Steve Archibald

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Steve Archibald
Personal information
Full name	Steven Archibald
Date of birth	September 27, 1956
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Position	Forward
Club information
Current club	Retired
Youth clubs
	Fernhill Athletic
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1974-1977 1977-1980 1980-1984 1984-1988 1987-1988 1988-1990 1990 1990-1991 1992 1992 1994-1996	Clyde Aberdeen Tottenham Hotspur Barcelona Blackburn Rov. (loan) Hibernian Espanyol St Mirren Clyde Fulham East Fife	65 (7) 76 (30) 131 (58) 20 (6) 44 (15) 16 (2) 1 (0) 2 (0) 49 (7)
National team
1980–86	Scotland	27 (4)
Teams managed
1994–96 2000–01	East Fife Airdrieonians
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Steven Archibald (born September 27, 1956 in Glasgow) is a retired Scottish footballer and manager.

[edit] Playing career

He first came to prominence playing in midfield for Scottish First Division side Clyde, but was converted to striker when he signed for Aberdeen, forging a prolific partnership with Joe Harper. After winning the Scottish Premier Division title in 1980, he had a four year spell with London club Tottenham Hotspur, where he won FA Cup winners medals in 1981 and 1982 and the UEFA Cup in 1984.

Archibald scored 77 goals in 189 appearances for Spurs between 1980 and 1984, forming successful striking partnerships with Garth Crooks and Mark Falco. He was a member of the Scottish national team at the 1982 and 1986 World Cups. In 1984 he joined Barcelona, where he was a popular figure until restrictions on fielding foreign players led to him being excluded from the squad in favour of Gary Lineker and Mark Hughes. He was loaned out to Blackburn Rovers for a spell prior to a surprise return to Scottish football with Hibernian. After a brief return to Catalonia with RCD Espanyol, he joined St Mirren and was influential in bringing former Barça teammate Victor Muñoz to the club.

Archibald's later career saw him make a handful of appearances at a number of clubs in Scotland, England and Ireland, including a nostalgic return to Clyde. In 1994 he joined East Fife as player-manager.

[edit] Management and the Airdrie experiment

Archibald's time at East Fife saw the club gain promotion to the First Division, and was also notable for the acquisition of Trinidad and Tobago internationalists Arnold Dwarika and Craig Demmin. However, he was sacked in 1996 and retired to his home in Spain for the next few years, working on a number of business interests, including as a football agent.

In 2000 Archibald re-emerged in Scottish football when he mounted a bid to buy financially troubled First Division club Airdrieonians. Archibald was allowed to take over the running of the club after being awarded preferred bidder status by the administrators. He installed himself as manager and, using his contacts in Europe, introduced a contingent of Spaniards and other foreign players to the squad. Although Airdrie supporters were impressed by Archibald and the skills of the imports, he ultimately failed to conclude the purchase of the club, leading to the departure of himself and the foreign players in March 2001 and contributing to the demise of the club the following year.

Since then, Archibald has continued to live and work in Spain.

[edit] External links

• Steve Archibald — at Sporting Heroes
• Profile from The Scotsman, focusing mainly on the Airdrie situation
• International statistics from SFA website

Preceded by: Alex Totten	East Fife FC manager 1994-1996	Succeeded by: Jimmy Bone
Preceded by: Gary MacKay	Airdrieonians FC manager 2000-2001	Succeeded by: Don Mackay

	Scotland squad - 1982 FIFA World Cup
1 Rough | 2 McGrain | 3 Gray | 4 Souness | 5 Hansen | 6 Miller | 7 Strachan | 8 Dalglish | 9 Brazil | 10 Wark | 11 Robertson | 12 Wood | 13 McLeish | 14 Narey | 15 Jordan | 16 Hartford | 17 Evans | 18 Archibald | 19 Sturrock | 20 Provan | 21 Burley | 22 Leighton | Coach: Stein

	Scotland squad - 1986 FIFA World Cup
1 Leighton | 2 Gough | 3 Malpas | 4 Souness | 5 McLeish | 6 Miller | 7 Strachan | 8 Aitken | 9 Bannon | 10 Bett | 11 McStay | 12 Goram | 13 Nicol | 14 Narey | 15 Albiston | 16 McAvennie | 17 Archibald | 18 Sharp | 19 Nicholas | 20 Sturrock | 21 Cooper | 22 Rough | Coach: Ferguson