Patsy Gallacher

Patsy Gallacher was born on March 16, 1891 in Northern Ireland. Then his family decided to move to Scotland and the young boy began to play football. He joined his school club, the Holy Redeemer Primary School in Glasgow. Becoming captain of the team, his role was to organize the team and be its secretary because none of his teachers showed any interest in this sport.

Gallagher won his first trophy at the Yoker District Schools Athletic Tournament. Unfortunately, the tournament organizers did not give him the trophy because the team was not accompanied by any adults. Subsequently, the young boy was recruited by the Clydebank juniors, there, he began to attract recruiters from the best teams in the country. However, the latter are doubtful because of his small size and his frail physique.

However, he gets trial offers from two clubs: Clyde FC and Celtic FC. It is finally in the latter that the player will be recruited, during his trial, he scored 2 goals against Dumfries then 3 goals against a team of the British army. It is the beginning of a great adventure.

Patsy Gallacher would quickly establish himself as one of the best players in the world, if not the best... Indeed, he had an impressive prime between the 1913/14 and 1917/18 seasons:

- 37 matches, 21 goals

- 32 matches, 14 goals

- 37 matches, 28 goals

- 28 matches, 22 goals

- 33 matches, 17 goals

During this period, he could be considered the best player on the planet, because he was not only a very good finisher. He was the strongest playmaker of his generation, a player capable of doing almost everything offensively, leading the game, dribbling or even finishing attacks.

Very agile, he was considered one of the best dribblers of all time, a player capable of beating any defender in 1 against 1. He was also considered an elegant player. Then there was his incredible vision of the game via his great creativity, he was a master of the passing game, capable of chaining decisive passes and breaking defensive lines. In addition, he was capable of playing as a winger as in the center.

He finally left Celtic Glasgow in 1926 after 15 years in the first team. In total he will have played 464 matches for this club, scoring 196 goals. He won a total of 14 trophies during his time in this legendary club and is considered one of the best players in the history of the club.

He joined Falkirk FC in 1926 and continued to score and be a technical leader on the Scottish football fields. He finally retired from football in 1929 at the age of 38. A Northern Irish international for 8 years, he played a total of 11 matches without ever scoring for his nation.

- Scottish Football Hall of Fame inducted in 2019

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