Billy Steel

Infobox Football biography
playername = Billy Steel


fullname = William Steel
dateofbirth = 1 May 1923
cityofbirth = Denny, Stirlingshire
countryofbirth = Scotland
dateofdeath = 13 May 1982
cityofdeath =
countryofdeath =
height =
position = Forward
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1939-19??
19??-1941
1941-1947
1947-19??
19??-19??
clubs = Leicester City
St Mirren
Greenock Morton
Derby County
Dundee
caps(goals) = ? (?)
? (?)
? (?)
124 (35)
? (?)
nationalyears = 1947-1953
nationalteam = Scotland
nationalcaps(goals) = 30 (12)

Billy Steel (1 May 1923 – 13 May 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Leicester City, St Mirren, Greenock Morton, Derby County, Dundee and the Scotland national team.

He was born in Denny, Stirlingshire.

His £15,500 transfer from Greenock Morton to Derby County in 1947 was a then British transfer record. [http://www.derbycounty-mad.co.uk/news/loadroll.asp?cid=ED31&id=56546] .Talk to any of the old time Rams supporters and the name “Billy Steel” always crops up. Billy was not always popular at the Baseball Ground especially among his fellow professionals. One dressing room incident ended in Billy being threatened with being hung on a cloakroom peg by a member of his own team!

Players often accused Steel of saving his best performances for when the Rams travelled down to play the London teams. He was further disliked for his moonlighting in the days of the maximum wage for footballers. He received payments for articles that he wrote for several newspapers of the day, enabling him a more luxurious life style than his teammates.

Steel was brought to Derby County for a then British transfer record of £15,500 after playing just a few first team games for Morton. However it was a good buy for Derby and Billy went on to play for three seasons at Derby. In that time he played 124 appearances, scoring 35 goals.

Billy Steel left Derby County in September 1950 to return to his native Scotland and play for Dundee. Dundee having to pay a Scottish record transfer fee of £23,000. He helped the club to two league Cup wins and the Scottish Cup Final.

The last part of Billy’s story and life where in America he emigrated there in 1954 and played for a while for Los Angeles Danes and made a living in advertising.

Sadly Billy died in 1984 at the age of just 59.

He won a total of 30 caps for Scotland, scoring 12 goals. He was selected for a Great Britain XI for a match against FIFA in 1947, despite having played only a handful of league games for Morton.

International goals

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

External links

*SFA Profile|id=113348