Peter Patrick Lorimer (14 December 1946 – 20 March 2021) was a Scottish professional

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 mainly played for

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

and

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 ...

during the late 1960s and early 1970s. An

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

and the club's youngest-ever player, he was renowned for his very powerful shots from distance. From 1984 to 1985 he was club captain. Lorimer is the club record scorer with 238 goals in all competitions. He was voted Leeds' ninth greatest player ever and on to the greatest Leeds United team of all time. After retiring as a player, Lorimer became a member of the Leeds board of directors, provided match commentary on BBC Radio Leeds and Yorkshire Radio and wrote a regular column in the ''

Yorkshire Evening Post The ''Yorkshire Evening Post'' (''YEP'') is a regional daily newspaper covering the City of Leeds. Founded in 1890 it is published by Yorkshire Post Newspapers, National World. Despite being having coverage and being sold across West Yorkshire ...

''. From April 2013 he held the position of club ambassador.

Early life

Lorimer was born in

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 ...

to Janet and Peter Lorimer and was brought up in

Broughty Ferry Broughty Ferry (; ; ) is a suburb of Dundee, in Scotland. It is situated four miles east of the City Centre, Dundee, city centre on the north bank of the Firth of Tay. The area was a separate burgh from 1864 until 1913, when it was incorporated ...

on the edge of the city. He attended Eastern Primary School and later Stobswell Secondary School, where he played for the school's football team.

Club career

Leeds United

After playing junior football in Dundee for Stobswell Boys and Broughty YMCA, Lorimer signed for

in May 1962 after scoring for the Scotland Schoolboys team in a 4–2 win over England. He made his Leeds debut on 29 September 1962 against

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

, aged 15 years and 289 days, becoming the youngest player to play for the first team. Lorimer came to regular prominence in the 1965–66 season, making 34 League Championship appearances and scoring 19 goals, more than any other player at Leeds United managed that season. A skilful and industrious player who operated best in a drifting position either wide on the right (though not as an orthodox winger – he was more likely to cut in and shoot than stay wide and cross) or behind two main strikers (usually Allan Clarke and Mick Jones), Lorimer was a frequent and often spectacular goalscorer, earning himself several nicknames stemming from his powerful shooting – ''HotShot'' and ''Lash'' being two of the more prevalent. He became renowned for these strikes, with his shots reaching speeds of up to 90 mph. One penalty kick was recorded at 107 mph. In the 1966–67 season, Lorimer made his first major headlines when a free-kick equaliser against Chelsea in an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

semi-final was controversially ruled out by referee

Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle American history and culture. His work is often produced in association with WETA-TV or the Nati ...

and retaken, for the Chelsea players had not retreated the necessary 10 yards. Chelsea held on to win the game. In the 1975 European Cup Final, Lorimer scored to give Leeds a 1–0 lead, only for the goal to be controversially disallowed by referee Michel Kitabdjian, with Leeds going on to lose the game. In summer 1971, Lorimer had a short spell on loan at Cape Town City in South Africa. Lorimer left the club in 1979, having scored 219 goals in 616 appearances. During this time he had won two League titles, an

, a League Cup, a Charity Shield, and two

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 ...

Later career

He played for York City and then tried his luck in the

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

(NASL). Lorimer played for two clubs: the Toronto Blizzard (1979–1980) and the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Vancouver. The Whitecaps compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March 18, ...

(1981–83). In January 1983 he signed for

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

. Lorimer returned to Leeds United in 1983, aged 37, two seasons after Leeds had fallen into the

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third tier ...

. He played under former team-mate Eddie Gray (more than a year his junior) and broke the club's goalscoring record in the process, ending up with 238 goals from 705 appearances until retiring just before his 40th birthday at the end of the 1985–86 season. However, Leeds were still a Second Division team when Lorimer played his final game for them and it would be another four years before they returned to the First Division.

International career

Lorimer made his international debut for

against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

in November 1969. He won 21 caps for

and scored four goals, having played in all three of their matches at the

1974 FIFA 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 Scotland career was, however, affected by a ban imposed on him in 1971 after he spent a summer playing for Cape Town City in apartheid-era South Africa.

After playing

In his retirement Lorimer ran the Commercial Inn pub in the

Holbeck Holbeck is an inner city area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It begins on the southern edge of Leeds city centre and mainly lies in the LS11 postcode district. The M1 and M621 motorways used to end/begin in Holbeck. Now the M621 is t ...

area of the city. Lorimer remained a dedicated spokesman for Leeds United after retirement – he was always one of the first ex-players to whom broadcasters and journalists turned when the club was in the news. He worked as a pundit at games for BBC Radio Leeds and as a columnist for the local paper, the ''

''. He wrote a column in the club's match programme (his final one being the match against Aston Villa on 27 February 2021) and acted as a summariser for Yorkshire Radio on every Leeds away match. On 26 February 2021, it was announced that Lorimer had been placed under

hospice care Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life b ...

due to a long-term illness. He died on 20 March 2021, aged 74.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Scotland goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Scotland goal''.

Honours

Leeds United *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

: 1968–69, 1973–74 *

: 1971–72; runner-up: 1969–70, 1972–73 *

Football League Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

: 1967–68 *

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier ...

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

: 1967–68, 1970–71; runner-up: 1966–67 *

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

runner-up: 1974–75 *

European Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

runner-up: 1972–73 Individual * Leeds United Player of the Year: 1971–72 *''Rothmans Golden Boots Awards'': 1973

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lorimer, Peter 1946 births 2021 deaths 1974 FIFA World Cup players Expatriate men's association footballers in the Republic of Ireland Expatriate men's soccer players in Canada Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Men's association football wingers Leeds United F.C. players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Footballers from Dundee Scotland men's international footballers Scottish expatriate men's footballers Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Canada Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Ireland Scottish expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Scottish expatriate sportspeople in Israel Scottish men's footballers English Football League players Cape Town City F.C. (1960) players Hapoel Haifa F.C. players Liga Leumit players Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984) players University College Dublin A.F.C. players League of Ireland players Vancouver Whitecaps (1974–1984) players York City F.C. players Scotland men's under-23 international footballers Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees Scotland men's amateur international footballers Whitby Town F.C. players National Football League (South Africa) players