Andy Ritchie (Scottish footballer)

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Personal information
Andy Ritchie
Full name	Andrew Ritchie
Date of birth	February 23, 1956 (age 51)
Place of birth	Bellshill, Scotland
Nickname	The Idle Idol
Playing position	Attacking Midfielder
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1973-1976 1976-1983 1983-1984 1984 1984 1984-1985	Celtic Morton Motherwell Clydebank East Stirlingshire Albion Rovers	009 (1) 213 (100) 008 (1) 001 (0) 001 (0) 006 (2)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Andy Ritchie (Born 23 February 1956 in Bellshill) was a Scottish professional footballer.

As a teenager Ritchie had trials with : Manchester United, Coventry City, Everton, Middlesbrough and Rangers but he was most impressed with the organisation at Celtic and joined them in 1971 aged 15. Soon after joining Ritchie was 'farmed' out to Junior team Kirkintilloch Rob Roy. At Celtic, Ritchie had numerous disagreements with legendary manager Jock Stein which led to his transfer to Greenock Morton. As part of the transfer, Morton goalkeeper Roy Baines joined Celtic while Ritchie and £10,000 went in the opposite direction.

Ritchie is most famous for his 7 year spell at Greenock Morton in which period he scored 118 goals. He was so revered by the club's fans that he came to be referred to as 'the King of Cappielow Park'. 'The Idle Idol' was another nickname associated with him.

He made his debut for Morton on 28 October 1976 and scored 133 goals in 246 games for the club. He was the top scorer in the Premier league for three consecutive years. This was recognised by his award of the Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year in 1979.

Ritchie was famous for his slightly plump figure and his expertise in free-kicks. He perfected his ability at free kicks by observing the Brazilians train for the 1974 World Cup. His favourite move was to bend the ball into the net from a corner kick, something which he did on several occasions to the delight of the local support. Ritchie was noted for the quality of his goals - unfortunately a lot of television footage of his goals was destroyed. His best and most famous goal was scored against Aberdeen at Cappielow Park.

In a famous incident Ritchie almost broke his leg falling over Greenock Telegraph photographer, Jim Sinclair, after he failed to stop on a long run up the field.

He was transferred from Morton to Motherwell. He was player-manager for Albion Rovers in season 1984 / 85 and although considerably overweight at the time still had a fair amount of ball skills. He retired in 1985 aged just 28. Later, he took up a coaching/scouting role for Celtic and subsequent scouting roles for Aston Villa and Manchester City.

[edit] Quotes

Some quotes from the book Greenock Morton 1874-1999 by Vincent P Gillen (ISBN 0-9534559-0-4)

"Andy Ritchie - I can close my eyes and see the day as clear as you like. Morton were getting a doing by Dundee Utd and the defence was under siege. Big Andy was standing at the centre circle, hands inside his shirt sleeves, looking at the seagulls, bored out of his skull, when Davie Hayes blootered the ball out - it was just Andy and Paul Hegarty left, and Andy, you couldn't slip a copy of the Greenock Telegraph under his feet when he jumped.

Hegarty jumped and missed and Ritchie did what Pelé couldn't do and volleyed the ball past Hamish from the half way line!

Andy was the epitome of the Scottish footballer - fat, lazy, b...... but with great ball skill." - Chic Young

"Big Andy was always full of the verbal - always had a smile on his face, especially when he nutmegged you. I think in fact with the goal he scored in the Scottish Cup, players were always that terrified of Andy nutmegging them that they would shut their legs and he curled it roon them , you know.

He had such a good footballing brain that he sussed things like that. He had scored the one from 50 yards and he was in his own half, nobody near him and he shouted "Big Yin, ye'd better pick me up, I'll probably score from here - your talking 60-70 yards and I was thinking, he's got a point, I better get across. He was the scourge of the Dons in those days." - Alex McLeish

"Richie came at the right time - he was the cream at the top of the cake at the time...he got the label of being a lazy player and he nurtured that a little bit... I used to train him on his own, he trained hard. He was a character, his skills were unbelievable, his passing, his vision, his dead ball situations.. there was a free kick at a preseason game, we had a wee thing with Watford at the time... and they came about three seasons in a row. I can always remember this one game, Andy had a free kick just over the centre circle...they don't put a wall up or anything and Mick (Jackson) says, it was his first game, "He's not going to shoot from there" , just leave him I says, he hits the ball in the roof of the net...he was that good" - Benny Rooney