Terry Butcher

Terry Butcher is a former English professional football player. He was born on 28 December 1958 in Singapore. He played for a lot of clubs but most of his career was spent with the Ipswich Town.

His primary position was centre-back. He has over 500 appearances in professional football.

Background

Butcher made his club debut for Ipswich Town on 15 April 1978 against Everton. He impressed one and all during his stint with the Ipswich Town an became famous. England national football team’s manager Ron Greenwood was also excited to see him play for the national team. Ron made sure that Butcher made his international debut soon.

Debut

He made his international debut against Australia on 31 May 1980. England lost that away game 1-2.

Butcher’s international career lasted for 10 years. He played in 3 World Cups in that period. He was a part of England’s squad against which Diego Maradona scored what is considered as ‘The goal of the century’ as he went past 5 players and scored the goal in the 1986 World Cup.

Before making his international debut for the senior side, he had played for the England U21 side. He made 7 appearances for them.

He made 77 appearances for the senior team and scored 3 goals.

Club career

He played for his first club Ipswich Town from 1976 to 1986. He made 271 appearances for them and managed to score 16 goals. He made his move from the club in 1986 to the Rangers F.C.

Butcher played for the Rangers upto 1990. He made 127 appearances for the Scottish club and scored 8 goals. He won three League titles and two Scottish League Cups with them as captain.

After his stint with the Rangers, he had almost joined Leeds United until Coventry City offered him the player-manager job. He signed for the club for £400,000. As a player, he made only 6 appearances for the club and did not score a goal in any of them.

Butcher was then picked up by Sunderland in 1992. He made 38 appearances for them but failed to score a goal.

In 1993, he made his shortest stint with Clydebank F.C. where he made only 3 appearances.

Records

As a player, Butcher has won the UEFA Cup in 1980-81 with Ipswich Town. With the Rangers, he has won the Scottish Football League Premier Division thrice in 1986-87, 1988-89 and 1989-90. He has also won the Scottish League Cup twice in 1986 and 1988. He has entered the hall of fame in Scottish football.

As a manager, Butcher has managed to win Scottish First Division in the second tier in 2009-10.

Retirement

Terry Butcher retired from professional football on 1 December 1993. Nine years after his retirement, he became the manager of Motherwell F.C. After that, he managed Sydney F.C., Brentford, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Hibernian and Newport County. He also was the caretaker of Partick Thistle in 2007.