Raymond James "Ray" McStay (born 18 May 1970) is a Scottish former

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 ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Playing career

McStay began his career at

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 Foo ...

, where his older brothers

Willie Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scr ...

and

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chr ...

, as well as his great-uncles

and Jimmy had already played. A product of

Celtic Boys Club St Patrick's Sports Academy is a youth football and sports club based in Motherwell, near Glasgow in Scotland. It operates football teams in age groups from under-9 to under-19. Formerly Celtic Boys Club, it helped more than 50 players towards p ...

, McStay signed professional forms at the same time as youth teammate

Gerry Creaney Gerard Thomas "Gerry" Creaney (born 13 April 1970, in Coatbridge) is a Scottish former footballer, who played as a striker. Career Creaney began his career with Celtic, signing from the boys club and making his competitive debut in the first ...

. Despite being regularly mentioned as having a big future at the club McStay had to wait until the 1992–93 season before being called into the Celtic first team and even then he only made the bench for a single league game against

St Johnstone St Johnstone Football Club is a professional association football club in Perth, Scotland which is a member of the Scottish Premiership for the 2022–23 season. The club's name is derived from St John's Toun ''aka'' Saint Johnstoun – an ol ...

and was not called upon to play. McStay left Celtic in January 1995 to sign for

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire who currently compete in the Scottish Championship, having been relegated from the 2020–21 Scottis ...

on a free transfer. He made 30 league appearances in nearly two years at the club although he spent summer of 1996 having an unsuccessful trial with

Stade Lavallois Stade Lavallois Mayenne Football Club (), also referred to as Stade Laval or simply Laval, is a French association football club based in Laval in western France. The club was formed on 17 July 1902 and currently plays in Ligue 2, the second ...

. He subsequently had a trial with

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their ho ...

and was poised to sign for the club in October 1996 but the move fell through for undisclosed reasons. In late 1996 he was loaned to

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'Th ...

where he did not play a league game before, during the 1996–97 season, playing a single game for

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

. McStay quit football soon after this. In summer 1997, whilst on honeymoon in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

, McStay was admitted to hospital with severe stomach cramps and fever and was reported as suffering a "mystery illness" and was described as critically ill.

Post-football

McStay was the UK commercial director of Midgibyte, a

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...

-based design consultancy business run by Paul McStay.Celtic legend's heading Down Under
/ref> He now works at a Glasgow digital agency called MadeBrave.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McStay, Ray 1970 births Living people Footballers from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire Scottish men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Celtic F.C. players Hamilton Academical F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Cardiff City F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players

Ray Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...