Andrew Ritchie (born 23 February 1956) is a Scottish retired professional
footballer.
Career at Morton
Born in
Bellshill
Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...
, as a teenager Ritchie had trials with
Manchester United
Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...
,
Coventry City,
Everton,
Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...
and
Rangers, but chose to join
Celtic in 1971, aged 15. Soon after, Ritchie was 'farmed' out to
Junior team Kirkintilloch Rob Roy. At Celtic, Ritchie had numerous disagreements with manager
Jock Stein
John Stein (5 October 1922 – 10 September 1985) was a Scottish association football, football player and manager (association football), manager. He was the first manager of a club from a Northern European country to win the European Champio ...
, which led to his transfer to
Morton. As part of the transfer, Morton goalkeeper
Roy Baines joined Celtic in exchange for Ritchie and a payment of £10,000.
Ritchie is most famous for his seven years at
Greenock
Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...
side Morton, during which he scored 118 goals. He was revered by the club's fans and earned the nicknames "the King of
Cappielow Park" and "The Idle Idol".
He made his debut for Morton on 28 October 1976 and scored 133 goals in 246 games for the club. He was the top scorer in the
Premier Division in 1978–79.
Ritchie was famous for what, by the standard of most professional footballers, was a rotund build and apparently blase demeanour. Scottish football journalist
Chick Young
Charles "Chick" Young (born 4 May 1951) is a professional association football pundit (expert), pundit who regularly appears for BBC Scotland on ''Sportscene'' and ''Sportsound''. He is known for his trademark laugh and speech patterns, which h ...
saw Ritchie as "the epitome of the Scottish footballer – a fat, lazy bastard, but with great ball skill".
He was renowned in Scotland for his expertise in
free-kicks, reputedly perfected by observing
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
train for the
1974 World Cup
The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the ...
.
His signature, demonstrated in more than one competitive match, was the ability to bend the ball into the net from a corner kick. His best and most famous goal was scored against
Aberdeen
Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...
at Cappielow Park.
In an incident, he almost broke his leg falling over Greenock Telegraph photographer, Jim Sinclair, after he failed to stop on a long run up the field.
Whilst at Morton, Ritchie won a solitary cap for the
Scotland national under-21 football team as an overage player, against
Belgium
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
.
Career after Morton
Ritchie was transferred from Morton to
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 ...
in 1983. He was player-manager for
Albion Rovers in season
1984–85. He retired in 1985, aged 28. Later, he took up a coaching and scouting role for Celtic and subsequent scouting roles for
Aston Villa and
Manchester City. He became an official SPL match observer.
A biography, ''The King of Cappielow'' was published on 11 October 2008. A more warts and all account of Ritchie's life appeared in ''Flawed Genius; Scottish Football's Self Destructive Mavericks (Birlinn 2009).
Awards
Ritchie received the
Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year award in
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
. In common with the rest of his teammates at
Scottish Premier Division club
Greenock Morton, he was a
part-time footballer. On the day of the award ceremony Ritchie worked a shift in his other job laying
tar as a road surfacer.
In 2005, he was voted 'cult hero' in an internet poll for the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
television's ''
Football Focus
''Football Focus'' is a BBC television magazine programme launched in 1974, broadcast live on BBC One on Saturday lunchtimes during the football season. The programme, along with '' Final Score'', is a remnant from the former flagship sports show ...
'' programme, receiving 64 per cent of votes cast for Morton players.
Quotes
Some quotes from the book ''Greenock Morton 1874–1999'' by Vincent P Gillen.()
*"Andy Ritchie – I can close my eyes and see the day as clear as you like. Morton were getting a doing by Dundee Utd and the defence was under siege. Big Andy was standing at the centre circle, hands inside his shirt sleeves, looking at the seagulls, bored out of his skull, when Davie Hayes blootered the ball out – it was just Andy and
Paul Hegarty left, and Andy, you couldn't slip a copy of the Greenock Telegraph under his feet when he jumped.
:Hegarty jumped and missed and Ritchie did what
Pelé
Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; 23 October 1940 – 29 December 2022), better known by his nickname Pelé (), was a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward. Widely reg ...
couldn't do and volleyed the ball past Hamish from the half way line!
*"Big Andy was always full of the verbal – always had a smile on his face, especially when he nutmegged you. I think in fact with the goal he scored in the Scottish Cup, players were always that terrified of Andy nutmegging them that they would shut their legs and he curled it roon them, you know.
:He had such a good footballing brain that he sussed things like that. He had scored the one from 50 yards and he was in his own half, nobody near him and he shouted "Big Yin, ye'd better pick me up, I'll probably score from here" – you're talking 60–70 yards and I was thinking, he's got a point, I better get across. He was the scourge of the Dons in those days." –
Alex McLeish
Alexander McLeish (born 21 January 1959) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years, making nearly 500 League appearances for the club, and won 77 caps f ...
*"Ritchie came at the right time – he was the cream at the top of the cake at the time...he got the label of being a lazy player and he nurtured that a little bit ... I used to train him on his own, he trained hard. He was a character, his skills were unbelievable, his passing, his vision, his dead ball situations. there was a free kick at a preseason game, we had a wee thing with Watford at the time ... and they came about three seasons in a row. I can always remember this one game, Andy had a free kick just over the centre circle ... they don't put a wall up or anything and Mick (Jackson) says, it was his first game, "He's not going to shoot from there", just leave him I says, he hits the ball in the roof of the net ... he was that good" –
Benny Rooney
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritchie, Andy
1956 births
Albion Rovers F.C. managers
Albion Rovers F.C. players
Celtic F.C. players
Clydebank F.C. (1965) players
East Stirlingshire F.C. players
Greenock Morton F.C. non-playing staff
Greenock Morton F.C. players
Kirkintilloch Rob Roy F.C. players
Living people
Motherwell F.C. players
Scotland men's under-21 international footballers
Scottish Football League managers
Scottish Football League players
Scottish Football League representative players
Scottish football managers
Scottish men's footballers
Footballers from Bellshill
Scottish league football top scorers
Men's association football forwards