Willie Wallace

William Wallace
Tommy Gemmell (left) and Willie Wallace (right, 1971)
Personnel
Surname	William Semple Brown Wallace
birthday	June 23, 1940
place of birth	Kirkintilloch ,  Scotland
size	173 cm
position	striker
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1957-1959	FC Stenhousemuir	50 (23)
1959-1961	Raith Rovers	56 (23)
1961-1966	Heart of Midlothian	172 (88)
1966-1971	Celtic Glasgow	139 (88)
1971-1972	Crystal Palace	39 0(4)
1972-1975	Dumbarton FC	84 (21)
1975-1976	APIA Leichhardt Tigers
1976-1977	Partick Thistle
1977-1988	Ross County
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
1964-1969	Scotland	7 0(0)
1 Only league games are given.

William "Willie" Semple Brown Wallace (born June 23, 1940 in Kirkintilloch ) is a retired Scottish football player and football coach .

Wallace began his playing career in 1958 at FC Stenhousemuir and moved to the Raith Rovers a year later . In Kirkcaldy , "Wispy", as Wallace was called, gained a reputation as a top scorer, and his talent was recognized with a top division game.

Wallace's constitution caught the attention of major clubs, with Heart of Midlothian signing him for £ 15,000 in April 1961. The Tynecastle Stadium had high hopes for the new player, who would replace none other than Alex Young , "the golden vision", whom Heart had sold to Everton a few months earlier . In the 1962/63 season Wallace was finally fully integrated into the system of coach Tommy Walker and became Midlothian's top scorer for the next four seasons. He won the Scottish League Cup with the Hearts in the 1962/63 season , his winning goal made the club Scottish champions in the 1964/65 season and brought Wallace into the orbit of the Scottish national team.

In 1966 he was unable to maintain his formidable form, his goals were falling and there were rumors that Wallace would be sold to another club. Surprisingly, he didn't move to his childhood favorite, the Glasgow Rangers , but to their arch-rival Celtic Glasgow , whose coach Jock Stein offered £ 29,000 to guide Wallace to his club.

Six months later, he became immortal as one of the Lisbon Lions to Scottish football when the team won the 1967 European Cup . He also won in every season of his time at Celtic the Scottish Cup in 1967, 1969 and 1971 the Scottish Cup and the 1968 and 1969 Scottish League Cup . This era went down as one of the most successful in the history of the Celtic club. Only the depressing 2-1 defeat against Feyenoord Rotterdam in 1970 in the final of the European Cup was a downer.

After five fruitful years with Celtic, Wallace and teammate John 'Yogi' Hughes were sold to Crystal Palace in 1971 for a total of £ 30,000 . However, Wallace could not celebrate any success there, was back in Scotland after a year and was under contract with Dumbarton FC . When his career was drawing to a close, he moved to Australia in 1975 to join the APIA Leichhardt Tigers, where he won two more championships before returning to Scotland as coach of Dundee FC . When this collaboration ended, he became a trainer for APIA, immigrated to Sydney and opened his own sports shop.

In total, Wallace only played seven times for the Scottish national team and four times for a Scottish league selection, which is mainly due to the fact that there was a fierce battle for the few places in attack in his time.