Ronnie Simpson

Ronald Campbell Simpson (11 October 1930 – 19 April 2004) was a Scottish football player and coach. He is mainly remembered for his time with Celtic, where he was the goalkeeper in the '' Lisbon Lions'' team that won the European Cup in 1967. Earlier in his career, Simpson had won the FA Cup twice with Newcastle United. He also played for Queen's Park, Third Lanark and Hibernian. Simpson represented Great Britain in the 1948 Olympics, but was not selected for Scotland until 1967. He made his international debut in the famous 3–2 victory against England at Wembley.

Club career

Simpson started his senior career with amateur club Queen's Park; he was selected by their first team in 1945, aged just 14 years and 304 days. This made him the youngest person to represent a Scottish league club, although it was an unofficial record due to the suspension of normal competitive football during the Second World War. He was 15 when he made his first Scottish Football League appearance in August 1946.

After completing his National Service, Simpson moved to Third Lanark in 1950. He then joined Newcastle United six months later for a fee of £8,750. He won the FA Cup twice with Newcastle, after taking over as their regular goalkeeper from Jack Fairbrother, in 1952 and 1955. After nine years and almost 300 appearances for Newcastle, Simpson returned to Scotland, with Hibernian, in 1960. His performances helped to save Hibs from relegation in 1962, but he fell out of favour under the management of Jock Stein due to his attitude in training. Hibernian sold Simpson to Celtic in 1964 for £4,000.

Thought to be in the last throes of his career, Celtic signed Simpson as cover for John Fallon. This perception appeared to be confirmed when Jock Stein, who had let Simpson go as Hibernian manager, was appointed Celtic manager later in the 1964–65 season; however, Simpson became the first choice after Fallon was blamed for a defeat by Rangers in the 1964 Scottish League Cup Final. His sense of humour made Simpson a popular figure in the team, who nicknamed him "Faither", on account of his relative old age. The highlight of his time at Celtic was winning the 1967 European Cup Final, as part of a clean sweep of trophies in the 1966–67 season. Apart from an early save with his knees from a Sandro Mazzola header, Simpson had little to do during the match. His fancy footwork when dealing with a backpass was one of the highlights.

He continued to enjoy domestic success with Celtic after the European Cup win. In all, he won four league championships, three Scottish League Cups and one Scottish Cup