George Girvan (13 June 1878 – 3 July 1968), 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 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 ...

for Spanish club

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

. He is best known for scoring the very first competitive goal in Barcelona's history at the

1900–01 Copa Macaya The 1900–01 Copa Macaya was the 1st staging of the Copa Macaya. This tournament is best known for being the very first football competition played on the Iberian Peninsula. The competition was held on the road between 20 January 1901 and ended o ...

Escocès FC

George Girvan was born in

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 ...

on 13 June 1878. He was one of many young Scottish workers at lace manufacturers Johnston, Shields & Co in

Newmilns Newmilns is a village in the burgh of Newmilns and Greenholm, in East Ayrshire, Scotland. It has a population of 3,057 people (2001 census) and lies on the A71 road, A71, around seven miles east of Kilmarnock and twenty-five miles southwest of G ...

sent over to work in the company's newly opened factory at

Sant Martí de Provençals Sant Martí de Provençals is a neighborhood in the '' Sant Martí'' district of Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Fe ...

, known in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

as ''La Escocesa'', which started production back in 1893. At the start of 1900, whilst out in the Catalan capital, the 20-year-old George and his co-workers set up a football team to pass the time, calling it

Escocès FC The Escocès FC, officially founded as Escocés Fútbol Club, was a football team based in Barcelona, Spain, which existed only during the year 1900, playing a total of ten Exhibition game, friendlies against the likes of FC Barcelona and Català ...

. In addition to Girvan, this team also had the likes of Peter Mauchan, the Black brothers (

Alexander Alexander () is a male name of Greek origin. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here ar ...

and

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

) and

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

John Hamilton, and all of them, including him, went on to play for

. In November 1900, Escocés FC folded and Barcelona took advantage of its dissolution to incorporate several of its most prominent players, such as Girvan, A. Black, and Mauchan, thus becoming the first-ever Scottish players to wear the Barça shirt. On the other hand, J. Hamilton, J. Black and

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

were recruited by Hispania AC.

FC Barcelona

Two months later, Hispania AC organized the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition is all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a book pr ...

of the

Copa Macaya The Hispania Athletic Club Tournament–Alfonso Macaya Cup, popularly known as the Copa Macaya, was a Association football, football competition contested by clubs from Catalonia which ran from 1900 until 1903, disappearing at the same time of its ...

in 1901, which was the first football championship played on the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

, and the forerunner for the Catalan championship which began in 1903. The first match of the tournament saw Barcelona take on Hispania AC on 20 January 1901, held at Barca's second ever home ground, the Campo del Hotel Casanovas on Gran Via, and at some point during the game Girvan scored the opening goal, thus assuring a place in the footballing history books as the author of the very first competitive goal in Barcelona history, although Barça went on to lose 1–2 and eventually lost the title to Hispania. At the tournament, Girvan formed an attacking partnership with John Parsons and

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Joan Gamper Hans Max Gamper-Haessig (; 22 November 1877 – 30 July 1930), commonly known as Joan Gamper (), was a Swiss-born football executive and versatile athlete. He founded football clubs in Switzerland and Spain, most notably Barcelona and Zürich. ...

, netting a second goal against Franco-Española for a total of two goals. During his time with Barcelona, Girvan became well known for his adaptability, owing to his superior knowledge of the game compared to the locals. He played eight games for Barcelona in total and scored the same number of goals, thus achieving a ratio of one goal per game. Girvan left Barça in 1901 to join their city rivals Hispania AC, thus reuniting with his fellow countrymen Hamilton, Gold and J. Black, a decision he might have regretted as Barça then won the

second edition The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

of the Copa Macaya. With time, Girvan's economic and social situation improved, and as a result, he returned to his native Scotland, specifically to

, where he would go on to become the city's mayor. Girvan would fondly reminisce about the innocence and naivety he had in the early days of football in Barcelona.

Later life

In 1957, Geordie was in

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 ...

to watch a game between

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, ending in a 4–2 win for the Scots, and at the end of the game the former Barcelona man said: "I suppose I taught these guys how to play, and how to commit fouls!". Girvan died on 3 July 1968 at the age of 90.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Girvan, George 1878 births 1968 deaths Scottish men's footballers Footballers from Motherwell Men's association football forwards FC Barcelona players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Scottish expatriate men's footballers Provosts in Scotland Footballers from East Ayrshire People from Newmilns