Robert Carroll (13 May 1938 – 11 May 2016) was a Scottish
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 le ...
who played for
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
,
St Mirren,
Dundee United
Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...
,
Coleraine
Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern I ...
and
Queen of the South. He was Celtic's first ever goalscorer in European competition.
Playing career
Carroll provisionally signed for
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
on 22 September 1957 from
junior
Junior or Juniors may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959
* ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009
* ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010
* ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019
Films
* ''Junior'' (1994 ...
club
Irvine Meadow, however he was left with Irvine Meadow for season 1958–59, during which he scored 75 goals resulting in him being voted Junior Player of the Year in 1959. On 15 May 1959, Bobby received his trophy at the George Cinema in Bank Street from the Provost George Donaldson and won the
Scottish Junior Cup
The Scottish Junior Cup is an annual football competition organised by the Scottish Junior Football Association. The competition has been held every year since the inception of the SJFA in 1886 and, as of the 2022–23 edition, 108 teams compete ...
on 16 May 1959. He was subsequently called into the Celtic first team as one of the so-called 'Kelly's Kids', after the then Celtic Chairman
Bob Kelly, where he made his debut in a 2-1
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
defeat at home against
Partick Thistle
Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...
on 12 August 1959.
On 26 September 1962, Carroll was part of the Celtic team that travelled to
Mestalla Stadium
Mestalla Stadium ( es, Estadio de Mestalla , ca-valencia, Estadi de Mestalla ) is a football stadium in Valencia, Spain. The stadium is the home of Valencia Club de Fútbol and has a capacity of 48,600 seats, making it the 8th-largest stadium i ...
for the first leg of an
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup
The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, sometimes referred to as the European Fairs Cup, Fairs Cities' Cup, or simply as the Fairs Cup, was a European Association football, football competition played between 1955 and 1971. It is often considered the predecess ...
tie against
Valencia
Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...
(this competition being a predecessor of the current
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...
). Valencia were holders of the cup and won the tie 4–2, with Carroll scoring both of the Celtic goals, making him the first Celtic player to score a goal in European competition.
Carroll signed for
St Mirren in 1963 remaining there until 1965. In the league he made 55 appearances and scored 19 goals. He then joined
Dundee United
Dundee United Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1 ...
, scoring on his debut against Celtic against Celtic on 14 August 1965. After 6 appearances he soon dropped out of first team contention but spent two seasons at the club, playing over 50 times for the
reserves. He was released in April 1967. He joined
Coleraine
Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern I ...
in Northern Ireland, then later in season 1967-68 also played for
Queen of the South. In his 12 league appearances for Queens he scored 6 goals. He then left senior football by returning to Irvine Meadow.
Carroll died on 11 May 2016, two days before what would have been his 78th birthday.
References
External links
Celtic statistics on fitbastats.comDundee United bio on dufcarchive.co.uk*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Bobby
1938 births
2016 deaths
Footballers from Glasgow
Scottish men's footballers
Celtic F.C. players
St Mirren F.C. players
Dundee United F.C. players
Coleraine F.C. players
Queen of the South F.C. players
Scottish Football League players
Place of death missing
Irvine Meadow XI F.C. players
Scottish Junior Football Association players
Scottish Football League representative players
Men's association football outside forwards