William James S. M. McClure (born 4 January 1958) more commonly known as Billy McClure, was an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

er who represented

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 ...

Club career

He played for Liverpool F.C. Reserves from 1974 to 1977. In 1977, he became the first foreign player in Iranian Takht-e-Jamshid Professional Soccer League. He made 2 appearances for

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

's giants

Persepolis F.C. Persepolis Football Club ( fa, باشگاه فوتبال پرسپولیس, Bâšgâh-e Futbâl-e Perspolis) is an Iranian professional football club based in Tehran, that competes in the Persian Gulf Pro League. Persepolis was founded in 1 ...

and scored one goal. However, he had difficulty making it to the starting lineups so he moved back to England. He moved to New Zealand in 1979 and played for Mount Wellington in

from 1979 to 1997 with some years in between for Papatoetoe FC.

International career

McClure made his full All Whites debut in a 0–0 draw with

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on 1 September 1981. Including friendlies he played 45 times for the All Whites, of which 30 appearances were official A-internationals in which he scored 5 goals, earning his final cap in a 2–1 win over

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

on 19 September 1986. He was a member of the All Whites at the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

in Spain .NZ 1982 World Cup

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:McClure, Billy 1958 births Living people Footballers from Liverpool English emigrants to New Zealand English men's footballers Persepolis F.C. players Papatoetoe AFC players Expatriate men's association footballers in New Zealand Expatriate men's footballers in Iran New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England 1982 FIFA World Cup players New Zealand men's association footballers New Zealand men's international footballers Uni-Mount Bohemian AFC players Men's association football midfielders