Trevor Steven

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Trevor Steven
Personnel
Surname Trevor McGregor Steven
birthday September 21, 1963
place of birth Berwick-upon-Tweed ,  England
size 177 cm
position Right midfield
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1980-1983 Burnley FC 76 (11)
1983-1989 Everton FC 214 (48)
1989-1991 Glasgow Rangers 55 (6)
1991-1992 Olympique Marseille 28 (3)
1992-1997 Glasgow Rangers 81 (9)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1985-1992 England 36 (4)
1 Only league games are given.

Trevor McGregor Steven (born September 21, 1963 in Berwick-upon-Tweed , England ) is a former English football player and was part of the successful Everton team in the 1980s.

Career

Right midfielder Steven, who was characterized by a good game overview and accuracy of pass, began his football career at Burnley FC and made his debut for the club in 1981. In the following two seasons he developed into a high-performing goal maker and attracted the attention of Howard Kendall , then coach of Everton FC, who was building a new team with young players at the time.

Burnley accepted the £ 300,000 offer , so that Steven joined Everton FC in the summer of 1983. The following season, in which Steven could contribute directly, should mark a turning point for the club under Kendall. Although Everton FC only finished seventh in the championship, they reached the final in two cup competitions. After a 0-0 win in the first league cup final at Wembley Stadium , the club faced Liverpool FC again in the replay and lost it 0-1 to a goal by Graeme Souness . In contrast to the following final in the FA Cup , Steven was not in Kendall's team in the two games.

Opponents in the FA Cup final were Watford FC , and Steven set up Andy Gray's controversial second goal to win the 2-0 with a cross from the right flank. He gave the ball high over the penalty box into it and opened a duel between Gray and Steve Sherwood , Goalkeeper Watford FC, both trying to reach the ball. Although Sherwood had grabbed the ball with both hands, Gray was able to touch him with his head in this duel, so that the ball fell from Gray's hands into the goal. The referee rated the hit as legal, although Gray's action was later generally classified as a foul .

In the 1984/85 season, Steven further stabilized the axis on the right side with full-back Gary Stevens , which developed into one of the team's strengths and creative areas. Kendall had meanwhile largely completed the conversion process of Everton FC, and the team was able to win the English championship again for the first time in 15 years. In addition, the team was in the final of the FA Cup, in which they lost to Manchester United with 1: 3 after extra time and thus missed the chance of a double . In addition, Manchester had only played with ten men for a long time. A quick consolation for this defeat followed when Everton defeated the Austrian club Rapid Wien 3-1 in the Rotterdam final of the European Cup Winners' Cup . Steven scored the second goal of the game after Rapid couldn't clear the ball from the danger zone after a corner kick and Steven gave Steven the opportunity to take a direct decrease from close range in front of the goal. Before this game, Steven had already scored a goal in the semi-finals against FC Bayern Munich .

An extraordinary season was crowned for Steven in February 1985 when he was called up by coach Bobby Robson to the English national team and made his debut in a qualifier for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico against Northern Ireland . He became an integral part of the team in the next three international matches and scored his first goal for England in the friendly against Ireland . Then he was also in the two draws in the qualifiers against Romania and Finland .

In his fifth international match against Italy , which took place during a mini-tournament in North America , he formed the axis with Stevens for England for the first time, which was so successful in Everton. Nevertheless, Steven soon got competition on his position, as Robson experimented with several players in the offensive outer positions. Chris Waddle was a more extravagant and explosive gamer unlike Steven (as was John Barnes on the left compared to the stoic Steve Hodge ). Ultimately, however, Robson decided on the consistency and team service of Steven, who became a regular player in the following years.

Steven scored his second goal in the 5-0 win over the USA in Los Angeles at the end of the tour. When Everton again fought both for the English championship and to win the FA Cup the following year, Steven was a nationally and internationally consistently playing footballer at a high level. In January 1986, he scored again in the 4-0 win against Egypt in Cairo and was used steadily in the national team as the World Cup tournament was approaching.

Everton narrowly lost the championship race to Liverpool on the last day of the match. Also in the FA Cup, Everton lost to the same opponent after a 3-1 defeat at Wembley Stadium. Nevertheless, Steven could look forward to his nomination in Robson's squad for the World Cup in Mexico.

Robson preferred Waddle in England's first game against Portugal . England lost the game 0-1. Despite the poor performance, Robson did not change his team, resulting in another winless game in the 0-0 win against Morocco . As a result, England had to win the last group meeting against Poland in order to remain in the tournament.

Since Robson took Waddle out of the team, Steven then got his first appearance at the World Cup, along with Hodge on the left. That move paid off when Steven set up Gary Lineker's first goal after a combination with Stevens on the right . Hodge set up Lineker's second goal, which was followed by his third goal in a hat-trick from a Steven corner.

Steven also played in the last 16 against Paraguay , but was replaced in the quarter-finals against Argentina when Barnes was 2-0, making his debut. Barnes was only able to overcome the Argentine defense once and prepared the connection goal to 1: 2, which did not prevent England from being eliminated from the tournament.

In the 1986/87 season Steven returned to a dominating English football team from Everton and won the championship by nine points. He was also a regular player during the qualifying games for the European Championship in 1988 in Germany . When the tournament started in the summer of 1988, Steven had already accumulated 22 international matches.

The European Championship turned out to be a big disappointment for England with three defeats in the three group games. Steven missed the first game against Ireland, but then took part in the 3-1 loss to the Netherlands , after which his teammate Stevens was blamed for a hat-trick due to a poor performance against Dutch striker Marco van Basten . In the meaningless game against the Soviet Union , Steven was also in the team, but could not prevent England's worst tournament performance.

England's national team was heavily criticized at home. Nevertheless, Robson remained in the coaching responsibility, and Steven should continue to be considered for the upcoming qualifiers for the 1990 World Cup in Italy . His teammate on the right, Stevens, left Everton to join the Glasgow Rangers , however, and Steven struggled to build a new axis with substitute Neil McDonald . His form deteriorated in 1989 and he got a serious competitor in his position with the Scottish international Pat Nevin . Everton ended the season without a title and lost again in the FA Cup final against Liverpool. Steven was not recalled to the English national team until the end of the season and then played in the Rous Cup win in the game against Scotland, which England won.

The time for a change had come for Steven and Souness, now coach of the Glasgow Rangers, offered him the opportunity to replace the old axle. Despite more lucrative offers from other clubs (the Rangers were the dominant club in Scotland, but had relatively low ambitions from a European perspective), Steven decided in a decision that was often criticized by the public to play at Ibrox Park in the future . One of the main reasons appeared to be to avoid the European suspension for the English clubs, which was still in effect after the disaster at Heysel Stadium and which prevented Everton FC (and thus Steven) from participating in European club competitions. After a total of 60 goals in 299 games, Steven left Everton for a transfer fee of 1.5 million pounds for Scotland .

Steven's form continued to improve, and Robson called him back to the English squad, although Waddle and Barnes were now preferred to Steven and Hodge. Steven was then in the 22-man squad for the 1990 World Cup in Italy .

He was initially not used in the tournament until he was substituted on in the quarterfinals against Cameroon in the second half for Terry Butcher , Stevens' team-mate at the Glasgow Rangers, after a temporary deficit. The same change took place in the semi-finals against Germany , in which England lost on penalties after a 1-1 draw after regular time . From the start he was in the game for third place, in which England lost 2-1 to Italy.

Robson's successor as national coach, Graham Taylor , used Steven in a few other friendly games, but did without him in the qualifiers for the 1992 European Championship in Sweden . Shortly before the start of the tournament, the English team suffered from serious injury concerns, so that Steven was called back by Taylor to the team to provide support on the generally considered weak point of the right side. Steven played in the first two goalless games against Denmark and France and was dropped for the third game, which England lost 2-1 and caused the premature end. Stevens' national team career was then ended after 36 games and four goals.

In 1991 Steven moved to Olympique Marseille for a fee of £ 5.5 million , where he played one season and won the French championship. He then returned to the Rangers for £ 2.4million. With the Rangers he won four Scottish championship titles until 1994 and missed an honor for the following championships in 1995 and 1996 due to insufficient numbers. In 1997, Steven resigned as a football player.

Since retiring from active sports, Steven has worked extensively for the domestic media and became known as a co-reporter for the BBC during the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea . He is also active for the Irish broadcaster RTÉ .

successes

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Steven, Trevor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steven, Trevor McGregor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH September 21, 1963
PLACE OF BIRTH Berwick-upon-Tweed