Derek Stark (born 19 November 1958) is a Scottish retired

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 as a defender. He played for Dundee United – his only senior club – from 1976 to 1985, when he retired through injury at the age of 26. Although he was a part-time footballer for most of his career, he won the

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) Th ...

title in 1982–83 and the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

twice.

Early life

Derek Stark was born in

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; sco, Dunfaurlin, gd, Dùn Phàrlain) is a city, parish and former Royal Burgh, in Fife, Scotland, on high ground from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. The city currently has an estimated population of 58,508. Accord ...

, Fife, on 19 November 1958. He represented the Scottish Schools football team.Gracie, pp. 348–349

Playing career

Stark played for Glenrothes and joined Dundee United as a provisional signing in March 1975, before being called up to join the reserve squad in May 1976.Gracie, p. 190 He appeared for the first team in a friendly against East Fife in August 1977. His competitive debut came in a Premier Division match against

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling, West Dunbartonshire, Bowling and Milton, West Dunbartonshire, Mil ...

Kilbowie Park Kilbowie Park, also known as New Kilbowie Park, was a football stadium in Clydebank, Scotland. It was the home ground of Clydebank. New Kilbowie was built for Clydebank Juniors in 1939. In 1964, Clydebank merged with East Stirlingshire and ente ...

on 2 May 1978. He went on to be a first team regular over the next six seasons. Originally a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, he came to play more regularly as a full back and occasionally in midfield. His goal against

Morton Morton may refer to: People * Morton (surname) * Morton (given name) Fictional * Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3'' * A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise * A character in the 2008 film '' Horton ...

in March 1979 was included in the BBC's Goal of the Season competition. Stark won two

winner's medals early in his career. He played in both matches of the 1979 final against

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

and was an unused substitute in the 1980 final against

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

. He also gained runners-up medals in both the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Kinross Kinross (, gd, Ceann Rois) is a burgh in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, around south of Perth and around northwest of Edinburgh. It is the traditional county town of the historic county of Kinross-shire. History Kinross's origins are connect ...

. After losing this job Stark briefly walked out on Dundee United in December 1981, intending to join the police, but subsequently returned to the club. Having signed a full-time contract in 1982, he was part of the side that were

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) was a league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4 km south ...

champions in 1982–83, playing in 32 out of 36 league matches that season. The 1983–84 season was Stark's last in senior football. Having played with a knee injury throughout the season, he developed a problem with a cyst on his cartilage. He scored a long range goal against

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

in a European Cup semi-final tie at

Tannadice Tannadice Park ( gd, Pàirc Thanachais), usually referred to as Tannadice, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Dundee Hibernian in 1 ...

in April 1984, but played his last senior match less than three weeks later.

After football

Several operations failed to cure Stark's injury problems and he officially retired in September 1985, aged 26. He subsequently resumed his former career ambition, becoming a police officer with

Fife Constabulary Fife Constabulary was the territorial police force responsible for the Scottish council area of Fife. The area policed by Fife Constabulary had a resident population of just over 350,000, almost a third of whom lived in one of the three princ ...

. He was inducted into the Dundee United Hall of Fame in 2015.

Honours

; Dundee United: * Scottish Football League Premier Division: 1982–83 *

: 1979–80, 1980–81

References

;Sources * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stark, Derek 1958 births Living people Scottish men's footballers Dundee United F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players Men's association football defenders Scottish Football League players Footballers from Dunfermline Glenrothes F.C. players