Stephen Harold McCall (born 15 October 1960) is an English 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 now works as a

Scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

for

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

. A

defensive 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 ...

during his playing days, McCall built a reputation as a cultured midfield player, with immaculate passing ability. He began his career with

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

and quickly progressed to the

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

under the management of

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...

. McCall helped the club win the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

in 1981, and he went on to win six

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...

caps during the next year. He left

Portman Road Portman Road is a football stadium in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, which has been the home ground of Ipswich Town F.C. since 1884. The stadium has also hosted many England youth international matches, and one senior England friendly internatio ...

in 1987, having made more than 300 appearances for the club, to join

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

. His time with them was blighted by injury, and he spent time on loan with his home town club,

in 1990. Two years later, he joined

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. As of the 2021–22 season, the team are competing in League One, the third tier of English football. They have played at Home Park, ...

and became a key player for

Peter Shilton Peter Leslie Shilton (born 18 September 1949) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. His 30-year career included spells at 11 clubs and he has the distinction of playing over 1,000 league games, including in ...

's side. He won the club's

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year (POY) . In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is he ...

award in his first two full seasons at

Home Park Home Park is a football stadium in Plymouth, England. The ground has been the home of Football League One club Plymouth Argyle since 1901.

. He briefly managed the club in 1995 following the departure of Shilton and stayed on as a member of the playing squad when

Neil Warnock Neil Warnock (born 1 December 1948) is an English former football manager and player. He is also a television and radio pundit. In a managerial career spanning five decades, Warnock has managed sixteen different clubs from the Premier League to ...

was appointed. He then moved to

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the , the fifth tier of English football. They have played their home matches at Plainmoor since 1921 and are nicknamed ...

in 1996 as a player-coach for

Kevin Hodges Kevin Hodges (born 12 June 1960) is an English retired football player and manager who played as a midfielder, and now works as assistant manager at Dorchester Town. He spent the majority of his playing career with Plymouth Argyle of the Footb ...

and returned to Home Park two years later with Hodges. He went into

non-league football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

in 2000 with

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Loca ...

, where he finished his playing career. Following retirement, he returned to Ipswich Town, initially as a scout and then as a coach. Under the management of

Paul Jewell Paul Jewell (born 28 September 1964) is an English football manager and former player, who was most recently director of football at Swindon Town. Jewell began his playing career with Liverpool, continued at Wigan Athletic and concluded in a t ...

, he was made chief scout but left the club in July 2014. In September 2014 he joined

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

in a similar role. In February 2022 he was appointed as a scout for

Playing career

Ipswich Town

He made his name at

, where his greatest achievement was winning the

in the 1980/81 season, beating

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known as AZ Alkmaar or simply AZ (), is a Dutch professional football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest professional football league in the Netherlands, and ho ...

5–4 on aggregate, with McCall playing an influential part in his team's victory. He grabbed his opportunity in the 1st team, when

George Burley George Elder Burley (born 3 June 1956) is a Scottish former football player and manager. He had a professional career spanning 21 years as a player, making 628 league appearances and earning 11 Scotland caps. His most successful spell came whi ...

was side-lined through injury for several months. He joined Ipswich in 1978 as an apprentice, being scouted from the north-west where Town legend

Kevin Beattie Thomas Kevin Beattie (18 December 1953 – 16 September 2018) was an English footballer. Born into poverty, he played at both professional and international levels, mostly as a centre-half. He spent the majority of his playing career at Ipswich ...

was also born, and went on to make 329 appearances for Town, standing as a club record of consecutive appearances until 2001, being beaten by the goalkeeper Richard Wright. During this time he received one B cap against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. McCall scored 11 goals in his 9 seasons at Ipswich before he was sold for £300,000 to

Sheffield Wednesday

His time at Sheffield Wednesday was less successful, as he spent much of his 4 seasons sidelined with a range of injuries, limiting his collection of appearances to only 36, scoring only 2 goals. In the midst of an unfortunate run at Wednesday, McCall achieved a childhood dream by being loaned to his hometown team

, where he spent only a few months making 6 appearances without a goal. He contributed 5 appearances to Wednesday's run in the

1990–91 Football League Cup The 1990–91 Football League Cup (known as the Rumbelows Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the 31st season of the Football League Cup, a knockout competition for England's top 92 association football clubs. The competition began on 27 August 199 ...

, but was not part of the match day squad as they won the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

Plymouth Argyle

Towards the end of the 1991–92 season, McCall was sold to

for £25,000. He was named the club's player of the season two years in a row in 1993 and 1994, only the second player in Argyle's history to achieve such a title (the other being

Paul Mariner Paul Mariner (22 May 1953 – 9 July 2021) was an English football player and coach. A centre forward during his playing days, Mariner began his career with Chorley. He became a professional player in 1973 with Plymouth Argyle, where he scored ...

, one of McCall's ex-teammates). As if given a new lease of life, McCall enjoyed a period of rich form in his two occasions at Plymouth, making 275 appearances in 6 years at the club. In 1995 McCall enjoyed a short reign as Plymouth's caretaker manager before he was replaced by

Torquay United

Sandwiched between his two spells at Plymouth, McCall joined

for free from 12 July 1996 to 24 June 1998, joining his former Plymouth teammate and manager

in Torquay United's management team. In the 1997–98 season, McCall lived another childhood ambition – to play 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 ...

, when Torquay played out a close fought match against

. The dream of playoff glory was short lived however, as the favourites for promotion were beaten 1–0 by a Colchester penalty. The close season saw Plymouth's manager Mick Jones lose his job, and Hodges and McCall took the position at their former club, in a reign that lasted a further two years.

Return to Plymouth Argyle

McCall's playing career ended in 2000 at Plymouth Argyle. He appeared in the famous

Jimmy Glass James Robert Glass (born 1 August 1973) is an English former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He is chiefly remembered for scoring the last-minute goal which kept Carlisle United in the Football League in 1999, while on loa ...

game against his hometown club Carlisle, in which the goalkeeper scored in the 94th minute to keep Carlisle United in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

Coaching career

In 2001, McCall hooked up with his former teammate and close friend

as a European scouting co-ordinator at Ipswich Town, and progressed through the ranks initially as a scout, and when

Joe Royle Joseph Royle (born 8 April 1949) is an English football manager and former footballer. In his playing career as a striker, he debuted for Everton at the age of 16 and went on to play for Manchester City, Bristol City, Norwich City, and the ...

took over, became the Reserve Team Manager and the First Team Coach. He currently works as a chief scout for

working for another ex-Ipswich Town player

John McGreal John Leslie McGreal (born 2 June 1972) is an English football manager and former professional footballer who is currently an U21s coach at Ipswich Town. He began his career at Tranmere Rovers, making his debut in the 1991–92 season. He becam ...

Career statistics

International

Honours

As a player

;Ipswich Town *

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...

;Sheffield Wednesday *

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

;Individual * Plymouth Argyle Player of the Year: 1992–93, 1993–94 * Ipswich Town Hall of Fame: Inducted 2017

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McCall, Steve 1960 births Living people Footballers from Carlisle, Cumbria English footballers England B international footballers England under-21 international footballers Ipswich Town F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Workington A.F.C. players Plymouth Argyle F.C. non-playing staff Association football midfielders UEFA Cup winning players