Malcolm Macdonald

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Malcolm Macdonald
Personal information
Full name Malcolm Ian Macdonald
Date of birth January 7, 1950 (1950-01-07) (age 58)
Place of birth    Fulham, England
Playing position Forward (retired)
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1968–1969
1969–1971
1971–1976
1976–1979
1979
Fulham
Luton Town
Newcastle United
Arsenal
Djurgårdens IF
Career
013 00(5)
088 0(49)
187 0(95)
084 0(42)
009 00(2)
381 (193)   
National team
1972–1976 England 14 (6)
Teams managed
1980–1984
1987–1988
Fulham
Huddersfield Town

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Malcolm Ian Macdonald (b. 7 January 1950) is a former English footballer nicknamed "Supermac", famed for scoring goals for both Newcastle United and Arsenal.

Contents

[edit] Football career

Born in Fulham, London, Macdonald started out as a full back before switching to centre forward. After signing from Tonbridge Angels[citation needed] he played for Fulham for one season (1968-69), before moving to Luton Town. At Luton he scored 49 times in 88 matches, which caught the eye of Newcastle United manager Joe Harvey, who signed him for £180,000 in the summer of 1971. At Newcastle he quickly became a favourite of the fans, scoring a hat-trick on his home debut against Liverpool, and was the club's top scorer for five seasons in a row.

While at Newcastle, he made his debut for England (against Wales). On April 16, 1975, in a game for England against Cyprus he scored all five goals in a 5-0 victory, a record that still stands today (spawning a newspaper headline "SuperMac 5, Cyprus 0"[citation needed]). In all he played 14 times for his country, scoring 6 times (the only other game he scored in being a 2-0 win over then World Champions West Germany).

Macdonald left Newcastle for Arsenal in 1976, for the slightly bizarre fee of £333,333.33, and played two full seasons (being the club's top scorer in both), but suffered a knee injury in a League Cup match against Rotherham at the start of the 1978-79 season, from which he was unable to recover. After having spent a couple of months in Sweden with Djurgårdens IF he announced his retirement from playing at the premature age of 29 in August 1979. He never won a major honour but was on the losing side in two FA Cup finals, one each for Newcastle and Arsenal.

[edit] Football management

After retirement, he returned to Fulham to manage them for four seasons from 1980 to 1984, and was later manager of Huddersfield Town between 1987 and 1988. However, after being declared bankrupt after a failed business venture, and divorcing his second wife, as well as struggling with the aftermath of his injury, he became an alcoholic; he eventually gave up drinking in 1997.[1]

[edit] Radio

He has since become a radio presenter on the North East's Century FM Three Legends Football Phone In alongside Bernie Slaven and Micky Horswill.

He also presents "Upfront With Malcolm Macdonald"[2], a thirty minute show consisting of interviews with ex-professional players across the Real Radio and Century Network. The guests he has interviewed on the show so far are:

[edit] Trivia

During the TV show Superstars, Macdonald ran 100m in 10.4 seconds, on a cinder track with heavy spikes. At the time that made him the third-fastest sprinter in the UK and could have won him a place on the 4x100m relay team for the Montreal Olympics.[citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Triumph and despair", Observer Sport Monthly, 2003-08-03. 
  2. ^ 100-102 Century Radio - Music you just have to sing along to!

[edit] External links

Awards
Preceded by
Mick Channon
First Division top scorer
1974–75
Succeeded by
Ted MacDougall
Preceded by
Ted MacDougall
First Division top scorer
1976–77 (shared with Andy Gray)
Succeeded by
Bob Latchford