{"id":8876,"date":"2019-04-24T16:01:55","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T16:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/?p=8876"},"modified":"2019-05-08T20:59:46","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T20:59:46","slug":"celtic-legend-billy-mcneill-dies-age-79","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/celtic-legend-billy-mcneill-dies-age-79\/glasgow-celtic\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Legend Billy McNeill Dies Age 79"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most revered players ever to pull on the Green &amp; White Hoops of Celtic, Billy McNeill sadly died on 22 April 2019 age 79. He will be best remembered as the leader of the Lisbon Lions who were the first British team (and only Scottish team to date) to win the European Cup or Champions League as it is now known.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_8878\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8878\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8878\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Billy-McNeill-300x179.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Billy-McNeill-300x179.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Billy-McNeill-768x457.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Billy-McNeill-1024x609.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Billy-McNeill-100x60.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Billy-McNeill-50x30.jpg 50w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Billy-McNeill-25x15.jpg 25w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Billy-McNeill-750x446.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Billy-McNeill.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8878\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Billy McNeill&#8217;s statue outside Celtic Park TreasureGalore \/ Shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Born in Bellshill, Lanarkshire on 2nd March 1940 He was signed for Celtic by another legend Jock Stein, from Blantyre Victoria. He would go on to play 486 times for Celtic and win a slew of trophies with them, including the biggest of all the European Cup in 1967, when they beat Inter Milan 2-1.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8879\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/1967-Celtic-v-Dukla-Prague-230x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/1967-Celtic-v-Dukla-Prague-230x300.jpg 230w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/1967-Celtic-v-Dukla-Prague-768x1000.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/1967-Celtic-v-Dukla-Prague-786x1024.jpg 786w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/1967-Celtic-v-Dukla-Prague-77x100.jpg 77w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/1967-Celtic-v-Dukla-Prague-38x50.jpg 38w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/1967-Celtic-v-Dukla-Prague-19x25.jpg 19w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/1967-Celtic-v-Dukla-Prague-750x977.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/1967-Celtic-v-Dukla-Prague.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 230px) 100vw, 230px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-8880\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Celtic-v-Inter-214x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"214\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Celtic-v-Inter-214x300.jpg 214w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Celtic-v-Inter-768x1077.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Celtic-v-Inter-730x1024.jpg 730w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Celtic-v-Inter-71x100.jpg 71w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Celtic-v-Inter-36x50.jpg 36w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Celtic-v-Inter-18x25.jpg 18w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Celtic-v-Inter-750x1052.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/18\/2019\/04\/Celtic-v-Inter.jpg 1141w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 214px) 100vw, 214px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>He was a key member of the Celtic side which won 9 consecutive Scottish Division One Championships between 1965-6 and 1973-4. He also captained the squad in the 1970 European Cup Final and won several Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup winners medals before retiring as a player in 1975. He played 29 times for Scotland national team and despite being a Central Defender scored three times.<\/p>\n<p>He had two spells as Celtic manager guiding them to four Scottish League Championships and also won three Scottish Cups &amp; a Scottish League Cup, and after ending his managerial career spent many years in media and as Ambassador for the club.<\/p>\n<p>The games respect for him is evidenced by the number of tweets sent out, none more fitting than that from Celtics greatest rivals Glasgow Rangers.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en-gb\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Directors, players and staff of Rangers Football Club are today saddened to learn of the death of Celtic legend Billy McNeill.<\/p>\n<p>Everyone at Rangers today sends their condolences to the family and friends of Mr McNeill.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/w9GGPsss3z\">https:\/\/t.co\/w9GGPsss3z<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/THIH0q1CXR\">pic.twitter.com\/THIH0q1CXR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RangersFC\/status\/1120624074848337920?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">23 April 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most revered players ever to pull on the Green &amp; White Hoops of Celtic, Billy McNeill sadly died on 22 April 2019 age 79. He will be best remembered as the leader of the Lisbon Lions who were the first British team (and only Scottish team to date) to win the European&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[217,824,825],"tags":[1410,793],"class_list":["post-8876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-glasgow-celtic","category-scottish-football","category-scottish-premier","tag-billy-mcneill","tag-glasgow-celtic"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8876"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8882,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8876\/revisions\/8882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}