Derek Dougan

Derek Dougan

Dougan as a Wolverhampton Wanderers player
Personal information
Full name	Alexander Derek Dougan
Date of birth	(1938-01-20)20 January 1938
Place of birth	Belfast, Northern Ireland
Date of death	24 June 2007(2007-06-24) (aged 69)
Place of death	Wolverhampton, England
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
1951–1953	Cregagh Boys
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1953–1957	Distillery	76	(17)
1957–1959	Portsmouth	33	(9)
1959–1961	Blackburn Rovers	59	(26)
1961–1963	Aston Villa	51	(19)
1963–1965	Peterborough United	77	(38)
1965–1967	Leicester City	68	(35)
1967–1975	Wolverhampton Wanderers	258	(95)
1967	→ Los Angeles Wolves (loan)	11	(3)
1969	→ Kansas City Spurs (loan)	6	(4)
1975–1977	Kettering Town
Total		639	(246)
International career
1952	Northern Ireland Schoolboys	3	(0)
	Northern Ireland Youth
1956	Northern Ireland Amateurs	2	(0)
1957–1959	Northern Ireland B	2	(3)
1958–1973	Northern Ireland	43	(8)
Managerial career
1975–1977	Kettering Town (player-manager)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Alexander Derek Dougan (20 January 1938 – 24 June 2007) was a Northern Ireland international footballer, football manager, football chairman, pundit, and writer. He was also known by his nickname, "The Doog".^[1][2] He was capped by Northern Ireland at schoolboy, youth, Amateur, and 'B' team level, before he won 43 caps in a 15-year career for the senior team from 1958 to 1973, scoring eight international goals and featuring in the 1958 FIFA World Cup. He also played in the Shamrock Rovers XI v Brazil exhibition match in July 1973, which he also helped to organise.

A strong and physical forward, he began his career at Distillery in his native Belfast. He helped Distillery to win the Irish Cup in 1956, before he won a £4,000 move to English First Division side Portsmouth in August 1957. He was sold on to Blackburn Rovers in March 1959 for a fee of £15,000, and played for the club in the 1960 FA Cup Final despite handing in a transfer request the day before the final. He moved on to Aston Villa for £15,000 in July 1961, but struggled with injuries during a two-season stay at Villa Park. He dropped into the Third Division to join Peterborough United in 1963, who paid a £21,000 transfer fee. He returned to the top flight in November 1965 after being sold to Leicester City for £26,000. He was sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers for a £50,000 fee in March 1967, and helped the club to win promotion out of the Second Division in 1966–67, to lift the Texaco Cup in 1970 and the League Cup in 1974, and also played on the losing side of the 1972 UEFA Cup final. He also spent two summers in the United States playing for the club's sister teams, the Los Angeles Wolves and the Kansas City Spurs, who he helped to win the United Soccer Association and NASL International Cup respectively. He retired in 1975, having scored a total of 279 goals in 661 league and cup appearances across 18 seasons in the Football League.

He was appointed player-manager at Southern League Premier Division side Kettering Town in 1975, a position he retained for two years. Whilst at the club he negotiated the first shirt sponsorship deal in English football. He chaired the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) from 1970 to 1978, and helped to further players' rights and set up the first PFA player awards in 1974. Also throughout the 1970s he became a football pundit and writer, and became particularly well known for his part in ITV's coverage of the 1970 and 1974 FIFA World Cup. After fronting a consortium that took Wolverhampton Wanderers out of liquidation, he served the club as chairman from August 1982 to January 1985. He stood as an independent politician in the Belfast East constituency in 1997, and later became involved in the UK Independence Party.