Robert Loudon Steel (25 June 1888 – 1972) was a professional
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 clubs including
Greenock Morton
Greenock Morton Football Club is a Scottish professional football club, which plays in the Scottish Championship. The club was founded as Morton Football Club in 1874, making it one of the oldest senior Scottish clubs. Morton was renamed Green ...
,
Port Glasgow Athletic,
Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
and
Gillingham.
Career
Steel joined Tottenham Hotspur in 1908 from Port Glasgow (along with
Willie Bulloch
William Bulloch (18 February 1883 – 10 February 1954)[Willie Bulloch](_blank)
The Thistle Archive. Retrieved 25 ...
, who soon returned to Scotland) and played mainly in the
inside left
Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...
position, although he was versatile and willing to fill in several roles, including in defence.
[The Spurs Alphabet]
Bob Goodwin; Lulu.com, 2017; He featured in 245 games and scored 45 goals in all competitions (but not counting unofficial fixtures during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
) before joining
Gillingham at the end the conflict – featuring in the
1919–20 Southern Football League The 1919–20 season was the 22nd in the history of the Southern League, and the first following World War I. Portsmouth won the Southern League championship for the second time, whilst Mid Rhondda won Division Two. There were no promotions or rel ...
– and later becoming a
referee
A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...
.
[
]
International
While at Tottenham, he was selected for the annual Home Scots v Anglo-Scots
Home Scots v Anglo-Scots was an annual association football trial match organised by the Scottish Football Association between the 1890s and 1920s to examine the abilities of possible players for upcoming full British Home Championship internationa ...
trial match in 1909 but never played for Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
at full international level.[
]
Personal life
His brothers Danny
Danny is a masculine given name. It is related to the male name Daniel. It may refer to:
People
*Danny Altmann, British immunologist
*Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer
*Danny Baker (born 1957), English journalis ...
and Alex
Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis.
People
Multiple
*Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people
* Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people
*Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...
were also footballers, with Danny also having a significant spell at Tottenham Hotspur and Alex spending time with FC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football.
Founded ...
; the three siblings played together in one Football League
The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...
fixture against Bradford City
Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes.
Th ...
in January 1910.Hotspur Towers - Spurs Steel
Keith Harrison, India Spurs, 28 January 2016
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steel, Bobby
1888 births
1972 deaths
Footballers from East Ayrshire
Scottish men's footballers
Greenock Morton F.C. players
Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players
Gillingham F.C. players
English Football League players
Port Glasgow Athletic F.C. players
Kilwinning Rangers F.C. players
Scottish Junior Football Association players
Scottish Football League players
Southern Football League players
Men's association football forwards
People from Newmilns