Most footballers competing in the Champions League are millionaires, and their lifestyle will confirm that.
However, one prominent local amateur football official remembers well when it wasn’t always like that.
“More Champions League football is being shown on TV, with all the extremely well-off football players being flown by private jet to games all over Europe,” opened Ally Martin.
Ally is very well known in the local amateur game and has been a player, coach and official at Broughty United amateurs for many decades, in addition to serving on Midlands AFA, regional and national committees.
Indeed, he is a life member of the Scottish Amateur FA.
He continued: “With this in mind, my memory takes me back to Dundee’s wonderful run in the European Cup, reaching the semi-final in season 1962-63. With friends of mine, we saw all the home games against Cologne, Sporting Lisbon, Anderlecht and AC Milan.
“After the match, we would walk over the Hilltown, through the Wellgate and Murraygate to the bus station at Shore Terrace to get home to Broughty Ferry.
“Imagine our surprise to find sitting one seat in front on the top deck were Bobby Seith and Bobby Wishart, both of whom we had watched playing earlier that evening at Dens Park.
“Seith stayed in Barnhill — and still does — and Wishart in Aberdeen, but I assume Wishart was staying overnight with Seith. It’s hard to imagine Cristiano Ronaldo or Harry Kane getting a local bus home after a European game these days.”
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Recently, I’ve been sharing some of the information unearthed when perusing through our cuttings files.
In September, I relayed a tale about Albert Kidd when he was with Carnoustie Panmure juniors and Brechin City.
A cutting, dated August 10, 1977, revealed what happened later. Under the heading ‘Angus clubs in record deal’, it read:
Arbroath manager Albert Henderson last night signed a player for a record price for the Gayfield club.
After over a week of negotiations with Brechin boss Charlie Dunn, Bert has finally signed 19-year-old midfield player Albert Kidd in a £10,000 deal.
The figure also represents a record collect fee for Brechin.
Kidd, who has been with Brechin since the middle of last season, previously played with Carnoustie Panmure juniors.
After the formal signing of the contracts in the Angus Hotel, Dundee, last night, Bert said: “Kidd has impressed us and we think he will be an asset both to the team and to the club.”
Bert added that Kidd will train at Gayfield today and will be in the team to play Alloa Athletic on Saturday.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Telegraph website. For more information, read about our new combined website.