Robert Carroll (13 May 1938 – 11 May 2016) was a Scottish

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

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 ...

, St Mirren,

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, No ...

and Queen of the South. He was Celtic's first ever goalscorer in European competition.

Playing career

Carroll provisionally signed for

on 22 September 1957 from

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

club Irvine Meadow, however he was left with Irvine Meadow for season 1958–59, during which he scored 75 goals resulting in him being voted Junior Player of the Year in 1959. On 15 May 1959, Bobby received his trophy at the George Cinema in Bank Street from the Provost George Donaldson and won the

Scottish Junior Cup The Scottish Junior Cup is an annual football competition organised by the Scottish Junior Football Association (SJFA). The competition has been held every year since the inception of the SJFA on the 2nd October 1886 and, as of the 2023–24 ed ...

on 16 May 1959. He was subsequently called into the Celtic first team as one of the so-called 'Kelly's Kids', after the then Celtic Chairman Bob Kelly, where he made his debut in a 2-1 League Cup defeat at home against

Partick Thistle Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not ...

on 12 August 1959. On 26 September 1962, Carroll was part of the Celtic team that travelled to

Mestalla Stadium Mestalla Stadium ( , ) is a football stadium in Valencia, Spain. The stadium is the home of Valencia and has a capacity of 49,430 seats, making it the 8th-largest stadium in Spain, and the largest in the Valencian Community. The stadium's name o ...

for the first leg of an

Inter-Cities 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 ...

tie against

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

(this competition being a predecessor of the current

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

). Valencia were holders of the cup and won the tie 4–2, with Carroll scoring both of the Celtic goals, making him the first Celtic player to score a goal in European competition. Carroll signed for St Mirren in 1963 remaining there until 1965. In the league he made 55 appearances and scored 19 goals. He then joined

, scoring on his debut against Celtic against Celtic on 14 August 1965. After 6 appearances he soon dropped out of first team contention but spent two seasons at the club, playing over 50 times for the reserves. He was released in April 1967. He joined

in Northern Ireland, then later in season 1967-68 also played for Queen of the South. In his 12 league appearances for Queens he scored 6 goals. He then left senior football by returning to Irvine Meadow. Carroll died on 11 May 2016, two days before what would have been his 78th birthday.

References

External links

Celtic statistics on fitbastats.com

Dundee United bio on dufcarchive.co.uk
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carroll, Bobby 1938 births 2016 deaths Footballers from Glasgow Scottish men's footballers Celtic F.C. players St Mirren F.C. players Dundee United F.C. players Coleraine F.C. players Queen of the South F.C. players Scottish Football League players Place of death missing Irvine Meadow XI F.C. players Scottish Junior Football Association players Scottish Football League representative players Men's association football outside forwards 20th-century Scottish sportsmen