Willie Anderson (soccer player)

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Willie Anderson
Personnel
Surname William John Anderson
birthday January 24, 1947
place of birth Liverpool ,  England
position Winger
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1964-1967 Manchester United 9 0(0)
1967-1973 Aston Villa 231 (36)
1973-1977 Cardiff City 126 (12)
1975 →  Portland Timbers  (loan) 17 0(3)
1977-1982 Portland Timbers 142 (10)
Indoor
Years station Games (goals) 1
1979-1980 Wichita Wings 18 (15)
1980-1982 Portland Timbers 31 (17)
1 Only league games are given.

William John "Willie" Anderson (born January 24, 1947 in Liverpool ) is a former English football player . The winger was considered a promising talent at Manchester United , much like his teammate George Best . However, he only found sporting luck at Aston Villa , Cardiff City and later in North America with the Portland Timbers .

Athletic career

Although Anderson's football career began successfully in the youth department of Manchester United and he was in the same team with players as George Best in 1964, which won the FA Youth Cup in 1964 , he did not have the sporting breakthrough there. As a winger he was only "second choice" behind Best and when he was English champion with "United" in 1965 , Anderson had not played a single league game during the season. In the following year he completed six championship games, the FA Cup semi-finals against FC Everton and the second leg in the European Cup, also in the semi-finals against Partizan Belgrade , which ended in both cases with the elimination from the competition. After just one more league appearance and before the new English championship title in 1967 , Anderson moved to Aston Villa in January 1967 .

In contrast to the successful United team, Anderson found himself in the league competitor in the relegation battle and ultimately he had to go into the second division, although he contributed five goals in the remaining games of the season. Three years later, the sporting perspective deteriorated further when Aston Villa finished penultimate in the second division in 1970 and was henceforth only third-rate. Nevertheless, the tricky crowd favorite from the team continued to stand out positively and in 1971 Anderson helped Aston Villa move into the league cup final . The following year, the third division champion managed to return to the second division and Anderson had scored a total of 15 competitive game goals. A total of 44 goals in 267 appearances for the "Villans" before he moved to Welsh club Cardiff City in February 1973 , which also played in the English second division.

During his time in Cardiff he won the Welsh Cup three times and in 1976 he rose as a third division championship in the second division, from which he had been relegated with Cardiff a year earlier . Even before leaving Cardiff, he had played on loan for the Portland Timbers in 1975 in the North American NASL and only lost there in the final against the Tampa Bay Rowdies (with George Best). He returned there in 1977 and until 1982 he also played for Portland in organized indoor soccer. In this regard, he had also stood in the ranks of the Wichita Wings in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) in 1979/80 .

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual references / footnotes

  1. ^ Rob Bishop / Frank Holt: Aston Villa - The Complete Record (page 184). Breedon Books, Derby 2010, ISBN 978-1-85983-805-1
  2. ↑ "WELSH CUP 1877 - TO DATE" (Welsh Football Data Archive)
personal data
SURNAME Anderson, Willie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anderson, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Liverpool , England