Malcolm Ian Macdonald (born 7 January 1950) is a former
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...
er nicknamed "Supermac", famed for scoring goals for
Luton TownLuton Town Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire. The team plays its home matches at Kenilworth Road, where it has been based since 1905...
,
Newcastle UnitedNewcastle United Football Club is an English football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, they play in the Football League Championship. And are renowned for having a very good fan base...
and
ArsenalArsenal Football Club are an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London...
.
Born in
FulhamFulham is an area of west London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, located south west of Charing Cross. It is situated in between Putney and Chelsea...
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, Macdonald started out as a full back before switching to centre forward. After signing from
Tonbridge AngelsTonbridge Angels are a football club in Tonbridge, Kent, England. They play at the Longmead Stadium in Tonbridge and have done so since 1980, after moving from the Angel Ground....
he played for
FulhamFulham Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Founded in 1879, they celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2004, and are in the top tier of English football, the Premier League...
for one season (1968–69), before moving to
Luton TownLuton Town Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire. The team plays its home matches at Kenilworth Road, where it has been based since 1905...
. At Luton he scored 49 times in 88 matches, which caught the eye of
Newcastle UnitedNewcastle United Football Club is an English football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, they play in the Football League Championship. And are renowned for having a very good fan base...
manager
Joe HarveyJoe Harvey was an English football player and later manager. He spent much of his career at Newcastle United; he was the club's longest serving captain, manager, and, as of the 2008 - 09 season the last to win a major trophy....
, who signed him for £180,000 in the summer of 1971.
Malcolm Ian Macdonald (born 7 January 1950) is a former
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
footballAssociation football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball...
er nicknamed "Supermac", famed for scoring goals for
Luton TownLuton Town Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire. The team plays its home matches at Kenilworth Road, where it has been based since 1905...
,
Newcastle UnitedNewcastle United Football Club is an English football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, they play in the Football League Championship. And are renowned for having a very good fan base...
and
ArsenalArsenal Football Club are an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London...
.
Football career
Born in
FulhamFulham is an area of west London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, located south west of Charing Cross. It is situated in between Putney and Chelsea...
,
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, Macdonald started out as a full back before switching to centre forward. After signing from
Tonbridge AngelsTonbridge Angels are a football club in Tonbridge, Kent, England. They play at the Longmead Stadium in Tonbridge and have done so since 1980, after moving from the Angel Ground....
he played for
FulhamFulham Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Founded in 1879, they celebrated their 125th anniversary in 2004, and are in the top tier of English football, the Premier League...
for one season (1968–69), before moving to
Luton TownLuton Town Football Club is an English professional football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire. The team plays its home matches at Kenilworth Road, where it has been based since 1905...
. At Luton he scored 49 times in 88 matches, which caught the eye of
Newcastle UnitedNewcastle United Football Club is an English football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, they play in the Football League Championship. And are renowned for having a very good fan base...
manager
Joe HarveyJoe Harvey was an English football player and later manager. He spent much of his career at Newcastle United; he was the club's longest serving captain, manager, and, as of the 2008 - 09 season the last to win a major trophy....
, who signed him for £180,000 in the summer of 1971. At Newcastle he quickly became a favourite of the fans, scoring a
hat-trickA hat-trick in sports is associated with succeeding at anything three times, generally in three consecutive attempts. In North America it is often rendered as hat trick, with no hyphen. The Oxford English Dictionary lists it unhyphenated and gives a variety of examples published in the 19th and...
on his home debut against
LiverpoolLiverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club plays in the Premier League, and has won more trophies than any other English club...
, and was the club's top scorer for five seasons in a row.
While at Newcastle, he made his debut for
EnglandThe English national football team represents England in international association football and is controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football in England...
(against
WalesThe Wales national football team represents Wales in international men's football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales, the governing body for football in Wales and the third oldest national football association in the world. The team has not qualified for a major international...
). On 16 April 1975, in a game for
EnglandThe English national football team represents England in international association football and is controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football in England...
against
CyprusThe Cyprus national football team is the national football team of the island of Cyprus and is controlled by the Cyprus Football Association. They have never reached the finals of either the European Championships or the World Cup....
he scored all five goals in a 5–0 victory, a record that still stands today (spawning a newspaper headline "SuperMac 5, Cyprus 0".) In total he played 14 times for his country, scoring six times (the only other game he scored in being a 2–0 win over then World Champions
West GermanyThe German national football team is the football team representing the country of Germany in international competition since 1908. It is governed by the German Football Association DFB which was founded in 1900....
).
Macdonald left Newcastle for
ArsenalArsenal Football Club are an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London...
in 1976, for the unusual 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 CupThe Football League Cup, commonly known as the League Cup or for sponsorship reasons the Carling Cup, is an English football competition. Like the FA Cup, it is played on a knockout basis...
match against
RotherhamRotherham United Football Club are an English professional football club based in South Yorkshire, who compete in League Two, the fourth tier of English football....
at the start of the 1978–79 season, from which he was unable to recover. After having spent a couple of months in
SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
with
Djurgårdens IFDjurgårdens IF Fotboll, commonly known as Djurgården , is a Swedish football club based at Stadion in Östermalm. They are currently playing in the highest Swedish league, Allsvenskan....
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 CupThe Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football, run by and named after The Football Association. The name "FA Cup" usually refers to the English men's tournament, although a women's tournament is also held...
finals, one each for Newcastle and Arsenal.
Football management
After retirement from playing, he returned to Fulham to manage them for four seasons from 1980 to 1984, and was later manager of
Huddersfield TownHuddersfield Town Football Club is an English football club formed in 1908 and based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. They currently play in League One...
between 1987 and 1988. His time at Fulham was initially successful, with promotion being achieved in 1982. In the 1982-83 season, they appeared certainties for promotion to the First Division for the majority of the season, but a slump in the later stages of the season allowed their lead to wither away and they finished 4th. The following season began as a struggle before a second half turnaround saw them into mid-table safety, however he would be replaced by Ray Harford in April 1984.
He returned to management with Huddersfield in 1987, but his time in charge proved disastrous, including a 10-1 loss to Manchester City as the side were relegated from the Second Division in dismal fashion.
However, after being declared bankrupt following a failed business venture, divorcing his second wife and struggling with the aftermath of his injury, he became an alcoholic. Macdonald said that the pain from his long-standing knee injury led to his increasing dependence on alcohol. He eventually gave up drinking in 1997.
Radio
He has since become a
radioRadio is the transmission of signals by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
presenter on the
North EastNorth-East England is one of the nine official regions of England and comprises the combined area of Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and Tees Valley. The historic name for North-East England is Northumbria and whilst a few regional bodies still use this name, it is rarely used in...
's
Century RadioReal Radio North East is an independent local radio station for North East England owned by GMG Radio. Its main competitors are stations Metro Radio and TFM Radio. The station was called 100-102 Century Radio before it was rebranded in 2009.-History:...
Legends Football Phone In alongside
Bernie SlavenBernard Joseph Slaven is a retired footballer who played internationally for the Republic of Ireland...
and Micky Horswill.
He also presents "Upfront With Malcolm Macdonald", a thirty minute show consisting of interviews with ex-professional players across the
Real RadioReal Radio is a brand of independent local radio stations in the United Kingdom owned by GMG Radio. The brand was developed by John Myers in 2000. Myers was also responsible for the similar early format of the Century FM radio stations, which were rebranded as Real Radio in March 2009...
and Century Network. The guests he has interviewed on the show so far are:
- Cyrille Regis
Cyrille Regis, MBE is a French Guianan-born English former footballer. His professional playing career spanned 19 years, where he made 610 league appearances and scored 159 league goals.-Early life:...
- Frank Stapleton
Francis Anthony "Frank" Stapleton is an Irish former football player and manager. He is best remembered for his time at Arsenal, Manchester United and as a pivotal player for the Republic of Ireland. He has also been manager at Bradford City.-Playing career:Stapleton was a tough tackling forward...
- Clive Allen
Clive Darren Allen is a former English international football player and a prolific scorer for a number of clubs....
- Steve Bull
Stephen George "Steve" Bull, MBE, is an English former footballer who is best remembered for his 13-year spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers...
- Charlie George
Frederick Charles "Charlie" George is an English former footballer. He played as a forward in the Football League and he was also capped by England.-Arsenal:...
- Tony Cottee
Anthony Richard "Tony" Cottee is an English former football player.Cottee has admitted to diligently maintaining a scrapbook containing press cuttings of every goal he has scored throughout his playing career.- Biography :...
- Ian Wright
Ian Edward Wright, MBE is an English former professional footballer, turned television and radio personality.Wright enjoyed great success with London clubs Crystal Palace and Arsenal, spending six years with the former and seven years with the latter. He is considered as something of a legend at...
- Ian Rush
Ian James Rush, MBE is a Welsh former footballer who played as a striker and is best known for playing with Liverpool...
- Peter Beardsley
Peter Andrew Beardsley MBE is an English former footballer of the 1980s and 1990s, who once set a record transfer fee in the game and represented his country 59 times between 1986 and 1996, once as captain....
- Joe Jordan
Joseph "Joe" Jordan is a Scottish football coach, currently working as one of Harry Redknapp's assistants at Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur. He is also a former professional football forward, who played for Leeds United, Manchester United, and Milan, among others...
- Joe Royle
Joseph "Joe" Royle is an English football manager. In his club career, he played for Everton , Manchester City, Bristol City, Norwich City, and the England national team...
- Peter Withe
Peter Withe is a much-travelled English footballer who played as a striker, between 1971 and 1990...
Trivia
During the TV show
SuperstarsSuperstars is an all-around sports competition that pits elite athletes from different sports against one another in a series of athletic events resembling a decathlon...
, Macdonald ran 100m in 10.9 seconds, on a cinder track wearing spikes.
External links