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

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

, 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

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.com

Dundee 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