Billy Steel

Steel began his career at local juvenile side Dunipace Thistle, signing for Junior side Bo'ness Cadora in the summer of 1938, whilst still 15 years of age. He played several games at inside-left before being developed into a winger by Cadora. Leicester City manager Frank Womack was determined to get his man halfway through the season and took him on to the Filbert Street ground staff at the end of 1938; things did not work out as the boss was sacked and nobody remembered to renew his contract.[3]

While still contracted to Morton, Steel played for the British Army of the Rhine, (BAOR) who, in 1944 to 1946, were re-establishing footballing connections with other teams on the Continent. The team "visited" France, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, the Channel Islands and Germany, and Steel played along with such notables as Leslie Compton, Eddie Hapgood, and Matt Busby. Demobbed in December 1946 he returned to Morton.[4][5]

His £15,500 transfer from Morton to Derby County in 1947 was a then British transfer record. He was brought to Derby County after playing just a few first team games for Morton and was a good buy, going on to play for three seasons at the Baseball Ground. In that time he made 124 appearances, scoring 35 goals.[6] Steel was not always popular at Derby, especially among his fellow professionals: one dressing room incident ended in Steel being threatened with being hung on a cloakroom peg by a member of his own team. Players often accused Steel of saving his best performances for when the Rams travelled down to play the London teams. He was further disliked for his "moonlighting" (though in the days of the maximum wage for footballers he could hardly be blamed); he received payments for articles that he wrote for several newspapers, enabling him to have a more luxurious life style than his teammates. A deal with News Chronicle was said to be worth as much again as his football wage.[7]

Steel left Derby in September 1950 to return to his native Scotland, Dundee paying a Scottish record transfer fee of £22,500. He helped the club to win the Scottish League Cup in 1951–52[8] and 1952–53.[9] He was also a finalist in the 1951–52 Scottish Cup. He retired as a player in 1954.

In May 2009, Steel was inducted into Dundee F.C.'s Hall of Fame.[10]

He won a total of 30 caps for Scotland, scoring 12 goals.[11] He was selected for a Great Britain XI for a match against the Rest of Europe in 1947,[12] despite having played only a handful of league games for Morton.

In 1954 he announced he was emigrating to the US, where he managed the Los Angeles Danes, before later working in advertising.[10]

Billy Steel had springs for muscles, a choirboy's face that masked a devouring, often ruthless determination to achieve football perfection, a caustic tongue that frequently angered team-mates more bitterly than opponents, and a style and ability that, in this modern age, would have the wealthy clubs of Europe bidding frantically for his transfer. Unlike so many of his predecessors, who were indelibly stamped with the style of their birthplace, Steel was classless. No one watching this chirpy little man in action could have said from which soccer school he graduated. His touch was Scottish of course, but later in his career he welded to that eternal grace an iron physique. He belonged to the elite corp of players: the global greats. His secret was that of Denis Law, an agile brain, a puma's pounce, and extraordinary gymnastic ability that put him a move ahead of his colleagues. There was nothing svelte about Steel: he exuded vitality, he had the killer instinct of a boxing champion, he was the type of aggressive attacker who was so keen to win that he would have sworn at his best friend if he felt he hadn't been pulling his weight.[13]

• Billy Steel at the Scottish Football Association
• Billy Steel at Post War English & Scottish Football League A–Z Player's Database