George Matthewson Thomson (19 October 1936 – July 2007) was a Scottish professional footballer who played for Heart of Midlothian, Everton and Brentford as a utility player. He was capped by

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 ...

at schoolboy and U23 levels and made two appearances for the

Scottish League XI The Scottish League XI was a representative side of the Scottish Football League. The team regularly played against the (English) Football League and other national league select teams between 1892 and 1980. For a long period the annual fixture be ...

Career

Heart of Midlothian

Thomson began his career with Edinburgh City and joined

Scottish 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 sout ...

club Heart of Midlothian in April 1953. He had to wait until February 1957 to make his debut, which came in a 1–1 First Division draw with Falkirk. He went on to make six further appearances during the 1956–57 season and was thereafter a regular in the team until his departure in November 1960. He was a fixture in Hearts' 1957–58 and 1959–60 First Division title-winning teams and featured as an ever-present in the latter triumph. He also played in both the

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third ...

and

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

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 ...

-winning campaigns. Thomson made 161 appearances and scored 17 goals during three-and-a-half years as a first team player at Hearts.

Everton

Thomson and Hearts teammate Alex Young moved south to join

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

First Division club Everton in an £55,000 deal in November 1960. Thomson was unable to hold a regular place in the team during his two-and-a-half seasons with the club, but he managed to make 20 appearances during the club's championship-winning season in 1962–63. He made 77 appearances and scored one goal for the club before departing

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a association football, football stadium in the Walton, Liverpool, Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. Located in a residential area ...

in late 1963.

Brentford

Thomson joined newly-promoted Third Division club Brentford November 1963 and stayed at Griffin Park for four and a half years, before retiring at the end of the 1967–68 season. Thomson made 179 appearances and scored five goals for Brentford.

International and representative career

Thomson represented Scotland at schoolboy and U23 level. While with Hearts, he made two appearances for the

against the

Irish League XI The Irish League representative team was the representative side of the Irish Football League, the national league for football in Northern Ireland from 1922 and, prior to that the league for Ireland. The Irish League was suspended from 1941–42 ...

Personal life

Thomson attended

Craiglockhart Primary School Craiglockhart Primary School is a primary school in the Shandon area of Edinburgh. The school buildings are in the Victorian style of architecture. History The school was built in 1901 after a design by architects Robert Wilson and John Alexa ...

Tynecastle High School Tynecastle High School is a secondary school in the Gorgie area of south west Edinburgh, Scotland. History Tynecastle High School was opened in 1912 and was for its first 98 years located at 15 McLeod Street, a B listed building. Move to ne ...

and Slateford School. As a player, he was nicknamed " 007", because of his looks.

Honours

;Heart of Midlothian *

Scottish League First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 to replace the old Scottish Football League Division Two, as t ...

(2): 1957–58, 1959–60 *

(2): 1958–59, 1959–60 * East of Scotland Shield (2): 1957–58, 1959–60 Everton * Football League First Division (1): 1962–63

Career statistics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, George 1936 births 2007 deaths Footballers from Edinburgh Association football fullbacks Association football wing halves Scottish footballers Edinburgh City F.C. (1928) players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Everton F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Scottish Football League representative players Scotland under-23 international footballers Scotland youth international footballers People educated at Tynecastle High School