Gordon McQueen (born 26 June 1952) is a Scottish former 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, rugb ...

who played as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for St Mirren,

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road ...

and

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

. McQueen also represented

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Playing career

Club

McQueen was a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting ...

as a schoolboy but later switched to centre-back. He was signed at the age of 18 by St Mirren. He soon had scouts from other clubs monitoring his progress and it was

who finally offered £30,000 in the 1972 close season, seeing him as a long-term replacement for the ageing

Jack Charlton John Charlton (8 May 193510 July 2020) was an English footballer and manager who played as a defender. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 199 ...

. Charlton played for some of the 1972–73 season but had decided to retire as the season was drawing to a close. McQueen played on six occasions in his first season at Leeds but missed out on the

1973 FA Cup Final The 1973 FA Cup Final was the 92nd final of the FA Cup. It took place on 5 May 1973 at Wembley Stadium and was contested between Leeds United, the previous season's winners and one of the dominant teams in English football at the time, and S ...

, with manager

Don Revie Donald George Revie OBE (10 July 1927 – 26 May 1989) was an England international footballer and manager, best known for his successful spell with Leeds United from 1961 until 1974, which immediately preceded his appointment as England mana ...

instead opting for the experience of utility player

Paul Madeley Paul Edward Madeley (20 September 1944 – 23 July 2018) was an English footballer, who played for Leeds United and the England national team. During his career with Leeds, Madeley played in a variety of different playing positions which led to ...

. With Charlton retired and Madeley playing in many positions, McQueen was in the team for most of the 1973–74 season. Leeds won the League Championship, with a run of 29 matches without a defeat from the start of the season with McQueen playing a key part alongside Norman Hunter as Leeds' first-choice centre back pairing. McQueen and Hunter excelled at the back the following season, notably in Leeds' campaign in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

, during which McQueen scored three goals. He was suspended for the

1975 European Cup Final The 1975 European Cup Final was a football match between Bayern Munich of West Germany and Leeds United of Yorkshire, England, played on 28 May 1975 at the Parc des Princes in Paris. It was the final match of the 1974–75 season of Europe's pre ...

, after being sent off in the semi-final versus

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 c ...

. Leeds went on to lose 2–0 in the final versus

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

FeyenoordManchesterUnited1983b (cropped)

In February 1978, McQueen moved from Leeds to their arch-rivals

for £500,000. On signing, he said that "99% of players want to play for Manchester United and the rest are liars." He had declared only weeks earlier in ''

Shoot In botany, a plant shoot consists of any plant stem together with its appendages, leaves and lateral buds, flowering stems, and flower buds. The new growth from seed germination that grows upward is a shoot where leaves will develop. In the sp ...

'' magazine that he wanted to stay at

Elland Road Elland Road is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Premier League club Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the 14th largest football stadium in England. The ...

for his entire career. He played in the

1979 FA Cup Final The 1979 FA Cup Final was a football match played on 12 May 1979 at Wembley Stadium. The match was contested by Arsenal and Manchester United. It is regarded as one of the greatest-ever finishes in an FA Cup final. For over 85 minutes the gam ...

, scoring United's first of two goals in the 86th minute. McQueen finally gained an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football compet ...

winner's medal in the

1983 FA Cup Final The 1983 FA Cup Final was contested by Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion at Wembley Stadium. Manchester United were the favourites, as Brighton had been relegated from the First Division that season, and had never reached a cup fin ...

after a replay versus

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

. He was also in the team that was defeated in the 1983 Football League Cup Final versus

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

that same season. He finally left

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wembl ...

in the 1985 close season, after losing his first-team place to Paul McGrath and not being included in the 1985 FA Cup Final team that defeated Everton 1–0.

International

At the end of the 1973–74 season McQueen was called up to the

squad and made his international debut versus

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 ...

. A year later he had become a regular for the national team; he was selected for the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by ...

squad for Argentina, although he could not play due to injury. He played his last match for Scotland in 1981, gaining 30

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 Ja ...

and scoring five goals, including two in the space of four days against

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is #Descriptions, variously described as ...

Hampden Park Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden''), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the no ...

then

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

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 ...

as the Scots claimed the

1976–77 British Home Championship The 1976–77 British Home Championship launched a brand new era in Home Nations football during its final game, when jubilant Scottish fans invaded the pitch at Wembley Stadium following their team's 2-1 victory. Unlike a similar occasion in 1967, ...

Post playing career

McQueen coached abroad before he was the manager of

Airdrieonians Airdrieonians Football Club is a Scottish professional football team in Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, who are members of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) and play in Scottish League One. They were formed in 2002 as Airdrie United ...

for a short spell, before coaching at his first club St Mirren. When McQueen's friend and former team-mate

Bryan Robson Bryan Robson OBE (born 11 January 1957) is an English football manager and former player. He began his career with West Bromwich Albion in 1972, where he amassed over 200 appearances and was club captain before moving to Manchester United in ...

was appointed the manager of

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 ...

, McQueen joined him as reserve-team coach. He held this position for five years, and was then a first-team coach for two years. McQueen left the

Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...

club in June 2001, following the departure of Robson and the appointment of

Steve McClaren Stephen McClaren (born 3 May 1961) is an English former professional footballer and coach who currently serves as an assistant coach for Premier League club Manchester United, in his second spell at the club. McClaren began his coaching caree ...

. McQueen then joined

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

as a pundit. On 29 April 2008, McQueen had returned to Boro as assistant scout, alongside David Mills.

Personal life

Since coaching Middlesbrough, McQueen and his wife have lived in the village of

Hutton Rudby Hutton Rudby is a village and civil parish situated west of the market town of Stokesley in the Hambleton District, North Yorkshire, England. At the 2011 census, village's parish and built-up area subdivision had population of 1,572 while its ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by national parks, including most of the Yorkshire Dales and the North York Moors. It is one of four co ...

. The couple have a son and two daughters, including Hayley who is a sports journalist on

and the ''Red Devils'' TV channel MUTV. Politically, McQueen is a Labour supporter. In October 2011, McQueen was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx and started treatment at the

James Cook University Hospital The James Cook University Hospital is a tertiary referral hospital and regional major trauma centre in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England located on the A172 (Marton Road). Having 1,046 beds, it caters for most specialities and forms par ...

, Middlesbrough. In January 2021, McQueen was diagnosed with

vascular dementia Vascular dementia (VaD) is dementia caused by problems in the supply of blood to the brain, typically a series of minor strokes, leading to worsening cognitive abilities, the decline occurring piecemeal. The term refers to a syndrome consisting ...

. This highlighted the issue of injuries caused to footballers by persistent heading of a ball.

Honours

Club

Leeds United * First Division: 1973–74 *

runner-up: 1974–75 Manchester United *

: 1982–83; runner-up: 1978–79 *

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier L ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning ...

Individual

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premi ...

: 1974–75 First Division, 1977–78 First Division * Leeds United Player of the Year: 1974–75, 1976–77 *

Scottish Football Hall of Fame The Scottish Football Hall of Fame is located at the Scottish Football Museum. Nominations are made each year by fans and a committee selects the inductees. The first inductions to the Hall of Fame were in November 2004 in a ceremony at Hampden Pa ...

: 2012

Career statistics

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McQueen, Gordon 1952 births Living people People from Kilbirnie Footballers from North Ayrshire Scottish footballers Scotland international footballers Scottish football managers 1974 FIFA World Cup players 1978 FIFA World Cup players St Mirren F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Manchester United F.C. players Seiko SA players Middlesbrough F.C. non-playing staff Airdrieonians F.C. (1878) managers English Football League players Scottish expatriate footballers Hong Kong First Division League players Scottish Football League managers Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees Expatriate footballers in Hong Kong Association football central defenders People with vascular dementia FA Cup Final players

Playing career

Club

International

Post playing career

Personal life

Honours

Club

Individual

Career statistics

International

International goals

See also

References