| Brian McClair | ||
 |
||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Brian John McClair | |
| Date of birth | December 8, 1963 | |
| Place of birth | Bellshill, Scotland | |
| Playing position | Forward/midfielder (retired) | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Manchester United (Director of Youth Academy) | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1980-1981 1981-1983 1983-1987 1987-1998 1998 |
Aston Villa Motherwell Celtic Manchester United Motherwell |
0 (0) 40 (15) 145 (99) 355 (88) 11 (0) |
| National team | ||
| 1984-1999 | Scotland | 30 (2) |
| Teams managed | ||
| 1998-1999 2006- |
Blackburn Rovers (assistant) Manchester United (Director of Youth Academy) |
|
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Brian John McClair (b. December 8, 1963, Bellshill, Scotland) is a former Scottish international football player who played as a forward, notable for his near eleven-year spell at Manchester United, as well as important tenures at Scottish clubs Celtic and Motherwell. Events 1609 - Biblioteca Ambrosiana opens its reading room the second public library of Europe. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. This article is about the town in North Lanarkshire Scotland For other places of the same name see Bellshill (disambiguation. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a Team sport played between two teams of eleven players and is widely considered Strikers, also known as forwards and attackers, are the players on a team in Association football (soccer in the row nearest to the opposing Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. The Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the east end of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. Motherwell Football & Athletic Club is a Scottish football club based in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. He was nicknamed "Choccy", as his last name rhymed with the delicacy "Chocolate Eclair".
Brian is currently Manchester United's youth academy director. Also he is currently looking after the reserve team on a caretaker basis after the recent departure of previous reserve team boss René Meulensteen to Brøndby IF. René Meulensteen (born March 25, 1964) is a Dutch football coach Brøndby IF is a Danish professional football club based in the town of Brøndby, on the western outskirts of Copenhagen.
Contents |
Biography
Playing career
He began his career with Aston Villa on leaving school in 1980, but left after one season (in which Villa were Football League champions) having never played a competitive game. The Football League, also known as the Coca-Cola Football League for sponsorship reasons is a league competition featuring professional football clubs
He then returned to Scotland and signed for Motherwell scoring 15 league goals in two seasons before £100,000 fee took him to Celtic. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Motherwell Football & Athletic Club is a Scottish football club based in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire. The Celtic Football Club is a Scottish football club based in the east end of Glasgow, which currently plays in the Scottish Premier League. In four seasons with Celtic, he made 145 league appearances and scored 99 goals [1]. In the 1986-87 season, he scored 35 goals in 44 league appearances and won both the Scottish Football Writers' Association Player of the Year and the Scottish Players' Player of the Year awards. The Scottish Football Writers' Association (the SFWA) is an association of Scottish football journalists and correspondents writing for newspapers and agencies founded The Scottish Professional Footballers' Association Players' Player of the Year (often called the SPFA Players' Player of the Year, the Players' Player of the Year,
His main spell, however, was at Manchester United. He joined them for £850,000 in July 1987 - despite Celtic initially wanting £2million for him, a fee which would have made him the most expensive player at the time to have signed for an English or Scottish clubs.
In 11 years at Old Trafford, he made a total of 468 appearances and scored 126 goals in all competitions. In later years, as his first team opportunities were reduced, McClair became somewhat of a cult hero at United due to his 'Choccy's Diary' being published in 'Manchester United' magazine.
In his first season for Manchester United he scored 24 league goals, becoming the first United player to surpass 20 league goals in one season since George Best in the 1967-68 season. George Best (22 May 1946 &ndash 25 November 2005 was a Northern Irish professional football player best known for his years with Manchester United. His goals were a key factor in United finishing second in the Football League First Division, though champions Liverpool had won the title with a nine-point margin and United never really looked like catching them. The Football League First Division was the highest division of The Football League between 1993 and 2004 and the highest division of English football overall between Liverpool Football Club are an English professional Association football club based in Liverpool England.
In 1990 McClair was involved in controversy when in reaction to a late challenge he repeatedly kicked Nigel Winterburn in the back as he lay prone on the ground, sparking a 21 man brawl. [1]
He won 30 caps for his native Scotland, and scored two goals. A cap is an appearance for a select team such as a school county or international team in sports The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in international football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. He also represented his country during the 1992 European Championships. The UEFA European Football Championship is the main football competition of the men's national football teams governed by UEFA (the Union of European His final international appearance was in 1993.
In the 1992 League Cup final he scored the solitary goal against Nottingham Forest, and scored another cup final goal in the 1994 FA Cup final, this time against Chelsea when Manchester United won 4-0.
McClair was the main striker for United during his first season, and then partnered Mark Hughes when he returned from Barcelona, but switched to midfield when Eric Cantona joined United in November 1992. Éric Daniel Pierre Cantona (born 24 May 1966 is a French former footballer of the late 1980s and 1990s When Roy Keane was signed the following summer, McClair's first team opportunities became increasingly limited.
But he agreed to stay on at United as a squad player, providing reliable cover in midfield and attack and making over 40 appearances (in the first eleven or as a substitute) in 1994-95. He was still trucking along in 1996-97, and on the first day of the season, he was credited with an assist for David Beckham's spectacular goal from the halfway line against Wimbledon. David Robert Joseph Beckham, and is also a member of the England national team. However, this was his only notable contribution to the team that season and at the end of 1997-98, he was given a free transfer to complete his playing days elsewhere.
His honours with Manchester United are as follows:
- the FA Cup in 1990, 1994 (scoring the fourth in a 4-0 rout of Chelsea in the final) and 1996. He is currently the last scotsman to score in the FA cup final. (1994)
- the League Cup in 1992 (scoring the winning goal against Nottingham Forest in the final)
- the Premier League in 1993,1994,1996 and 1997 and
- the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1991
McClair accepted an offer to return to Motherwell. During his second spell at Motherwell it became apparent that his best years were behind him as the fast tempo of Scottish Football passed him by.
Management/Coaching
McClair returned to the south of the border in December 1998 to become Brian Kidd's assistant at Blackburn Rovers. Brian Kidd (born 29 May 1949 in Collyhurst, Manchester) is an English football coach and former player Blackburn Rovers Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. But he was unable to prevent Blackburn from slipping out of the Premiership and within a year he had been sacked. He returned to Old Trafford as a youth team coach soon afterwards.
Ironically, when Kidd first joined Blackburn after being assistant manager at Manchester United, McClair was one of several high profile names to be linked with the assistant manager's vacancy at Old Trafford, as was former team mate Steve Bruce (Sheffield United's player-manager at this point). Stephen Roger "Steve" Bruce (born 31 December 1960 is an English football manager and former player Sheffield United Football Club is a professional English football club based in the city of Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
In 2001 he was appointed as Reserve Team manager, and promptly won the Reserve League in his first season as coach. In his second season, he was in charge of the Under-19 team which clinched the 2003 FA Youth Cup. Some players from that team, like David Jones, Chris Eagles and Kieran Richardson have gone on to make appearances in the first team. David Frank Llwyd Jones (born 4 November 1984 in Southport) is a professional footballer, currently playing for Wolverhampton Wanderers Christopher Mark "Chris" Eagles (born 19 November 1985 in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire) is an English footballer Kieran Edward Richardson (born 21 October 1984 in Greenwich, London) is an English footballer currently playing for
At the end of the 2004-05 season the first team finished trophyless, but the Reserve Teams headed by Ricky Sbragia won an unprecedented quadruple of the Pontins' Holidays League, the FA Premier Reserve League, The Pontins' Holidays League Cup and the Premier Reserve League Playoff. Richard "Ricky" Sbragia (born May 26 1956) is a Scottish former footballer and is currently a coach at Sunderland Their quest for an unprecedented five trophies was thwarted when they lost to Manchester City in the Manchester Senior Cup. TalkManchester City FC before changing verbs to singular --> Manchester City Football Club is an English professional football club The Manchester Senior Cup is an annual football tournament held between clubs of the Greater Manchester area
After a year of shadowing Les Kershaw, Manchester United's then academy director Brian replaced him at the start of the 2006 - 2007 season, and is now the new Director of Manchester United's youth academy at which McClair's son, Liam, is currently a player. Dr Les Kershaw is the former chief scout and Academy Director of Manchester United.
References
External links
- Statistics at soccerbase. com
| Preceded by Richard Gough |
Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year 1987 |
Succeeded by Paul McStay |
| Preceded by Sandy Jardine |
Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 1987 |
Succeeded by Paul McStay |