Aberdeen goalscoring legend Steve Archibald ended up replacing Diego Maradona at Barcelona via Pittodrie, White Hart Lane… and a garage in Glasgow.
One of the Dons greatest ever scorers, Archibald ended up in Catalonia in a seven-figure move where he took on the No.10 jersey of world great Maradona.
Within six years of leaving Pittodrie, he had won the Spanish title and played in the European Cup final with Barca.
His journey to the pinnacle of the game began with humble roots.
Where it all started
Archibald was working as a mechanic in Glasgow when Billy McNeill offered him the chance to go full-time with the Dons.
He grabbed it and netted 51 goals in 121 games over three seasons to earn a lucrative move to Tottenham Hotspur. Barcelona would come next.
He will return to Aberdeen on March 16 at the Tivoli Theatre for An Audience With Steve Archibald, during which he will relive his remarkable career.
He said: “I had just started my own garage which I opened with a friend. We were Rolls Royce and Bentley mechanics.
“I finished my apprenticeship and almost straight after it I said to my friend let’s go work for ourselves.
“We opened a little service station which was great. We were getting cars, doing them up and selling them on.
“People would also come in for repairs and it was working really well.
“Then all of sudden Aberdeen came in and, six months later, I was up with them.
“My friend then had to take over the garage and do it on his own.”
From a mechanic to league winner
Archibald would go on to play a pivotal role in Aberdeen winning the league title in 1980 under Sir Alex Ferguson.
It was the Dons’ first league success since 1955.
Archibald’s rise from obscurity to the top of the game is an inspiration for any young footballer in the lower leagues.
He said: “Billy was at Clyde for a few months when I was playing. He must have seen something in me that I didn’t see, that’s for sure.
“I was trying hard, but when you’re a kid trying hard you never know the truth of the matter.
“You never know if you are doing the right things or not.
“That was the vindication for me that whatever I had been doing at Clyde was working.
“So I just kept working in that way.”
‘I was prepared to work hard’
Archibald had spent three seasons at Clyde before Aberdeen signed him as a 21-year-old.
He netted 25 goals in his debut season before following that up with 21 the next campaign.
It was inevitable that goalscoring form would bring the striker to the attention of bigger clubs.
Shortly after the league title win with the Dons, he was sold to Spurs in a club record fee of £1.25m.
It helped pay for the redevelopment of the South Stand.
Archibald insists the hard graft of life as a mechanic readied him for a full-time football career.
He said: “You bet it was an easy transition.
“Being a mechanic is not an easy job when you are lifting heavy things and getting your hands cut trying to get into little corners of the engines. Getting your hands burnt and everything else.
“It stood me in good stead, because it was hard graft and I was strong and fit.
“To go from that, well I was prepared to be a person that works hard.
“In football you have to work hard as well, although it’s a different kind of hard work.
“It’s hard running and physical fitness, but beyond all that you also have to try to use your skill and ability.
“The transition was easy enough and very enjoyable.”
Taking on Maradona’s No.10 jersey
A fans’ favourite at Pittodrie, Archibald would also go on to secure legendary status at Spurs.
He won the FA Cup twice and also secured the UEFA Cup with Spurs before a stunning £1m move to Barcelona.
When Archibald, now 65, arrived at the Camp Nou, he found German international Bernt Schuster in possession of the No.8 jersey.
Archibald had worn that number throughout his career and it was in the contract he had just signed that he would retain the No.8 spot.
However, Schuster was not ready to let it go, because he was desperate not to wear the No.10 vacated by Maradona, who had left for Napoli.
Archibald opted to take the No.10 shirt.
Within a year, he had helped Barcelona win a first league title in a decade.
He also started and played for 100 minutes in the European Cup final penalty shoot-out loss to Steaua Bucharest in 1986.
Archibald scored in the European Cup semi-final defeat of Juventus that season.
The importance of Joe Harper
Archibald insists former Aberdeen strike partner and good friend Joe Harper was “a vital piece in the jigsaw” in his rise to Camp Nou.
He said: “I was just a raw recruit and Joe was vital to my development.
“In fact, Aberdeen signed me as a midfield player, not as a striker.
“But, in training, I would wander up the pitch and score a goal here and there.
“Then Billy McNeill saw I might have some use up front and stuck me up there.
“Joe was there at that time and he guided me through that initial stage of my apprenticeship of becoming a striker.
“There was no one better I could have had by my side than Joe Harper that’s for sure.
“He talked me through the game on and off the pitch.
“Joe was a vital piece in my personal jigsaw of becoming a striker.”
A night with goal scoring legends
Archibald and Harper, the club’s all-time leading goal-scorer, will meet up at the Tivoli on Wednesday.
Legend Archibald, capped 27 times by Scotland, is excited at the prospect of reliving his career in front of Dons’ fans.
He said: “It will be great to be back and see some old friends, the city and hopefully take in a game.
“It has been a long, long time since I saw Joe.
“It’s one of those things – if you have a friendship, they stand the test of time.
“It doesn’t matter if you have seen them 10 minutes, 10 days or 10 years ago.
“Whenever you see them again, it is straight into it again and that will be the case with Joe and me.
“We had a very strong relationship on and off the pitch. We used to go out for dinner after games and on the pitch we had a very close partnership.
“It worked fantastically well and we scored lots of goals.”
Book tickets online to see An Audience with Steve Archibald in Aberdeen at the Tivoli Theatre on March 16 2022.
