Alex Raisbeck
Alexander Galloway "Alex" Raisbeck ( born December 26, 1878 in Polmont, † 12 March 1949 in Liverpool) was a Scottish football player and coach. The central defender was at the end of the 19th century one of the first "stars" of Liverpool FC and won as captain in 1901 and 1906, the first two English championships in the history of the " Reds ".
Sports career
Raisbeck was born in Polmont, a small village in the county of Stirlingshire, belongs to the administrative district of Falkirk. The football games, he first learned at the " Blantyre Boys Brigade " and other games for " Larkhall Thistle " and " Royal Albert" he gained his first experience in the Scottish football clubs, as he prepares for Hibernian in the Scottish Football League 1896-1898 in total 24 league games was used. There he acted mostly on the half position in the defensive team - primarily the center and occasionally on the left side.
In March 1898 Raisbeck joined the English Football League, but returned to the bottom club FC Stoke after only two months and four league operations back to back. Tom Watson, manager of emerging Liverpool FC, obliged the young Scot for 350 pounds and helped him on September 3, 1898 against The Wednesday his debut at the " Reds ". Raisbeck quickly became the guiding and leading figure in the defense of the composite FC Liverpool, was in head duels - though with 1.78 meters comparatively small - only hard to beat and was characterized generally by intelligent tackles. Consequently already made him Watson at a young age to the team captain. Under his leadership, the team became a championship aspirants and with players like Jack Cox, Billy Dunlop, Rab Howell, Sam Raybould, John Robertson and John Walker won the club only nine years previously founded his first English league title. Even off the court Raisbeck was one of the first "superstars" in English sport, which also designed for a professional player of the time value a well-groomed appearance with an always accurate haircut and mustache. In order to circumvent the then applicable salary cap of four pounds, the club also officially employed him as an inspector, who had to monitor the public advertising to the games of FC Liverpool.
Its increasing importance remained the Scottish home not hidden and on April 7, 1900 graduated from Raisbeck for the Scottish selection his first international game in which the English arch-rival was convincingly beaten 4-1. By 1907, he still came to seven further appearances for Scotland, where he led five times the " Bravehearts " as a captain on the field. In the " League everyday life" but returned to the major championship success and after a Tristesse increasingly mature performances, the club just three years later grew into the second-class Second Division. Right off the bat, but the club managed to have won the second division championship to return to the English top flight, where it turned out the obligation of the " keeper oldies " Ted Doig from Sunderland as a stroke of luck next Raisbecks leadership qualities. Only a year later Raisbeck won with Liverpool his second championship and distanced runner-up Preston North End by four points. Three years Raisbeck still played for the Reds, with his team, as was already after the first championship success, no longer a candidate for the league title.
Raisbeck it moved back to Scotland, where he played until 1914 for Partick Thistle. His last position was as an active footballer Hamilton Academical, where he later also for the first time exercised the office of the trainer and - as is usual at this time - also took over the functions of a club secretary. In a similar role, he later worked for Bristol City, Halifax Town, Chester FC and Bath City, before returning to Liverpool in order to view there as a scout talents for his former club. 70 - year old, he died there on 12 March 1949.
Achievements
- English Champion: 1901, 1906