Andrew Ritchie (born 23 February 1956 in
Bellshill) is a Scottish retired 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 ...
.
Career at Morton
As a teenager Ritchie had trials with
Manchester United,
Coventry City
Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...
,
Everton,
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 ...
and
Rangers, but chose to join
Celtic in 1971, aged 15. Soon after, Ritchie was 'farmed' out to
Junior team Kirkintilloch Rob Roy
Kirkintilloch Rob Roy Football Club are a Scottish football club based in the town of Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire. Nicknamed ''The Rabs'' or ''The Roy'', they were formed in 1878. They wear red and black strips and currently compete in t ...
. At Celtic, Ritchie had numerous disagreements with manager
Jock Stein
John "Jock" Stein (5 October 1922 – 10 September 1985) was a Scottish football player and manager. He was the first manager of a British side to win the European Cup, with Celtic in 1967. Stein also guided Celtic to nine successive Scottish ...
, which led to his transfer to
Morton Morton may refer to:
People
* Morton (surname)
* Morton (given name)
Fictional
* Morton Koopa, Jr., a character and boss in ''Super Mario Bros. 3''
* A character in the ''Charlie and Lola'' franchise
* A character in the 2008 film '' Horton H ...
. As part of the transfer, Morton goalkeeper
Roy Baines joined Celtic in exchange for Ritchie and a payment of £10,000.
Ritchie is most famous for his seven years at
Greenock side Morton, during which he scored 118 goals. He was revered by the club's fans and earned the nicknames 'the King of
Cappielow Park
Cappielow, also known as Cappielow Park supported by Dalrada Technology UK for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland. It is the home ground of Scottish Professional Football League club Greenock Morton, wh ...
' and 'The Idle Idol'.
He made his debut for Morton on 28 October 1976 and scored 133 goals in 246 games for the club. He was the top scorer in the
Premier Division in 1978/79.
Ritchie was famous for what, by the standard of most professional footballers, was a rotund build and apparently blase demeanour. Scottish football journalist
Chick Young
Charles "Chick" Young (born 4 May 1951) is a professional association football pundit who regularly appears for BBC Scotland on ''Sportscene'' and '' Sportsound''. He is known for his trademark laugh and speech patterns, which have made him a ...
saw Ritchie as "the epitome of the Scottish footballer – a fat, lazy bastard, but with great ball skill".
He was renowned in Scotland for his expertise in
free-kicks, reputedly perfected by observing
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
train for the
1974 World Cup
The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...
.
His signature, demonstrated in more than one competitive match, was the ability to bend the ball into the net from a corner kick. His best and most famous goal was scored against
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
at Cappielow Park.
In a famous incident Ritchie almost broke his leg falling over Greenock Telegraph photographer, Jim Sinclair, after he failed to stop on a long run up the field.
Whilst at Morton, Ritchie won a solitary cap for the
Scotland national under-21 football team
The Scotland national under-21 football team, controlled by the Scottish Football Association, is Scotland's national under 21 football team and is considered to be a feeder team for the Scotland national football team.
As a European under-21 t ...
as an overage player, against
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 ...
.
Career after Morton
Ritchie was transferred from Morton to
Motherwell in 1983. He was player-manager for
Albion Rovers in season
1984–85. He retired in 1985, aged 28. Later, he took up a coaching/scouting role for Celtic and subsequent scouting roles for
Aston Villa and
Manchester City. He became an official SPL match observer
A biography, "The King of Cappielow" was published on 11 October 2008. A more warts and all account of Ritchie's life appeared in 'Flawed Genius; Scottish Football's Self Destructive Mavericks' (Birlinn 2009).
Awards
Ritchie received the
Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year award in
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...
. In common with the rest of his teammates at
Scottish Premier Division
The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) ...
club
Greenock Morton, he was a
part-time
Part-time can refer to:
* Part-time job, a job that has fewer hours a week than a full-time job
* Part-time student, a student, usually in higher education, who takes fewer course credits than a full-time student
* Part Time
Part Time (styliz ...
footballer. On the day of the award ceremony Ritchie worked a shift in his other job laying
tar
Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bi ...
as a road surfacer.
In 2005, he was voted 'cult hero' in an internet poll for the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
programme, receiving 64% of votes cast for Morton players.
Some quotes from the book ''Greenock Morton 1874–1999'' by Vincent P Gillen ()
*"Andy Ritchie – I can close my eyes and see the day as clear as you like. Morton were getting a doing by Dundee Utd and the defence was under siege. Big Andy was standing at the centre circle, hands inside his shirt sleeves, looking at the seagulls, bored out of his skull, when Davie Hayes blootered the ball out – it was just Andy and
left, and Andy, you couldn't slip a copy of the Greenock Telegraph under his feet when he jumped.
:Hegarty jumped and missed and Ritchie did what
couldn't do and volleyed the ball past Hamish from the half way line!
*"Big Andy was always full of the verbal – always had a smile on his face, especially when he nutmegged you. I think in fact with the goal he scored in the Scottish Cup, players were always that terrified of Andy nutmegging them that they would shut their legs and he curled it roon them, you know.
:He had such a good footballing brain that he sussed things like that. He had scored the one from 50 yards and he was in his own half, nobody near him and he shouted "Big Yin, ye'd better pick me up, I'll probably score from here" – you're talking 60–70 yards and I was thinking, he's got a point, I better get across. He was the scourge of the Dons in those days." –
*"Ritchie came at the right time – he was the cream at the top of the cake at the time...he got the label of being a lazy player and he nurtured that a little bit... I used to train him on his own, he trained hard. He was a character, his skills were unbelievable, his passing, his vision, his dead ball situations.. there was a free kick at a preseason game, we had a wee thing with Watford at the time... and they came about three seasons in a row. I can always remember this one game, Andy had a free kick just over the centre circle...they don't put a wall up or anything and Mick (Jackson) says, it was his first game, "He's not going to shoot from there", just leave him I says, he hits the ball in the roof of the net...he was that good" –