John Alexander Lambie (18 December 1868 – 25 December 1923) 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 ...

in the 1880s and 1890s. He still holds the records as the youngest

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 ...

player and captain of all time.

Career

Lambie was a regular in the Queen's Park first team by the age of 16, and quickly won the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,1886 Events January * January 1 – Upper Burma is formally annexed to British rule in Burma, British Burma, following its conquest in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of November 1885. * January 5–January 9, 9 – Robert Louis Stevenson ...

.Name: Lambie, John Alexander
QPFC.com He had been due to make his international debut for

in a game against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

on 20 March 1886 aged 17 but had to withdraw at short notice, and due to his replacement James Kelly scoring (on his own debut) this has been recorded erroneously as among the youngest feats of international goalscoring.Oldest and Youngest Players and Goal-scorers in International Football

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

, 20 September 2018 However, Lambie was still barely 18 when he did play against the same opposition on 19 February 1887 in a 4–1 win for Scotland and was appointed captain for the occasion, setting national records (the captaincy record still stands as of 2025, in which year the appearance record was broken by

James Wilson James Wilson may refer to: Politicians and government officials Canada * James Wilson (Upper Canada politician) (1770–1847), English-born farmer and political figure in Upper Canada * James Crocket Wilson (1841–1899), Canadian MP from Queb ...

; in 1888,

Willie Groves Patrick William Groves (20 August 1868 – 13 February 1908)
, Spartacus Educational was a Scottish associat ...

set the mark for youngest goalscorer). In an era when international fixtures were far less common than modern times and with differing selection conventions, Lambie's second and final

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

was against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

on 17 March 1888; Scotland lost 5–0. His international career was effectively ended when he moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

for business reasons in May 1888, where he appeared for London Caledonians, the Corinthians,

Swifts Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to: * SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks ** SWIFT code * Swift (programming language) * Swift (bird), a family of birds It may also refer to: Organizations * SWIFT, a ...

and the city's representative side. He made a guest appearance for Queen's Park under a

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

in the

1892 Scottish Cup Final The 1891–92 Scottish Cup was the 19th edition of Scotland's most prestigious football (soccer), football knockout competition. Heart of Midlothian F.C., Heart of Midlothian unsuccessfully defended its 1890–91 Scottish Cup, 1891 title in the ...

, then featured more regularly for the ''Spiders'' in the 1893–94 season before returning to England.

Personal life

His younger brother

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

was also a noted footballer with Queen's Park and Scotland (he too won the Scottish Cup and made his international debut while a teenager); A third brother, Robert, also featured for Queen's Park; the three siblings' careers barely overlapped in terms of playing together.Chapter XXX.—Famous Brothers
History of the Queen's Park Football Club 1867 - 1917, Richard Robinson (1920), via Electric Scotland

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lambie, John 1868 births 1923 deaths Scottish men's footballers Footballers from Glasgow Scotland men's international footballers Men's association football forwards Queen's Park F.C. players London Caledonians F.C. players Corinthian F.C. players Swifts F.C. players

Career

Personal life

See also

References

External links