This weeks #iwasgonnae s guest is Gordon Smith, Scottish football player, coach and executive.
Gordon Smith was born in Kilwinning but brought up in Stevenson. At a very early age Gordon tells us he always wanted to be a footballer, but his mother said, ‘if he wasn’t in the top 3 for all his exams, she was going to stop him paying’. At the age of 14 Gordon had Rangers, Celtic and Kilmarnock wanting him to sign at 14 he signed for Kilmarnock and was in the first team at the age of 17. He recalls one day returning to his house and his mother said, ‘there is your acceptance, and I said acceptance for what and she said your degree, I said I never applied mum, no she said I did!’
A few months after signing for Rangers from Kilmarnock Gordon says he members signing autographs outside Ibrox and then knocking on the door and the ‘wee doorman at Rangers was quite an old chap’ and as the door opened the doorman said ‘aye what is it, and I went I’m a player’, and the door man says ‘who for!’
Gordons career even after playing football hasn’t stopped and he tells us of one of his positions After his playing career Gordon remembers working on a FIFA football committee and turning up to a meeting in Zurich he remember sitting down having a coffee and as he sat there he is then quickly joined by Franz Beckenbauer, and who then sat across from him was Pele and then sitting next to him was Eusebio, Michele Platini and then Dino Zoff and Gordon thought to himself, ‘If there is a team getting picked here, I’m not getting in it!’
Listen more to Gordons amazing football career, career, and life stories on the #iwasgonnae podcast.
