Billy Steel

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Personal information
Billy Steel
Full name	William Steel
Date of birth	1 May 1923
Place of birth	Denny, Stirlingshire, Scotland
Date of death	13 May 1982
Playing position	Forward
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1939-19?? 19??-1941 1941-1947 1947-19?? 19??-19??	Leicester City St Mirren Greenock Morton Derby County Dundee	? (?) ? (?) ? (?) 124 (35) ? (?)
National team
1947-1953	Scotland	30 (12)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Billy Steel (born 1 May 1923 in Denny, Stirlingshire; died 13 May 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Leicester City, St Mirren, Greenock Morton, Derby County, Dundee and the Scotland national team.

His £15,500 transfer from Greenock Morton to Derby County in 1947 was a then British transfer record.[1].Talk to any of the old time Rams supporters and the name “Billy Steel” always crops up. Billy was not always popular at the Baseball Ground especially among his fellow professionals. One dressing room incident ended in Billy being threatened with being hung on a cloakroom peg by a member of his own team!

Players often accused Steel of saving his best performances for when the Rams travelled down to play the London teams. He was further disliked for his moonlighting in the days of the maximum wage for footballers. He received payments for articles that he wrote for several newspapers of the day, enabling him a more luxurious life style than his teammates.

Steel was brought to Derby County for a then British transfer record of £15,500 after playing just a few first team games for Morton. However it was a good buy for Derby and Billy went on to play for three seasons at Derby. In that time he played 124 appearances, scoring 35 goals.

Billy Steel left Derby County in September 1950 to return to his native Scotland and play for Dundee. Dundee having to pay a Scottish record transfer fee of £23,000. He helped the club to two league Cup wins and the Scottish Cup Final.

The last part of Billy’s story and life where in America he emigrated there in 1954 and played for a while for Los Angeles Danes and made a living in advertising.

Sadly Billy died in 1984 at the age of just 59.

He won a total of 30 caps for Scotland, scoring 12 goals. He was selected for a Great Britain XI for a match against FIFA in 1947, despite having played only a handful of league games for Morton.

[edit] International goals

Scores and results list Scotland's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	May 18, 1947	Stade Heysel, Brussels	Belgium	1-1	1-2	Friendly
2	May 24, 1947	Stade Municipal, Luxembourg City	Luxembourg	2-0	6-0	Friendly
3	May 24, 1947	Stade Municipal, Luxembourg City	Luxembourg	3-0	6-0	Friendly
4	April 9, 1949	Wembley Stadium, London	England	2-0	3-1	BHC
5	April 27, 1949	Hampden Park, Glasgow	France	1-0	2-0	Friendly
6	April 27, 1949	Hampden Park, Glasgow	France	2-0	2-0	Friendly
7	October 1, 1949	Windsor Park, Belfast	Ireland	3-0	8-2	BHC
8	November 1, 1950	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Northern Ireland	3-1	6-1	BHC
9	November 1, 1950	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Northern Ireland	4-1	6-1	BHC
10	November 1, 1950	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Northern Ireland	5-1	6-1	BHC
11	November 1, 1950	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Northern Ireland	6-1	6-1	BHC
12	May 12, 1951	Hampden Park, Glasgow	Denmark	1-1	3-1	Friendly