George Allan (footballer)

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George Allan (born 23 August 1875, died 9 October 1899) was a Scottish international footballer who played for Liverpool in the late 19th century.

[edit] Life and playing career

Born in Linlithgow Bridge, West Lothian, Scotland, the Centre-forward played for Vale of Avon, Linlithgow Athletic, Broxburn Shamrock and Leith Athletic before being signed by Liverpool manager John McKenna and W. E. Barclay in September 1895. The 20 year old Allan made quite an impact for Liverpool after making his debut in a Football League Second Division match a 5-1 home thumping of Newcastle on 14th September 1895, he scored his first goal for the club 7 days later on the 21st September against Loughborough Town at the Athletic Ground. This sparked an impressive goals per game run for the rest of the 1985/96 promotion season, he bagged an amazing 25 league goals from just 20 appearances, averaging 1.25 goals per games, Allan scored a further 3 goals in the promotion Test matches (the equivilent of today's play-offs) helping the Anfield club regain their spot back in the top flight of English football.

Allan moved to Celtic in May 1897 where he carried on his goalscoring exploits hitting 15 goals in 17 games helping the Parkhead club win the Scottish First Division, he returned to Anfield a year later when new manager Tom Watson re-signed him in the April of 1898.

Allan scored 58 goals in only 96 appearances during his 2 spells at Liverpool, an average of a goal every 1.65 games.

He made his only Scotland appearance on 3 April 1897 in a 2-1 victory against England at Crystal Palace.

Allan was a prolific goalscorer who could have gone on to be one of the all time greats but his life was tragically cut short when he contracted tuberculosis in 1899 during his second spell at Liverpool, he was forced to give up playing and died of the condition on 9 October.