The iconic Google Doodle has celebrated Andrew Watson, considered the first Black international football player. Check out google tribute.
Andrew Watson : Footballer | Who is | Google tribute
Andrew Watson (24 May 1856 – 8 March 1921) was a Scottish footballer who is widely considered to be the world’s first black person to play association football at international level.
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | 24 May 1856 | ||
| Place of birth | Demerara, British Guiana | ||
| Date of death | 8 March 1921 (aged 64) | ||
| Place of death | London, England | ||
| Position(s) | Full back | ||
He played three matches for Scotland between 1881 and 1882. Arthur Wharton was previously commonly thought to be the first black player, as he was the first black professional footballer to play in the Football League, but Watson’s career predated him by over a decade.
There is evidence that Watson was paid professionally when at Bootle in 1887, two years prior to Wharton becoming a professional with Rotherham Town; however, the Merseyside club did not play in the Football League at the time Watson played there.
Andrew Watson footballer
After first playing for Maxwell in 1876, Watson signed for local side Parkgrove, where he was additionally their match secretary, making him the first black administrator in football. At Parkgrove he played alongside another black player, Robert Walker.
| Senior career | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1874 | Maxwell | ||
| 1874–1880 | Parkgrove | ||
| 1880–1882 | Queen’s Park | 0 | (0) |
| 1882–1884 | Swifts | ||
| 1884–1885 | Corinthians | ||
| 1885–1887 | Queen’s Park | 0 | (0) |
| 1887–1892 | Bootle | ||
| National team | |||
| 1881–1882 | Scotland | 3 | (0) |
He also took part in athletics competitions, winning the high jump on several occasions.
On 14 February 1880, he was selected to represent Glasgow against Sheffield; Glasgow won 1–0 at Bramall Lane.
He was also selected for a tour to Canada in the summer of 1880 which was cancelled after the death of William Dick, secretary of the Scottish Football Association.
In April 1880, he also signed for Queen’s Park – then Britain’s largest football team – and became their secretary in November 1881. He led the team to two consecutive Scottish Cup wins in 1881 and 1882, thus becoming the first black player to win a major competition.
Who is Andrew Watson
Watson was the son of a wealthy Scottish sugar planter Peter Miller Watson (1805–1869) (the son of James Watson, of Crantit, Orkney, Scotland) and a local British Guianese woman named Hannah Rose.
He came to Britain with his father, and his older sister Annetta, and they inherited a substantial amount when their father died in London in 1869.
He was educated at Heath Grammar School in Halifax, West Yorkshire and then from 1871 at King’s College School, in Wimbledon, London, where records show he excelled at sports including football.
Watson left Glasgow University after one year and in 1877 became a partner in Watson, Miller, and Baird, a wholesale warehouse business in Glasgow. In November 1877 he married Jessie Nimmo Armour (1860–1882), the daughter of John Armour, a cabinet-maker.
He later studied natural philosophy, mathematics and engineering at the University of Glasgow when he was 19, where his love of football blossomed. He played in the full-back position, on either the right or the left flank.
Google tribute
The iconic Google Doodle has celebrated Andrew Watson, considered the first Black international football player.
Andrew Watson was also the first Black football player to captain Scotland’s team. Besides, he became the first Black football administrator in history.
October 18 is historic because it was when Andrew Watson played for the Scottish football team Queen’s Park for the first time in 1884 at the new Hampden Park stadium.
Director of the Scottish Football Museum, Ged O’Brien, said that the findings, which date back to the 1870s and 1880s, suggest that Andrew Watson was the first Black British footballer who played for Queens Park and Scotland.