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 ...

who played for Newmilns,

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire council area and the historic county town of Ayrshire. With a population ...

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

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

, Kilmarnock,

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

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-P ...

s in

1912 Events January * January 1 – The Republic of China is established. * January 5 – The Prague Conference (6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party) opens. * January 6 ** German geophysicist Alfred ...

and

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not venture for the rest of the ...

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 s ...

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 knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competit ...

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

right half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

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 ( gd, Siorrachd Inbhir Àir, ) is a Counties of Scotland, historic county and registration county in south-west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine, North Ayrshi ...

with Kilmarnock, Steel joined

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

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 wi ...

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 (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 championshi ...

. 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 the male name Daniel. It may refer to: People * Danny Altmann, British immunologist *Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator, director, producer, and writer *Danny Baker (born 1957), English journali ...

and Bobby 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 football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

fixture against

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. ...

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