Noel Campbell (11 December 1949 – 13 June 2022) was an Irish 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 as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Career

Born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, Campbell began his career in 1966 with

St Patrick's Athletic F.C. St Patrick's Athletic Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Lúthchleas Phádraig Naofa) is a professional List of association football clubs in the Republic of Ireland, Irish association football club based in Inchicore, Dublin, that plays in the Ir ...

in the

League of Ireland The League of Ireland ( ga, Sraith na hÉireann), together with the Football Association of Ireland, is one of the two main governing bodies responsible for organising association football in the Republic of Ireland. The term was originally us ...

where, alongside his brother Johnny, he played in the

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 ...

against

Girondins de Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux (), commonly referred to as Girondins de Bordeaux ( oc, Girondins de Bordèu) or simply Bordeaux, is a French professional football club based in the city of Bordeaux in Gironde, Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The ...

; with Noel scoring twice in the

Stade Chaban-Delmas Stade Chaban-Delmas is a sporting stadium located in the city of Bordeaux, France. It was the home ground of FC Girondins de Bordeaux. Since 2011, it has also hosted matches of Top 14 rugby team Union Bordeaux Bègles. Until 2001, the stadium' ...

. He had played in the 1967

FAI Cup The Football Association of Ireland Senior Challenge Cup (FAI Cup), known as the Extra.ie FAI Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a knock-out association football competition contested annually by teams from the Republic of Ireland (as well as Derry ...

Final losing to

Shamrock Rovers Shamrock Rovers Football Club ( ga, Cumann Peile Ruagairí na Seamróige) is an Irish association football club based in Tallaght, South Dublin. The club's senior team competes in the League of Ireland Premier Division and it is the most su ...

. He was the club's top scorer in 1968–69 and 1969–70. While with St Patrick's he made his full international debut on 30 May 1971. The following season Campbell moved to

SC Fortuna Köln SC Fortuna Köln is a German association football club based in the city of Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. History The club was formed as on 21 February 1948 through the merger of three local sides: Victoria Köln 1911 (one of two clubs to ...

in Germany. From 1971 to 1973 he made 51 appearances and scored nine goals in the

Regionalliga West The Regionalliga West is a German semi-professional football division administered by the Western German Football Association based in Duisburg. It is one of the five German regional football associations. Being the single flight of the Western ...

; he also played five games and scored two goals in the promotion play-off to the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

. In 1973–74 he played 29 Bundesliga games and when he played against

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

on 11 August 1973, he became the first Irishman to play in the Bundesliga. From 1974 to 1979 he scored 16 goals in 110 2. Bundesliga games. Campbell won 11

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 ...

for

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, one in his St Patrick's Athletic days and a further ten whilst under contract to Fortuna Köln (becoming, in 1972, the first Irishman to appear in the national colours whilst on the books of a club based in

mainland Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...

). He departed the international stage in somewhat ignominious circumstances, dismissed (rather arbitrarily, in the view of contemporary observers) within a minute of his introduction as a substitute in a 1977 World Cup qualifier against

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

. Campbell made his debut for

on 3 December 1980 in a Leinster Senior Cup tie. He took over as assistant manager the following season to John Giles and then from February 1983 until May 1983 he was team manager. He was the uncle of Dave Campbell. Campbell died on 13 June 2022, aged 72.

References

External links

Noel Campbell
at fussballportal.de * {{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Noel 1949 births 2022 deaths Association footballers from Dublin (city) Republic of Ireland association footballers Men's association football midfielders Republic of Ireland men's international footballers League of Ireland players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players St Patrick's Athletic F.C. players SC Fortuna Köln players Shamrock Rovers F.C. players Republic of Ireland association football managers League of Ireland managers Shamrock Rovers F.C. managers Republic of Ireland expatriate association footballers Irish expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany