William Pirie (2 April 1949 – February 2025) was a Scottish footballer who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Career

Pirie commenced his senior Scottish football career with Huntly FC of the Highland Football League before transferring to his home town Scottish First Division League Club, Aberdeen FC. However, Pirie is best known for his time with

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

from 1976 to 1980, where he made 112 league appearances (138 total), scoring 93 goals in the process (106 total), with 44 goals in his first season with the club remains a club record and secured for him the 1977 Player of the Year award. Prior to his stint with Dundee, Pirie had spells with South African side

Arcadia Shepherds Arcadia Shepherds are a South African association football club based in Arcadia, Pretoria. It is affiliated with the Football Association of Pretoria (FAP). History The club was founded in 1903, and was briefly renamed ''Arcadia United'' in t ...

, Scottish sides

Huntly Huntly ( or ''Hunndaidh'') is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlements include Keith ...

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...

and

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 ...

, and moved to Australia after to play with

APIA Leichhardt APIA Leichhardt Football Club, also known simply as APIA (Associazione Poli-sportiva Italo Australiana), is a semi-professional soccer club based in the suburb of Leichhardt, New South Wales, Leichhardt in Sydney, Australia. The club was forme ...

and

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club, based in Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states o ...

. Pirie became a member of Dundee's Hall of Fame in 2016, and received the Legends Award.

Death

On 3 February 2025, it was announced that Pirie had died on the weekend at the age of 75.

Honours

Dundee *

Scottish First Division The Scottish Football League First Division was the second tier in the Scottish football league system between 1975 and 2013. It was replaced by the Scottish Championship. History The First Division was introduced in 1975–76 in Scottish footb ...

: 1978–79

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pirie, Billy 1949 births 2025 deaths Scottish men's footballers Footballers from Aberdeen Men's association football forwards Scottish Football League players Arcadia Shepherds F.C. players Huntly F.C. players Arbroath F.C. players Aberdeen F.C. players New York Apollo players Dundee F.C. players APIA Leichhardt FC players Sydney Olympic FC players Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia