a first

cap against Colombia. The following 3 seasons were less fruitful however and by 1991–92 Walker was out of the first team picture. After loan spells with Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers, he joined the

Burnden Park Burnden Park was the home of English football club Bolton Wanderers who played home games there between 1895 and 1997. As well as hosting the 1901 FA Cup Final replay, it was the scene in 1946 of one of the greatest disasters in English footba ...

side permanently in 1992. At Bolton, Walker returned to his form of 1988, establishing a prolific partnership with

John McGinlay John McGinlay (born 8 April 1964) is a Scottish football manager, former professional footballer and scout who is the club ambassador of Bolton Wanderers. As a player, he was a striker over a 26-year career that saw him notably play in the Pr ...

as the Lancashire side earned promotion to the First Division in

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

. That same season, he famously scored at

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 189 ...

to help ''the Trotters'' knock holders

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

out of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

. Walker continued in the same vein the following season until sustaining a serious knee injury against Swansea City. Upon his recovery, Walker was the subject of a surprise bid from Celtic and he returned to Glasgow in 1994. 1994–95 was a mixed season for Walker. On the positive side, he won a Scotland recall and earned his third (and last) cap in October, while his Celtic side won the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Raith Rovers Raith Rovers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the town of Kirkcaldy, Fife. The club was founded in 1883 and currently competes in the Scottish Championship as a member of the Scottish Professional Football Leagu ...

in the League Cup final. Due to the arrival of

Andreas Thom Andreas Thom (born 7 September 1965) is a German former professional footballer who played as a forward for BFC Dynamo, Bayer Leverkusen, Celtic and Hertha BSC. He played 51 times for East Germany throughout the 1980s and played ten times for ...

in the summer of 1995, Walker was again deemed surplus to requirements at Parkhead and joined

for £500,000 in early 1996. Walker's time in the '' Steel City'' was relatively productive; his goals tally a respectable 24. Nevertheless, Walker was again to quickly fall from favour, and after brief loan spells at Hibernian (where he scored in an Edinburgh Derby), and Raith Rovers in 1998, he ended his career in the lower leagues. This period encompassed short spells with

(scoring in the

Ayrshire derby The Ayrshire Derby refers to matches between the two professional Scottish football sides based in Ayrshire: Ayr United and Kilmarnock. The first match was held on 14 September 1910, in the same year that Ayr United were formed. This game was th ...

against former Celtic teammate Gordon Marshall), Carlisle United, Partick Thistle, and

Alloa Athletic Alloa Athletic Football Club is a Scottish association football semi-professional club based in the town of Alloa, Clackmannanshire. Formed as Alloa in 1880, the football club shortly changed its name to Alloa Association, and then to Alloa Ath ...

Media career

Since his playing retirement, Walker has worked as a pundit for STV on their ''

Scotsport ''Scotsport'' is a Scotland, Scottish sports television programme, broadcast on STV (TV channel), STV in northern and central Scotland between 1957 and 2008, as well as on ITV Border in southern Scotland. It was first broadcast in 1957 as ''S ...

'' highlights programme, which he became the main presenter of, alongside Grant Stott, due to Jim Delahunt's departure. The programme was axed in May 2008, due to increasing competition from BBC Scotland's ''

Sportscene ''Sportscene'' is the name of a range of Scottish sports television programmes produced by BBC Scotland. History ''Sportscenes predecessors were ''Sports Special from Scotland'' and ''Sportsreel'', which was broadcast every Saturday at around 5 ...

''. Walker is also writing a column for the Glasgow-based '' Sunday Mail'' newspaper. In 2007/08, Walker began presenting STV's coverage of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

, as well the station's

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

matches, taking over from Jim White. Walker now regularly features on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

as a

color commentator A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main ( play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and ...

for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

and Cup games. During the 2015–16 season, Celtic captain Scott Brown criticised Walker, labelling him a "poor man's

Gary Neville Gary Alexander Neville (born 18 February 1975) is an English football pundit and former player. He is also a co-owner of English Football League club Salford City. After retiring from football in 2011, Neville went into punditry and was a comm ...

" in May 2016. In 2021, Walker was prohibited from entering both

Ibrox Stadium Ibrox Stadium is a Soccer-specific stadium, football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox, Glasgow, Ibrox area of Glasgow, Scotland. The home of Rangers F.C., Rangers Football Club, Ibrox is the third largest List of foot ...

and

after he commented live on-air about Rangers' finances and criticized Celtic's decision to send their squad to

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

for a winter training camp, which resulted in two players testing positive for coronavirus and others being forced into self-isolation.

Honours

Individual * PFA Team of the Year: 1992–93 Second Division

References

External links

*
Walker's Wager
at stv.tv * *
Bolton Wanderers InterviewScotland U21 stats
at Fitbastats
Profile at ''Sporting-Heroes.net''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Andy 1965 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Sportspeople from Rutherglen Association football forwards Scottish footballers Scotland international footballers Motherwell F.C. players Celtic F.C. players People educated at Trinity High School, Rutherglen Newcastle United F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Raith Rovers F.C. players Ayr United F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Partick Thistle F.C. players Kilwinning Rangers F.C. players Alloa Athletic F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Scottish sportswriters Scottish television presenters Scottish association football commentators Scotland under-21 international footballers Baillieston Juniors F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players Footballers from South Lanarkshire