Bobby Lennox

Bobby Lennox

Personal information
Full name	Robert Lennox
Date of birth	(1943-08-30) 30 August 1943
Place of birth	Saltcoats, Scotland
Position(s)	Outside Left
Youth career
	Ardeer Recreation F.C.
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1961–1978	Celtic	293	(157)
1978	Houston Hurricane	30	(3)
1978–1981	Celtic	42	(10)
International career
1966–1970	Scotland	10	(3)
1966–1968	Scottish League XI	3	(2)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Robert "Bobby" Lennox, MBE (born 30 August 1943, in Saltcoats, Ayrshire) is a former Scottish professional footballer who played for Celtic Football Club and was a member of their 1967 European Cup winning team known as the Lisbon Lions. He also earned ten international caps for his national team Scotland. In 2002, Celtic supporters voted him a member of the club's all-time greatest team.

Celtic

Celtic signed Lennox from Scottish Junior team Ardeer Recreation on provisional forms in 1961 at the age of 18, and he made his first team debut the following March. He went on to score 273 goals in all competitions, second only to Celtic's all time top scorer Jimmy McGrory's total of 468 goals. Of his 273 goals, 167 were scored in the Scottish league, making him the fifth top league scorer in Celtic. He won eleven League medals, eight Scottish Cup medals, and five League Cup medals (scoring 63 goals in the competition) and was a member of the 1967 European Cup winning Celtic team, known as the Lisbon Lions, who defeated Inter Milan 2–1 in the Estádio Nacional stadium in Lisbon, Portugal.

He played in a second European Cup final with Celtic in 1970, losing 2–1 after extra time to Feyenoord Rotterdam of the Netherlands at the San Siro stadium, Milan. He was an extremely fast winger and was known by fans as 'Buzz Bomb' or 'Lemon' as they thought he made defenders look like 'suckers'. He left Celtic in March 1978, and moved to the United States to play for Houston Hurricane in their debut season in the NASL. After a disappointing 3 goals in 30 games for a struggling team, he got a surprise offer to rejoin Celtic in September 1978. It was a good move, as Celtic took the League Championship that year and the Scottish Cup in 1980. He was the last Lisbon Lion to retire as a player when he joined Celtic's coaching staff in November 1980.

Scotland

Lennox made his debut for Scotland in a 2–1 victory over Northern Ireland in 1966, going on to win ten international caps and scoring three goals in the process. He scored one of the goals in the famous victory over the then reigning FIFA World Cup holders England at Wembley in 1967, Englands first defeat since winning the trophy. The goal made him the first Celtic player to score for Scotland at Wembley, and he later said it was a major moment in his life. Although he thought there was no particular bias, he believes that he and several of his Celtic team mates should have received more caps than they were given. His last appearance for Scotland was against Wales in 1970 at Hampden Park which resulted in a 0–0 draw.

Tributes

Lennox was much admired by his fellow professionals, such as the Manchester United and England legend Bobby Charlton who said of him

If I'd had Lennox in my team, I could have played forever. He was one of the best strikers I have ever seen

. Another football legend Alfredo Di Stefano of Real Madrid said of him,

The Scotsman who gave me the most trouble was Bobby Lennox of Celtic. My testimonial at the Bernabeu was against Celtic as, of course, they were the champions of Europe in 1967, and although I remember the Bernabeu rising to Jimmy Johnstone, I admired Lennox greatly.

Later life

He was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in November 2005 and was also awarded an MBE in 1981. Lennox published his autobiography, "A Million Miles For Celtic", in 1982. He continues his connection with Celtic as a match day host and is the Honorary President of the Houston Bobby Lennox Celtic Club. His son Gary carried on the family's footballing tradition, playing professionally for Dundee, Ayr United and Falkirk.

External links

• Lennox on being inducted into Scottish Football Museum Hall of Fame
• Career statistics