Gary Shaw

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Gary Shaw
Gary Shaw (1982) .jpg
Gary Shaw (1982)
Personnel
Surname Gary Robert Shaw
birthday January 21, 1961
place of birth Kingshurst ,  England
position striker
Juniors
Years station
1977-1988 Aston Villa
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1978-1988 Aston Villa 165 (59)
1988 →  Blackpool FC  (loan) 6 0(0)
1988 FC Copenhagen
1988-1989 Austria Klagenfurt
1990 Walsall FC 9 0(3)
1990 FC Kilmarnock 2 0(0)
1990-1991 Shrewsbury Town 22 0(5)
Ernest Borel
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1981-1982 England U-21 7 0(2)
1 Only league games are given.

Gary Robert Shaw (born January 21, 1961 in Kingshurst ) is a retired English football player . The striker was part of the Aston Villa team , which was very successful in the early 1980s, winning the English championship in 1981 and the European Cup and then the Super Cup a year later . He was considered one of the greatest talents of his time and was awarded the best young professional in England in 1981 and the Trofeo Bravo as Europe's best young player a year later , before injury problems set him back and his career only briefly in the lower British Professional leagues and continued abroad.

Athletic career

Aston Villa (1977-1988)

The blond boy found his way to Aston Villa as a youth player in 1977 and the young striker made his first appearances in the professional team in the 1978/79 season. At the age of 17 he changed coach Ron Saunders in the 0-1 defeat on matchday three against Bristol City for the first time and at the turn of the year the first two appearances in the starting line-up followed. Only a few days later, Shaw signed his first professional contract on his 18th birthday and in the 1979/80 season he developed into a regular player and "Shooting Star" at the "Villans". With nine goals in 28 league games - including his first in the 3-1 win on October 20, 1979 against Derby County - he was the club's most accurate shooter. The next sporting leap in development took place in the subsequent 1980/81 season, in which the commitment of Peter Withe played a large part. While Withe was a classic striker with his powerful style of play and was the top scorer with 20 goals in the end, the tricky and fast-moving Shaw was a good addition. With 18 goals Shaw was also a little behind Withe and both contributed more than half of the total of 72 goals to win the English championship in 1981 .

Gary Shaw (left) with Tony Morley and Peter Withe with the trophy after winning the final in the European Cup against FC Bayern Munich , 1982

Shaw was meanwhile also a future beacon of hope for the England national team. In his first U-21 international match for England on February 25, 1981 against Ireland (1-0), it was only two minutes before his goal debut. By October 1982 he completed a total of seven U-21 selection games that ended with winning the European Championship . In addition, he was a key player on the way to the final victory against FC Bayern Munich (1-0) in the European Champions Cup and his goal in the quarter-finals against Dynamo Kiev from a tight angle was particularly worth seeing. In 1982 he received the Trofeo Bravo as Europe's best young player, having won the election for England's Footballer of the Year in the young professional category the year before. Although Aston Villa could no longer intervene in the championship fight, Shaw scored another 17 league goals in the 1982/83 season, making it his club's top scorer before Withe. In addition, there was a victory in the European Supercup against FC Barcelona in January 1983 , when Shaw saved his team in extra time after a 1-0 defeat in the second leg with the 1-0 goal in the 80th minute : 0 success ended.

Shaw suffered a serious setback on September 7, 1983 against Nottingham Forest when he seriously injured his knee. This effectively ended his sporting career at the level previously shown. Although he remained part of the Aston Villa squad until the end of the 1987/88 season, he only played a total of 17 league games in four years and was completely absent in the 1984/85 season. To do this, he had to endure no less than six knee operations. In February 1988 he acted briefly on loan for third division club Blackpool , but remained in his six missions without a goal.

Final career stations (1988–1992)

At the end of the 1980s Shaw turned his back on English football and via FC Copenhagen he joined Austria Klagenfurt in December 1988 in Austria . There he played the last game of the basic round of the 1st division in the 1988/89 season and played in the middle playoff to avoid relegation. Although he had a respectable goal rate with seven goals in nine games, that was only enough for sixth place among eight teams and thus the Klagenfurters had to relegate to the 2nd division.

Shaw returned to England in mid-1989 and in February 1990 he made another attempt in the third division there at Walsall FC . There he scored three goals in nine league games, but was rarely in the starting line-up and when Walsall was relegated to the fourth division as bottom of the table, the ways parted again. The last club stops in the 1991/92 season were the Scottish second division FC Kilmarnock (for just two league games), then the English third division and later relegated Shrewsbury Town and, in Hong Kong, the Ernest Borel team, named after a Swiss watch company, before he ended his sporting career .

Title / Awards

literature

Rob Bishop / Frank Holt: Aston Villa - The Complete Record . DB Publishing, Derby, 2010, ISBN 978-1-85983-805-1 , pp. 269 f .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ England - U-21 International Results 1976 to 1985 - Details in the database of RSSSF (English)
  2. ↑ "Aston Villa icon Shaw recalls career's highs and lows" (Times of Malta)
personal data
SURNAME Shaw, Gary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shaw, Gary Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH January 21, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Kingshurst