Gordon McQueen (born 26 June 1952) is a Scottish former 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 ...
who played as a
centre-back
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 ...
for
St Mirren,
Leeds United
Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...
and
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
. McQueen also represented
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 ...
.
Playing career
Club
McQueen was a
goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
as a schoolboy but later switched to centre-back. He was signed at the age of 18 by
St Mirren. He soon had scouts from other clubs monitoring his progress and it was
Leeds United
Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...
who finally offered £30,000 in the 1972 close season, seeing him as a long-term replacement for the ageing
Jack Charlton
John Charlton (8 May 193510 July 2020) was an English footballer and manager who played as a defender. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 199 ...
.
Charlton played for some of the
1972–73 season but had decided to retire as the season was drawing to a close.
McQueen played on six occasions in his first season
at Leeds but missed out on the
1973 FA Cup Final, with manager
Don Revie
Donald George Revie OBE (10 July 1927 – 26 May 1989) was an England international footballer and manager, best known for his successful spell with Leeds United from 1961 until 1974, which immediately preceded his appointment as England manage ...
instead opting for the experience of utility player
Paul Madeley
Paul Edward Madeley (20 September 1944 – 23 July 2018) was an English footballer, who played for Leeds United and the England national team. During his career with Leeds, Madeley played in a variety of different playing positions which led to ...
.
With Charlton retired and Madeley playing in many positions, McQueen was in the team for most of the
1973–74 season. Leeds won the
League Championship, with a run of 29 matches without a defeat from the start of the season with McQueen playing a key part alongside
Norman Hunter as Leeds' first-choice centre back pairing.
McQueen and Hunter excelled at the back the following season, notably in Leeds' campaign in the
European Cup
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
, during which McQueen scored three goals. He was suspended for the
1975 European Cup Final, after being sent off in the semi-final versus
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
. Leeds went on to lose 2–0 in the final versus
Bayern Munich
Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...
.
![FeyenoordManchesterUnited1983b (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/FeyenoordManchesterUnited1983b_%28cropped%29.jpg)
In February 1978, McQueen moved from Leeds to their arch-rivals
Manchester United
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
for £500,000.
On signing, he said that "99% of players want to play for Manchester United and the rest are liars." He had declared only weeks earlier in ''
Shoot
In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the spri ...
'' magazine that he wanted to stay at
Elland Road
Elland Road is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Premier League club Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the 14th largest football stadium in England.
The g ...
for his entire career. He played in the
1979 FA Cup Final, scoring United's first of two goals in the 86th minute.
McQueen finally gained an
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
winner's medal in the
1983 FA Cup Final after a replay versus
Brighton & Hove Albion
Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...
. He was also in the team that was defeated in the
1983 Football League Cup Final versus
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
that same season. He finally left
Old Trafford
Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...
in the 1985 close season, after losing his first-team place to
Paul McGrath and not being included in the
1985 FA Cup Final
The 1985 FA Cup Final was the 104th final of the FA Cup. It took place on 18 May 1985 at Wembley Stadium, and was contested by Manchester United and holders Everton. United won by a single goal, scored in extra time by Norman Whiteside, when h ...
team that defeated
Everton 1–0.
International
At the end of the 1973–74 season McQueen was called up to the
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 ...
squad and made his international debut versus
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
. A year later he had become a regular for the national team; he was selected for the
1978 FIFA World Cup
The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June.
The Cup was won by t ...
squad for Argentina, although he could not play due to injury. He played his last match for Scotland in 1981, gaining 30
caps
Caps are flat headgear.
Caps or CAPS may also refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters
* Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...
and scoring five goals, including two in the space of four days against
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
at
Hampden Park
Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...
then
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
at
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
as the Scots claimed the
1976–77 British Home Championship.
Post playing career
McQueen coached abroad before he was the manager of
Airdrieonians for a short spell, before coaching at his first club
St Mirren.
When McQueen's friend and former team-mate
Bryan Robson
Bryan Robson OBE (born 11 January 1957) is an English football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain before moving to Manchester United in ...
was appointed the manager of
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area.
Until the early 1800s, the a ...
, McQueen joined him as reserve-team coach.
[ He held this position for five years, and was then a first-team coach for two years.][ McQueen left the ]Teesside
Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
Historically a hub for heavy manu ...
club in June 2001, following the departure of Robson and the appointment of Steve McClaren
Stephen McClaren (born 3 May 1961) is an English former professional footballer and coach who currently serves as an assistant coach for Premier League club Manchester United, in his second spell at the club.
McClaren began his coaching caree ...
. McQueen then joined Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
as a pundit.
On 29 April 2008, McQueen had returned to Boro as assistant scout, alongside David Mills.
Personal life
Since coaching Middlesbrough, McQueen and his wife have lived in the village of Hutton Rudby
Hutton Rudby is a village and civil parish situated west of the market town of Stokesley in the Hambleton District, North Yorkshire, England. At the 2011 census, village's parish and built-up area subdivision had population of 1,572 while its ...
, North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...
. The couple have a son and two daughters, including Hayley
Hayley (pronounced ) is an English given name.
It is derived from the English surname Haley (surname), Haley, which in turn was based on an Old English toponym, a compound of ''heg'' "hay" and ''leah'' "clearing or meadow".Katie Martin-Doyle, '' ...
who is a sports journalist on Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
and the ''Red Devils'' TV channel MUTV. Politically, McQueen is a Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
supporter.
In October 2011, McQueen was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx and started treatment at the James Cook University Hospital
The James Cook University Hospital is a tertiary referral hospital and regional major trauma centre in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England located on the A172 (Marton Road). Having 1,046 beds, it caters for most specialities and forms par ...
, Middlesbrough. In January 2021, McQueen was diagnosed with vascular dementia
Vascular dementia (VaD) is dementia caused by problems in the supply of blood to the brain, typically a series of minor strokes, leading to worsening cognitive abilities, the decline occurring piecemeal. The term refers to a syndrome consisti ...
. This highlighted the issue of injuries caused to footballers by persistent heading of a ball.
Honours
Club
Leeds United
* First Division: 1973–74
*European Cup
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
runner-up: 1974–75
Manchester United
*FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
: 1982–83; runner-up: 1978–79
* FA Charity Shield: 1983
Individual
*PFA Team of the Year
The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...
: 1974–75 First Division, 1977–78 First Division
* Leeds United Player of the Year: 1974–75, 1976–77
*Scottish Football Hall of Fame
The Scottish Football Hall of Fame is located at the Scottish Football Museum. Nominations are made each year by fans and a committee selects the inductees. The first inductions to the Hall of Fame were in November 2004 in a ceremony at Hampden Par ...
: 2012
Career statistics
International
International goals
:''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.''
See also
*List of Scotland national football team captains
This article lists all the captains of the Scotland national football team. As of 16 November 2022, Scotland have played 816 officially recognised international matches and have had 155 different team captains. George Young captained Scotland m ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:McQueen, Gordon
1952 births
Living people
People from Kilbirnie
Footballers from North Ayrshire
Scottish footballers
Scotland international footballers
Scottish football managers
1974 FIFA World Cup players
1978 FIFA World Cup players
St Mirren F.C. players
Leeds United F.C. players
Manchester United F.C. players
Seiko SA players
Middlesbrough F.C. non-playing staff
Airdrieonians F.C. (1878) managers
English Football League players
Scottish expatriate footballers
Hong Kong First Division League players
Scottish Football League managers
Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees
Expatriate footballers in Hong Kong
Association football central defenders
People with vascular dementia
FA Cup Final players