Alexander Steel (25 July 1886 – 1954) was a Scottish 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, rugby lea ...

who played for Newmilns,

Ayr Ayr ( ; ; , meaning "confluence of the River Àir"), is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. A former royal burgh, today it is the administrative centre of South Ayrshire Council, and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With ...

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of 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 ...

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth level of English football. The team are known as "The Shrimpers", a reference ...

and Gillingham. In his spell at Barcelona he won two

Pyrenees Cup The Pyrenees Cup (), officially Challenge International du Sud de la France, was an international football competition contested by Spanish and French clubs based in the territories of Pyrénées (Catalonia, the Basque Country, Languedoc, Midi-Py ...

s in

1912 This year is notable for Sinking of the Titanic, the sinking of the ''Titanic'', which occurred on April 15. In Albania, this leap year runs with only 353 days as the country achieved switching from the Julian to Gregorian Calendar by skippin ...

and

1913 Events January * January – Joseph Stalin travels to Vienna to research his ''Marxism and the National Question''. This means that, during this month, Stalin, Hitler, Trotsky and Tito are all living in the city. * January 3 &ndash ...

Football career

Steel began his career at local

non-league Non-League football describes association football, football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is ...

club Newmilns before joining Ayr. In 1905 he joined Manchester City and made 32 league and

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

appearances for the Hyde Road club, scoring only once. The

right half In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

signed for Tottenham Hotspur in 1908 and played in one first-team match in his three years with ''Spurs''. After playing a few games back in his native

Ayrshire Ayrshire (, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county, in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. The lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area of Ayrshire and Arran covers the entirety ...

with Kilmarnock, Steel joined

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

during the 1911–12 season and quickly became one of the club's benchmarks, netting 56 goals in just 43 matches. At ''Barça'' he won two

s in

and

, scoring once in the quarter-finals of the former and netting a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

in the quarter-finals of the latter, and even though he did not found the back of the net again in the 1913 edition, his hat-trick alone was enough to make him the tournament's shared top scorer alongside

Frank Allack Frank Albert Allack (25 September 1888 – 1967) was an English footballer who played as a forward for Spanish clubs RCD Espanyol and FC Barcelona. The highlight of his career was winning the treble with Barcelona in the 1912–13 season ( Catalan ...

. After leaving Barcelona he had spells in England at Southend United and finally Gillingham, where he played the

1919–20 Southern Football League The 1919–20 season was the 22nd in the history of the Southern League, and the first following World War I. Portsmouth won the Southern League championship for the second time, whilst Mid Rhondda won Division Two. There were no promotions or rel ...

season as a defender before ending his playing career. His brothers

Danny Danny is a masculine given name. It is related to and short for the male name Daniel.🖾🖾 People *Danny Altmann, British immunologist * Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer * Danny Baker (born 1957), English j ...

and

Bobby Bobby or Bobbie may refer to: People *Bobby (given name), a list of names * Bobby (surname), a list of surnames * Bobby (actress), from Bangladesh * Bobby (rapper) (born 1995), from South Korea * Bobby (screenwriter) (born 1983), Indian screenwrit ...

were also footballers, both having a significant association with Tottenham Hotspur; the three siblings played together in one

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

fixture against

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

in January 1910, Alex's only league appearance for the club.Hotspur Towers - Spurs Steel
Keith Harrison, India Spurs, 28 January 2016 Alex later recommended Bobby as a signing for Gillingham.

Honours

;Barcelona *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steel, Alex 1886 births 1954 deaths Scottish men's footballers Footballers from East Ayrshire English Football League players Ayr F.C. players Manchester City F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Kilmarnock F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Men's association football wing halves Scottish Football League players Scottish Junior Football Association players Southern Football League players Scotland men's junior international footballers FC Barcelona players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Scottish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain People from Newmilns