Ron Yeats

Ron Yeats
Yeats (2007)
Personnel
Surname	Ronald Yeats
birthday	November 15, 1937
place of birth	Aberdeen ,  Scotland
size	190 cm
position	Defense
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1957-1961	Dundee United	95 0(1)
1961-1971	Liverpool FC	358 (13)
1971-1974	Tranmere Rovers	97 0(5)
1975-1976	Stalybridge Celtic
1976	Los Angeles Skyhawks
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1964-1965	Scotland	2 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Ronald "Ron" Yeats (born November 15, 1937 in Aberdeen , Scotland ; nickname " The Colossus ") is a former Scottish football player who was best known as the captain of the Liverpool team in the 1960s.

Career

Before Yeats, conspicuous by his height of over 1.90 m, became a professional footballer as a defender for the then second division club Dundee United in 1957 , he worked in a slaughterhouse. In 1961 he moved to Liverpool, coached by Bill Shankly , and in his first season at Anfield Road as captain, he was promoted to England's premier league, where the "Reds" finished the first season in a respectable sixth place. In the following season, Yeats and his teammates created the big sensation and became English champions only two years after the rise in 1963/64. The next year Liverpool won the FA Cup 2-1 against Leeds United , but retired after a few dubious referee decisions in the semi-finals of the European Cup against Inter Milan . In 1966, Yeats Liverpool, still as captain, led to another league title, but also lost the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup against Borussia Dortmund . In Germany, Yeats is best known for his unsuccessful rescue attempt at the 2-1 winning goal by Reinhard Libuda in that same game. After Liverpool finished second the previous year, Bill Shankly decided in 1970 to weed Yeats along with other Kop legends like Ian St. John for a renewal and rejuvenation process. After 454 games, Yeats left Anfield in 1971, and played on the opposite side of the Mersey for three years with the Tranmere Rovers before he was their coach for two years. Then he left Liverpool completely to play another year for the Los Angeles Skyhawks in the North American Soccer League , where he was promptly champion.

After the career

In 1986 Yeats returned to Liverpool as a scout and only stepped down from this post 20 years later, in 2006. In 2006, Yeats was voted 29th in the list of over 110,000 fans of Liverpool FC "100 players who shook the Kop".

Web links

• Gallery of former players on liverpool.tv (English) ( Memento of 9 July 2009 at the Internet Archive )
• Player profile on LFChistory.net (English)