Alfred James Conn (born 5 April 1952) is a Scottish former 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 was the first post-World War II player to play for both

Old Firm The Old Firm is a collective name for the Scottish football clubs Celtic and Rangers, which are both based in Glasgow. The two clubs are the most successful and popular in Scotland, and the rivalry between them has become deeply embedded i ...

rivals

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

and

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

Background

Conn is the son of the footballer Alfie Conn Sr., who was one of the 'Terrible Trio' of Heart of Midlothian in the 1950s.

Career

Rangers

Conn made his senior debut for Rangers against

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

in the

Fairs Cup The Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, most commonly referred to as the Fairs Cup and sometimes as the European Fairs Cup or Fairs Cities' Cup, was a European football competition played between 1955 and 1971. The Fairs Cup was the idea of FIFA vice-presid ...

tournament in November 1968. He was part of the Rangers team which lifted the

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

in 1972 and also helped the Ibrox team win the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Hampden Park Hampden Park ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ''Pàirc Hampden'') is a association football, football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland, which is the national stadium of football in Scotland and home of the Scotland national football ...

Tottenham Hotspur

He played for

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 ...

football club from 1974 to 1977. He was the last player to be signed by their manager Bill Nicholson. Despite playing only 35 games and scoring six goals, he was a huge fan favourite, dubbed the "King of White Hart Lane" after scoring a hat-trick on his debut in a 5–2 win at

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

. In the final game of the 1974–75 season at White Hart Lane, Tottenham Hotspur had to beat

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

to prevent relegation from the First Division. Conn scored a goal, set up two others and even sat on the ball in a 4–2 victory. When at Spurs he made two appearances for the

Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. They compete in three major professional tournaments: the FIFA World Cup, UEFA ...

at the end of the season in 1975.

Celtic

He later, in 1977, won another Scottish Cup medal with Celtic when they defeated Rangers 1–0 in the final.

Heart of Midlothian

Conn Jr. followed in his father's footsteps by signing for the Tynecastle club in 1980, following a short spell playing indoor football in the United States with Pittsburgh Spirit.

Blackpool and Motherwell

Conn wound down his career with short spells at

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

and

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

before retiring in 1983.

Legacy

On 5 February 2007 Conn was included in the Rangers F.C. Hall of Fame.

References

External links

*
What's it all about now Alfie?
Retrieved 9 March 2009
Daily Record profile, Jan 30 2008

{{DEFAULTSORT:Conn, Alfie Jr. 1952 births Living people Footballers from Kirkcaldy Scottish men's footballers Scotland men's international footballers Rangers F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Hércules CF players Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Motherwell F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Scottish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Scotland men's under-23 international footballers Pittsburgh Spirit players San Jose Earthquakes (1974–1988) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Men's association football midfielders Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States