Billy McNeill

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William "Billy" McNeill MBE (born 2 March 1940) is a former Scottish footballer and manager.

McNeill, known as Cesar, was arguably the greatest captain of Celtic. His nickname was derived from the actor Cesar Romero, who played the getaway driver in the (original) film Ocean's Eleven, as McNeill was one of the few Celtic players to own a car at the time.

McNeill was born and brought up a Roman Catholic in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, of part Irish and part Lithuanian descent.^{[citation needed]}

He was signed by Celtic from nearby junior team, Blantyre Victoria, in 1957 as a defender. As captain he won nine Scottish League Championships, seven Scottish Cups, and six Scottish League Cups.

He also led the team to victory in the European Cup in 1967, as part of the "Lisbon Lions", and was the first British footballer to hold aloft the European Cup. He retired as a player in 1975 after over 800 appearances for Celtic. He won 29 caps for Scotland.

He began his management career at Clyde in April 1977 before moving to Aberdeen in June. However, in 1978 he returned to manage Celtic.

His five years in charge saw Celtic win three League Championships, one Scottish Cup and one League cup. In 1983 he moved to England to manage Manchester City.

In 1986-87, he became one of the few managers to manage two relegated teams in the same season. He started the season as manager of Manchester City but quit in September 1986 to take charge of fellow strugglers Aston Villa.

But when Villa were relegated after finishing bottom of the First Division in May 1987, he stood down to make way for Graham Taylor and returned to Celtic.

In his first season Celtic won the double of the League Championship and Scottish Cup in the clubs' centenary year. 1987-88 was renowned for late goals for Celtic and in both the semi final and final, Celtic scored late goals to emerge victorious 2-1 in both games. This epitomised the never say die spirit of Cesar himself.

He won the Scottish Cup the following season, but quit in 1991 after four years as manager. McNeill's second spell as manager was blighted by the reluctance of the Board to spend money in the transfer market. This was the beginning of the era of the Biscuit Tin.

In 2003, he unsuccessfully stood as a candidate for the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party in the election of the Scottish Parliament.

He now lives in Newton Mearns.

[edit] Reference

• Billy McNeill Hail Cesar

Preceded by None	Scottish Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year 1965	Succeeded by John Greig
Preceded by Stan Anderson	Clyde F.C. manager 1977	Succeeded by Craig Brown
Preceded by Ally McLeod	Aberdeen F.C. manager 1977-1978	Succeeded by Alex Ferguson
Preceded by Jock Stein	Celtic F.C. manager 1978-1983	Succeeded by David Hay
Preceded by John Benson	Manchester City F.C. manager 1983-1986	Succeeded by Jimmy Frizzell
Preceded by Graham Turner	Aston Villa F.C. manager 1986-1987	Succeeded by Graham Taylor
Preceded by David Hay	Celtic F.C. manager 1987-1991	Succeeded by Liam Brady

[edit] External links