The gambling addiction of a Scottish champion

“If I hadn’t gambled, I’d be a millionaire by now. If I hadn’t discovered the game, I’d be a better soccer player.” frank mcgarveya great striker who played in glasgow celtic and the St Mirren and he had a short passage in Liverpool, about his important life between football and gambling addiction. We know the death of mcgarvey last January 1. He died at the age of 66, a victim of pancreatic cancer which he made public that he had only suffered for three months.

With the game from a very young age

I remember I went on vacation to burntisland with 9 or 10 years. My father gave us a pound each. While my brothers bought ice cream, I went to a game room and changed the pound to 240 cents and spent it all on the machines. I messed everything up. And that was the beginning,” he admitted. mcgarvey in his memoirs published in 2008 (“Totally Frank”).

All his life he had to deal with gambling addiction. He overcame it and it happened again several times. He wrote a biography with the idea of ​​helping others out of trouble but the truth is that he often lamented that in his hometown, GlasgowMore and more bookmakers and the lure of being able to bet from mobile is another obstacle to break the addiction.

a successful career

frank mcgarvey He made the jump to professional football at the hands of Sir Alex Ferguson. took it out of kilsyth rangers where he scored 21 goals in one season and in 1975 he brought it St Mirrenwho trained since 1974, where they managed to win the Scottish First Division in the 1976-77 season. Frank reached 17 goals. In four courses he defended the shirt St Mirren he scored 52 goals in 132 games. It attracted the attention of Bob Paisley who in May 1979 brought it to Liverpool for 270,000 pounds (just over 300,000 euros). There he tripled his salary to earn £425 a week. Despite facing Kenny Dalglish either david fairclough and playing so little he asked the club for a £50 raise.

He was 10 months and left. He has two options: go back together Sir Alex in Aberdeen or stop at Celtic. He acknowledges that “if he signed for aberdeen, Fergie would have stopped me. And I don’t want to stop. my heart said Celticsaid my head aberdeen. It was a draw until my gambling addiction said Celtic”.

With the ‘hoops‘ he played 245 games in 5 years scoring 113 goals. He won two leagues, two Scottish Cups and one League Cup. It ended in the 1985-86 season when they did not offer him a renewal and he scored the winning goal in his last game six minutes from the end of the season. Scottish Cup. back to St Mirren until 1990 playing another 134 games and scoring 20 goals. He extended his football career as long as he could, ending at the age of 42 after playing for Scottish minor league teams. In the morning he trained and in the afternoon he squandered his salary until he gave up football and became an assembly carpenter. But the addiction continued.

A problem that pulled him

His heyday came in the 80s while he was a member of Celtic and after the birth of their second child. In 1982 he decided to join the group ‘Gamblers Anonymous’. to fans of Partick Thistle, Rangers either Celtic who knew him, he was ashamed. The game caused him to separate from his wife in the early 90s and then online gambling appeared and he returned to their networks. He can bet on horses day and night. In 2007 he was forced to sell his apartment to pay off his debts. In 2008 and to coincide with the release of his book, he announced that he had recovered. “All my dreams have come true, as well as all my nightmares” he wrote. Rest in peace.