Steve Archibald

Steven Archibald (born 27 September 1956) is a Scottish former professional footballer and manager. He played prominently as a forward for Aberdeen, winning the Scottish league in 1980, Tottenham Hotspur, winning two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup, and Barcelona, winning the Spanish league in 1985. He also played for several other clubs in Scotland, England, Spain and Ireland.

Steve Archibald

Personal information
Full name	Steven Archibald[1]
Date of birth	(1956-09-27) 27 September 1956 (age 68)[1]
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Position(s)	Striker
Youth career
1973–1974	Fernhill Athletic
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1974	→ East Stirlingshire (trial)	1	(0)
1974–1977	Clyde	65	(7)
1977–1980	Aberdeen	76	(29)
1980–1984	Tottenham Hotspur	131	(58)
1984–1988	Barcelona	55	(24)
1986	Barcelona Atlètic	2	(0)
1987–1988	→ Blackburn Rovers (loan)	20	(6)
1988–1990	Hibernian	44	(15)
1990	Espanyol	15	(5)
1990–1991	St Mirren	16	(2)
1992	Clyde	4	(2)
1992	Reading	1	(0)
1992	Ayr United	1	(0)
1992	Fulham	2	(0)
1994–1996	East Fife	49	(7)
1996	Home Farm Everton	1	(0)
Total		483	(156)
International career
1979–1980	Scotland U21[2]	5	(1)
1980–1986	Scotland	27	(4)
Managerial career
1994–1996	East Fife
2000–2001	Airdrieonians
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Archibald played 27 times for Scotland, earning selection for their 1982 and 1986 World Cup squads, and was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2009. He later managed East Fife and Airdrieonians.

Club career

Archibald was born in Glasgow^[1] and raised nearby in Rutherglen. He was playing for local teams such as Croftfoot United and Fernhill Athletic^[3] while completing his training as a car mechanic when he was spotted by Scottish First Division club Clyde in 1974.^[4] He first came to prominence playing in midfield for Clyde, but after manager Billy McNeill paid £20,000 to bring him to top-division side Aberdeen in January 1978 he was converted to striker, forging a prolific partnership with Joe Harper.^[4]

After winning the Scottish Premier Division title in 1980, he moved to London club Tottenham Hotspur for £800,000,^[4] where he finished the top scorer in the First Division and won the FA Cup in his first season there.^[4] He won a second FA Cup in 1982^[4] and then the UEFA Cup in 1984, where he scored his penalty in the final as Spurs overcame Anderlecht in a shootout.^[5][6] He also scored for Spurs in their defeat by Liverpool in the 1982 Football League Cup Final.^[5] Archibald scored 77 goals in 189 appearances for Spurs between 1980 and 1984,^[5] forming successful striking partnerships with Garth Crooks and Mark Falco.

In 1984, he joined Barcelona for £1,150,000,^[4] where in his first season he helped them win the La Liga title for the first time in 11 years.^[4] He then helped Barça reach the European Cup final in 1986, only to lose on penalty kicks to Steaua Bucharest.^[3] He was a popular figure at the Camp Nou until restrictions on fielding foreign players led to him being excluded from the squad in favour of Gary Lineker and Mark Hughes.^[3] He was loaned out to Blackburn Rovers for a spell before returning to Scotland in 1988 to sign for Hibernian.^[3]

Archibald scored 16 goals in his first season at Hibernian, including the winning goal in November 1988 in a 2–1 win away against Hearts, Hibs' first away win against their city rivals in over 10 years.^[3] He left Hibs in 1990 after falling out with manager Alex Miller, and had a brief return to Spain with Espanyol (then in the Second Division).^[3] He then joined St Mirren and was instrumental in bringing former Barcelona teammate Víctor Muñoz to the club.^[3]

Archibald's later career saw him make a handful of appearances at a number of clubs in Scotland, England and Ireland, including a nostalgic return to Clyde.^[3]

International career

Archibald was a member of the Scotland national team at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups.

On 15 November 2009, he was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame.^[7]

Managerial career and the Airdrie experiment

Archibald's time at East Fife saw the club gain promotion to the First Division, and was also notable for the acquisition of Trinidad and Tobago internationalists Arnold Dwarika and Craig Demmin. He was sacked in 1996 and retired to his home in Spain for the next few years, working on a number of business interests, including as a football agent.

In 2000 Archibald re-emerged in Scottish football when he mounted a bid to buy financially troubled First Division club Airdrieonians. Archibald was allowed to take over the running of the club after being awarded preferred bidder status by the administrators. He installed himself as manager and, using his contacts in Europe, introduced a contingent of Spaniards and other foreign players to the squad, winning the 2000–01 Scottish Challenge Cup.^[3]

Although Airdrie supporters were impressed by Archibald and the skills of the imports, he ultimately failed to conclude the purchase of the club, leading to the departure of himself and the foreign players in March 2001,^[3] and causing them to narrowly miss out on relegation to the Second Division. They had also been expelled from the Scottish Cup for failing to fulfil a fixture. Airdrieonians went out of business on 1 May 2002, and a new club called Airdrie United was formed and took Clydebank's place in the Scottish Football League.

Music career

Archibald appeared twice in the same episode of Top of the Pops in 1982, firstly singing "We Have a Dream" with the Scotland World Cup squad starring BA Robertson and then alongside his Tottenham Hotspur teammates and Chas & Dave singing "Tottenham, Tottenham".

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]}

Club	Season	League			National cup		League cup		Europe		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
East Stirlingshire (trial)	1973–74	Scottish Division Two	1	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	1	0
Clyde	1974–75	Scottish Division One	4	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	4	0
	1975–76	Scottish First Division	16	2	2	0	2	0	-	-	-	-	20	2
	1976–77	Scottish Second Division	31	3	1	0	6	0	-	-	-	-	38	3
	1977–78		14	2	2	0	2	0	-	-	-	-	18	2
	Total		65	7	5	0	10	0	-	-	-	-	80	7
Aberdeen	1977–78	Scottish Premier Division	10	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	10	5
	1978–79		32	13	5	4	7	3	4	0	-	-	48	20
	1979–80		34	12	5	7	11	3	2	0	-	-	52	22
	Total		76	30	10	11	18	6	6	0	-	-	110	47
Tottenham Hotspur	1980–81	First Division	41	20	-	3	-	2	0	0	-	-	41+	25
	1981–82		27	6	-	1	-	2	-	0	-	-	27+	9
	1982–83		31	11	-	0	-	2	-	2	-	-	31+	15
	1983–84		32	21	-	1	-	1	-	5	-	-	32+	28
	Total		131	58	18	5	18	7	22	7	-	-	189	77
Barcelona	1984–85	La Liga	32	15	8	3	4	1	2	0	-	-	46	19
	1985–86		13	4	3	1	1	1	4	2	1	0	22	8
	1986–87		10	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	12	5
	1987–88		0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	0	0
	Total		55	24	11	4	5	2	6	2	3	0	80	32
Blackburn Rovers (loan)	1987–88	Second Division	20	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	20+	6+
Hibernian	1988–89	Scottish Premier Division	31	13	4	1	3	2	0	0	-	-	38	16
	1989–90		13	2	0	0	0	0	2	0	-	-	15	2
	Total		44	15	4	1	3	2	2	0	-	-	53	18
Espanyol	1989–90	Segunda División	15	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	15+	5+
St Mirren	1990–91	Scottish Premier Division	16	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	17	2
Clyde	1991–92	Scottish Second Division	4	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	4	2
Reading	1991–92	Third Division	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	1	0
Ayr United	1991–92	Scottish First Division	1	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1+	0+
Fulham	1992–93	Second Division	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	-	-	2	0
East Fife	1994–95	Scottish Second Division	13	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	13+	1+
	1995–96		31	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	31+	6+
	1996–97	Scottish First Division	5	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	5+	0+
	Total		49	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	49+	7+
Home Farm Everton	1996–97		1	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1+	0+
Career total			483	156	49+	21+	54+	17+	36	9	1	0	623+	203+

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Scotland[15]	1980	5	2
	1981	7	1
	1982	8	1
	1983	1	0
	1984	2	0
	1985	3	0
	1986	1	0
Total		27	4

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Archibald goal.^[16]

List of international goals scored by Steve Archibald

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	26 March 1980	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Portugal	3–0	4–1	UEFA Euro 1980 qualifying
2	31 May 1980	Nepstadion, Budapest	Hungary	1–2	1–3	Friendly
3	19 May 1981	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Northern Ireland	2–0	2–0	1980–81 British Home Championship
4	15 June 1982	Estadio La Rosaleda, Málaga	New Zealand	5–2	5–2	1982 FIFA World Cup

Managerial statistics

^[17]

Team	From	To	Record
			G	W	D	L	Win %
East Fife	1994	1996	90	35	25	30	38.89%
Airdrieonians	2000	2001	-	-	-	-	-
Total			90+	35+	25+	30+	38.89%

Honours

Player

Aberdeen

• Scottish Premier Division: 1979–80^[4]

Tottenham Hotspur

• FA Cup: 1980–81,^[4] 1981–82
• FA Charity Shield: 1981 (shared)^[18]
• UEFA Cup: 1983–84^[6]

Barcelona

• La Liga: 1984–85^[4]
• Copa de la Liga: 1986

Scotland

• The Rous Cup: 1985^[19]

Manager

Airdrieonians

• Scottish Challenge Cup: 2000–01^[20]

Individual

• Inducted to Scottish Football Hall of Fame: 2009^[7]
• Football League First Division top goalscorer: 1980–81

References

1. "Steve Archibald". Barry Hugman's Footballers. Retrieved 15 March 2020.
2. "Steve Archibald". www.fitbastats.com. Retrieved 11 October 2012.
3. "Steve Archibald". Hibernian Historical Trust. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
4. "Dark Blue Dons - Steve Archibald". AFC.co.uk. Archived from the original on 27 April 2017. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
5. "Steve Archibald". tottenhamhotspur.com. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
6. "1984 UEFA Cup Final 2nd Leg Tottenham 1-1 Anderlecht 2-2 on aggregate (Tottenham win 4-3 on penalties)". UEFA.com. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
7. Eight more Scots greats enter Hall of Fame The Scotsman, 16 November 2009
8. Strack-Zimmermann, Benjamin. "Steve Archibald". www.national-football-teams.com. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
9. "Aberdeen Football Club Heritage Trust - Player Profile". afcheritage.org. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
10. "Fixtures 1977 - 1978 | Match | Clyde Football Club". Official Clyde Football Club Website. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
11. "TOPSPURS - the world famous home of Tottenham Hotspur on the internet". www.topspurs.com. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
12. Jugadors, F. C. B. "Steven Archibald stats | FC Barcelona Players". FCB Jugadors. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
13. "Hibernian Player Steve Archibald Details". www.fitbastats.com. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
14. "Past Saints - A". StMirren.info. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
15. Steve Archibald at National-Football-Teams.com
16. SFA profile
17. "East Fife Manager Steve Archibald Details". www.fitbastats.com. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
18. "1981/82 Charity Shield". footballsite.co.uk. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
19. "Rous-ing win for makeshift Scots". Glasgow Herald. 27 May 1985. p. 15 – via Google News Archive.
20. "Airdrie lift Challenge Cup". BBC Sport. 19 November 2000. Retrieved 14 April 2020.

External links

• Steve Archibald — Spurs club profile at Sporting Heroes
• Steve Archibald — International profile at Sporting Heroes
• Steven Archibald — Club profile at BDFutbol
• Steve Archibald at the Scottish Football Association
• Steve Archibald at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Transfer Database
• Scottish Football Hall of Fame profile