Obituary: Stevie Chalmers, Celtic striker who scored the 1967 European cup winner

Died: April 29, 2019

THOMAS Stephen “Stevie” Chalmers, who has died aged 83, was a former Celtic and Scotland striker who had a unique place in Scottish sporting history as the only Scotsman, playing for a Scottish club, to have scored a European Cup-winning goal.

Chalmers' 85th minute touch onto a Bobby Murdoch shot was the goal which beat Inter Milan, in Lisbon's National Stadium in the 1967 final, and ensured immortality for him and his ten team mates – The Lisbon Lions.

It was fitting that the relatively unsung Chalmers should administer the coup de grace. He was Celtic through and through, born and raised in the club's heartland of Glasgow's Garngad. His father David had played alongside Steve's future team manager, the great Jimmy McGrory at Clydebank, but he never achieved his ambition of wearing the hoops.

So, when, on 6 February, 1959, Stevie, after a distinguished junior career with Kirkintilloch Rob Roy and Ashfield, and appearances for the Scotland Juniors side, signed for Celtic, it was a dream come true for father and son.

He made the first of his 406 first team appearance a little over a month later, in a 2-1 loss at Airdrie. These were difficult days for the club. Manager McGrory was frequently over-ruled by chairman Sir Robert Kelly on team selection, and there was rarely consistency of performance or selection. Celtic then were down among the also-rans, although, in the reserves, under Jock Stein, the seeds of future triumphs were being sown.

Even after the Lisbon triumphs, Chalmers, who in his autobiography, Steve Chalmers – The Winning Touch, published in 2012, admitted to an often difficult relationship with Stein, was never a shoo-in for the main striker's role. In the early days he was competing with John “Yogi” Hughes, then along came Joe McBride, Willie Wallace and, towards the end of his 12 years at Celtic Park, the young Kenny Dalglish.

Okay, that Lisbon goal was special, but the other 227 he scored for the club – including, in 1966, the first Celtic hat-trick in an Old Firm game since before the Second World War – lifted him to third in the all-time Celtic scoring charts behind McGrory and Chalmers' fellow Lisbon Lion, Bobby Lennox. He now lies fourth, demoted by Henrik Larsson. These goals came at 0.56 goals per game, above the 0.5 gpg benchmark for a top striker.

What Chalmers did bring, and Stein recognised this, was a rare understanding of the “fore-checking” role, a tactic more often seen in ice hockey, whereby, when a team loses possession, their furthest forward player immediately puts pressure on the opposition, enabling the ball to be won back quickly and another attack started. Today, they call it pressing the ball – Chalmers was doing this for Celtic long before other clubs cottoned on.

He was also as a player who began as a winger, the master at creating space for others by drawing defenders out of position to cover his runs.

Like many Celtic greats, he was, notwithstanding the competition from the likes of Denis Law and Ralph Brand, probably under-capped by Scotland, winning only five, and scoring three goals – 0.6 gpg, again above that 0.5 benchmark.

He scored just 28 minutes into his Scotland debut, against Wales in the 1963-64 Home Internationals, scored again in his next match, a 3-1 Hampden win over Finland in a World Cup qualifier. His third Scotland goal came in his fourth international, a 1-1 draw with Brazil, at Hampden, in June, 1966.

Chalmers had given Scotland a first-minute lead against the reigning World Champions, but he got the big prize at the finish, when he exchanged jerseys with Pele. That number ten Brazilian strip was a cherished memento of his career.

It was amazing that he even reached the heights he did. As a 20-year-old, he was given little chance of surviving after he contracted tubercular meningitis. He was given three weeks to live, but, against the odds, he pulled through. The specialist who treated him during his six months in Belvedere Hospital, close to Celtic Park, Peter McKenzie, ironically a Rangers supporter, used the film he made of Chalmers' successful treatment to demonstrate to other specialists that the disease could be beaten.

Read more: Celtic legend and Lisbon Lion Stevie Chalmers dies 

Chalmers sustained a broken leg in the 1970 League Cup Final win over St Johnstone, and, thereafter, he played few games for the club, prior to moving on to become a player-coach at Morton, then winding down his career with Partick Thistle in 1975. However, he did later in a playing cameo, achieve a previously unachieved boyhood dream, by turning out for his local junior team, St Roch's – McGrory's old junior team.

Appropriately, his final goal for Celtic came in a special match, when Stein, in a rare moment of sentimentally, knowing one or two would be leaving the club at the end of the season, sent out the entire Lisbon Lions for one last game, against Clyde, at Celtic Park. They won 6-1, with Chalmers getting the sixth goal.

The Chalmers tradition of playing senior football carried on into a third generation. Son Paul, while he did reach the first team, failed to establish himself at Celtic, but gave sterling service to other Scottish clubs, such as St Mirren and East Fife, and in the English Leagues with Bradford City and Swansea.

In retirement, Chalmers and his wife Sadie moved to Troon, where he golfed and, as befits one of the quieter of the Lions, enjoyed life. He was always, however, warmly welcomed when he went up to Celtic Park, performing match-day hosting duties with several of the other Lions.

Essentially, Steve Chalmers was a quiet man, who did his talking on the pitch. But, for such a quiet man, he certainly caused a rumpus with that iconic Lisbon goal.

He is survived by Sadie, children Stephen Jnr, Carol, Paul, Ann, Martin and Clare and his grand-children.

MATT VALLANCE