William McAndrews (1872 – 1944), sometimes misspelled as William MacAndrews, was a Scottish

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

pioneer 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 ...

for some of the earliest Catalan clubs in existence such as ''Barcelona Cricket Club'' and ''Barcelona Football Club''.

Playing career

Born in Scotland, McAndrews moved to

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 ...

in the late 1880s due to work reasons, and like so many other

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mo ...

who moved to the Catalan capital, he soon joined the ''British Club of Barcelona'' on ''La Rambla dels Capuchins'', where he practiced several sports. In 1891, together with

Henry Wood Sir Henry Joseph Wood (3 March 186919 August 1944) was an English conductor best known for his association with London's annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms. He conducted them for nearly half a century, introducing hund ...

, and the Morris (

Jaime Jaime is a common Spanish and Portuguese male given name for Jacob (name), James (name), Jamie, or Jacques. In Occitania Jacobus became ''Jacome'' and later ''Jacme''. In east Spain, ''Jacme'' became ''Jaime'', in Aragon it became ''Chaime'', and i ...

and

Samuel Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...

, he was a founder of the ''Barcelona Cricket Club'', one of the many branches of the British Club. They played their first cricket matches in a field near the

Hippodrome of Can Tunis The Hippodrome of Can Tunis was a sports venue in the city of Barcelona, Spain. Originally an equestrian venue, it's now best remembered as a historic football and aeronautic venue. The Hippodrome of Can Tunis played a pivotal role in the early s ...

, which were disputed between the club's members and on some occasions against British sailors who docked in the

port of Barcelona Managed by Spanish Government The Port of Barcelona ( ca, Port de Barcelona, ; es, Puerto de Barcelona) has a 150-year history and great contemporary commercial importance as one of Europe's major ports in the Mediterranean. It is also Spain's th ...

, with the earliest example of this dating back to 28 August 1891. In 1892, he met James Reeves, who approached the cricket club's members to propose to them the idea of creating a well-organized football club. At first, Wood, the captain of the cricket club, was reluctant to do so, but McAndrews convinced him otherwise, having been impressed by the passionate and entrepreneurial spirit of Reeves. Together with Reeves and some other football pioneers in the city, they formed the ''Barcelona Football Club'' in late 1892, and Cochran was crucial in its success. The only other known Scottish in the club was George Cochran, although the nature of their relationship remains unknown. Barcelona FC 1893

This entity organized the first known football match in the city, which was held at

on 25 December 1892. It remains unclear if he played in this match. However, he did play on 12 March 1893, in the historic match between a blue and a red team, starting as a defender for the former in a 1–2 win. McAndrews appears in what is regarded to be the oldest photograph of a football team in Spain, which depicts these two sides before the match at Can Tunis. In late 1894, a conflict between the club's members caused the entity to split into two groups, one headed by Reeves and the other by Cochran, Wood, and MacAndrews. Cochran's group decided to move and settle in the neighboring town of

Sant Vicenç de Torelló Sant Vicenç de Torelló is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Osona in Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by it ...

Osona Osona () is a comarca situated in Catalonia, Northeast Spain. Its capital is Vic. Its population in 2001 was 129,543. Osona covers roughly the same area as the historic Catalan county of Osona. The name Osona comes from ''Ausetans'', a group of ...

. McAndrews played several training matches (Blues vs Reds) at Can Tunis and a few others at Bonanova between 1892 and 1895, the last of which with ''

Torelló Torelló is a Spanish municipality in the ''comarca'' of Osona, in the Province of Barcelona, Catalonia. As of 2009 its population was 13,808. History Geography The town is located at the confluence of the Ter Ter or TER may refer to: Places ...

Foot-ball Association'', however, due to the little statistical rigor that the newspapers had at that time, the exact number of matches and goals (if any) he performed is unknown. In 1895, he played as a defender for Torelló in two matches against

Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona The Sociedad de Foot-Ball de Barcelona () was a football scratch team that existed between 1892 and 1896, mainly consisting of players from the British colony of Barcelona, but also with Catalans and even Frenchmen. This entity was initially known ...

, which marked the first time that teams from two different cities played against each other in Catalonia.

Later life

McAndrews married Alice Mary McAndrews (1876–1955), who was born in

Greater London Greater may refer to: *Greatness, the state of being great *Greater than, in inequality (mathematics), inequality *Greater (film), ''Greater'' (film), a 2016 American film *Greater (flamingo), the oldest flamingo on record *Greater (song), "Greate ...

. The couple had three children, William Edwin Roderick Goldthorp in 1901, Esther Alice McAndrews in 1905, and Grace Lillian McAndrews in 1910. McAndrews died in 1944, at the age of either 71 or 72.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McAndrews, William 1872 births 1944 deaths Scottish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Place of death missing