Paul McStay

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox football biography Paul Michael Lyons McStay, Template:Post-nominals (born 22 October 1964) is a Scottish former professional footballer who spent his entire career with Celtic, making his senior debut in 1982 and retiring in 1997. He captained both Scotland and Celtic at all age levels. He was capped 76 times for his country and scored nine goals. He helped Celtic win three league titles, the last in 1988.

Club career

As a youth, McStay first came to prominence in June 1980 in a schoolboy international match when Scotland played England at Wembley. Then 15, McStay captained the Scotland team, scored two goals and was awarded Man of the Match after Scotland ran out 5–4 winners.<ref name="bop" /><ref name="cqn">Template:Cite web</ref>

McStay signed for Celtic aged sixteen from Celtic Boys Club in 1981. He made his first team debut on 23 January 1982 in a 4–0 win over Queen of the South in the Scottish Cup. A week later on 30 January, he made his first league appearance in 3–1 win over Aberdeen at Pittodrie. He scored the third goal, taking a pass from George McCluskey, running through the Aberdeen defence and striking a left foot shot past Jim Leighton in goal.<ref name="bop">Template:Cite web</ref>

Season 1982–83 saw the young midfielder establish himself as a first team regular,<ref name="bop" /> and he picked up his first winners medal on 4 November 1982 in Celtic's 2–1 win over Rangers in the League Cup Final. His performances resulted in media speculation that Inter Milan were considering making a £2 million bid to take him to Italy, a rumour that was emphatically dismissed by the Celtic chairman, Desmond White.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

McStay continued to progress at Celtic,<ref name="bop" /> and he scored Celtic's equaliser in the 1984 Scottish Cup Final against Aberdeen to take the match into extra time. However, Celtic had played most of the match with 10 men after Roy Aitken was sent off in the first half, and Aberdeen scored in extra time to win 2–1.

In December 1987, during Celtic's centenary season, McStay signed a five-year contract at Celtic. He went on to enjoy his finest season,<ref name="cqn" /> winning both the SPFA and Scottish Football Writers player of the year awards as the club won a League and Cup double in 1988.<ref name="bop" />

When Roy Aitken left Celtic Park in 1990, McStay was appointed club captain, a position he retained until his retirement following the 1996–97 season. In his time with the club, Celtic won the League title three times, the Scottish Cup four times and the League Cup once. Although the second half of McStay's career coincided with a time when Celtic performed poorly and struggled financially, in 2002 he was voted a member of Celtic's greatest ever team by the club's fans. He is also a member of the Scotland Football Hall of Fame, which honours the best players to play in Scotland and is located in the Scottish Football Museum.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

International career

In 1982 he captained Scotland national U19 team to victory in the UEFA European Under-18 Championship, the only major trophy won by any Scotland national team. He captained each of the Scotland teams from under-16 level through under-18, under-20, under-21 and senior level. McStay made his full international debut for Scotland in 1983. He represented Scotland 76 times, including appearances at two World Cups in 1986 and 1990, during a 14-year international career. McStay was also selected for two UEFA European Championships in 1992 and 1996, but withdrew from the latter because of an ankle injury.<ref>Template:Cite web
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Personal life

In 2010, McStay moved to live in Sydney, Australia with his wife Anne Marie and their six children.<ref name = "australia"/> He now runs Maestro Sports, a startup software company specialising in sport coaching and management.<ref name = "australia">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> McStay attempted to raise $100,000 AUD to fund an autobiography through the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

McStay's great-uncles Jimmy and Willie McStay were former Celtic captains, and his brothers Willie and Raymond also played for Celtic. Their father John worked as a scout for the club.<ref>Tributes to Celtic scout and true gent John McStay, Evening Times, 10 July 2017</ref>

One of his sons, Chris, has played football for Sutherland Sharks and Rockdale Ilinden in Australia and for Clyde in Scotland.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His nephew John (Willie's son) played with Celtic Boys Club before moving onto Motherwell under-19s and later played for Ayr United as a defender<ref>David W Potter, "And they gave us James McGrory and Paul McStay" Template:Webarchive Retrieved 21 June 2007.</ref><ref>Ayr United land defender McStay, BBC Sport, 16 January 2007</ref> before becoming a Celtic academy coach.<ref>Academy Coaches, Celtic FC</ref>

His cousin Jock McStay played for Raith Rovers during the 1990s,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and Jock's son Jonny played at Junior level in the 2010s.<ref>Glenafton 2 Lesmahagow 1, Glenafton Athletic FC, 12 January 2019</ref><ref>We're lovin it as Jonny decides on McKenna Park, St Anthony's F.C., 28 June 2019</ref>

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			Scottish Cup		League Cup		Europe		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Celtic<ref name=fscfc/>	1981–82	Scottish Premier Division	10	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	12	1
	1982–83		36	6	4	0	9	1	4Template:Efn	0	53	7
	1983–84		34	3	5	2	8	2	6Template:Efn	0	53	7
	1984–85		32	4	7	3	2	0	5Template:Efn	1	46	8
	1985–86		34	8	2	0	2	1	2Template:Efn	0	40	9
	1986–87		43	3	4	0	5	1	4Template:Efn	0	56	4
	1987–88		44	5	6	0	2	0	2Template:Efn	0	54	5
	1988–89		33	5	5	0	3	0	4Template:Efn	0	45	5
	1989–90		35	3	6	1	4	1	2Template:Efn	0	47	5
	1990–91		30	2	5	0	5	1	–		40	3
	1991–92		32	7	4	0	0	0	2Template:Efn	0	38	7
	1992–93		43	4	3	0	3	0	4Template:Efn	1	53	5
	1993–94		35	2	1	0	4	0	4Template:Efn	0	44	2
	1994–95		29	1	4	0	5	0	–		38	1
	1995–96		30	2	4	0	1	0	3Template:Efn	0	38	2
	1996–97		15	1	4	0	1	0	1Template:Efn	0	21	1
Career total			515	57	66	6	54	7	43	2	678	72

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Scotland<ref>Template:NFT</ref>	1983	4	0
	1984	5	2
	1985	4	0
	1986	5	1
	1987	8	2
	1988	7	1
	1989	8	0
	1990	9	0
	1991	3	1
	1992	10	2
	1993	5	0
	1994	3	0
	1995	1	0
	1996	1	0
	1997	3	0
Total		76	9

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each McStay goal.

List of international goals scored by Paul McStay

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	17 October 1984	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Template:Fb	1–0	3–0	1986 World Cup qualification
2				2–0
3	28 January 1986	National Stadium, Ramat Gan	Template:Fb	1–0	1–0	Friendly
4	1 April 1987	Constant Vanden Stock Stadium, Brussels	Template:Fb	1–1	1–4	UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying
5	14 October 1987	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Template:Fb	2–0	2–0	UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying
6	14 September 1988	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	Template:Fb	1–0	2–1	1990 FIFA World Cup qualification
7	13 November 1991	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Template:Fb	1–0	4–0	UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
8	25 March 1992	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Template:Fb	1–0	1–1	Friendly
9	18 June 1992	Idrottsparken, Norrköping	Template:Fb	1–0	3–0	UEFA Euro 1992

Honours

Celtic

• Scottish Premier Division: 1981–82, 1985–86, 1987–88;<ref name=fscfc>Celtic player Paul McStay, FitbaStats</ref> runner-up: 1982–83, 1983–84, 1984–85, 1986–87, 1995–96, 1996–97
• Scottish Cup: 1984–85, 1987–88, 1988–89, 1994–95;<ref name=fscfc/> runner-up 1983–84, 1989–90
• Scottish League Cup: 1982–83;<ref name=fscfc/> runner-up 1983–84, 1986–87 1990–91, 1994–95
• Glasgow Cup: 1981–82<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Scotland

• Rous Cup: 1985;<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> runner-up: 1986, 1989<ref>Template:Cite news
  Template:Cite web</ref>

Scotland U18

• UEFA Youth Championship: 1982

Scotland U16

• Victory Shield: 1980<ref name = "dentyne">Template:Cite web
  Template:Cite web</ref>
• Dentyne Trophy: 1980<ref name = "dentyne"/>

Individual

• SFWA Footballer of the Year: 1987–88<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• SPFA Players' Player of the Year: 1987–88
• SPFA Young Player of the Year: 1982–83
• Scotland national football team roll of honour : 1990
• Scottish Football Hall of Fame: 2010<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
• Ballon d'Or: 1984 (18th place)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• List of footballers in Scotland by number of league appearances (500+)
• List of Scotland national football team captains

External links

• Template:SFA profile
• International stats at Londonhearts.com
• The Bhoy in the Picture – Paul McStay
• England schoolboys v Scotland schoolboys (1980) 4–5