Steve McCall

Stephen Harold "Steve" McCall (born 15 October 1960) is a retired English footballer who now works as the Chief Scout for Colchester United.
A defensive midfielder during his playing days, McCall built a reputation as a cultured midfield player, with immaculate passing ability. He began his career with Ipswich Town and quickly progressed to the first team under the management of Bobby Robson. McCall helped the club win the UEFA Cup in 1981, and he went on to win six England U21 caps during the next year. He left Portman Road in 1987, having made more than 300 appearances for the club, to join Sheffield Wednesday. His time with them was blighted by injury, and he spent time on loan with his home town club, Carlisle United in 1990. Two years later, he joined Plymouth Argyle and became a key player for Peter Shilton's side. He won the clubs Player of the Year award in his first two full seasons at Home Park, reflecting his impact on the team.
He briefly managed the club in 1995 following the departure of Shilton and stayed on as a member of the playing squad when Neil Warnock was appointed. He then moved to Torquay United in 1996 as a player-coach for Kevin Hodges and returned to Home Park two years later with Hodges. He went into non-league football in 2000 with Workington, where he finished his playing career. Following retirement, he returned to Ipswich Town, initially as a scout and then as a coach. Under the management of Paul Jewell, he was made chief scout but left the club in July 2014. In September 2014 he joined Colchester United in a similar role.

Ipswich Town

He made his name at Ipswich Town, where his greatest achievement was winning the UEFA Cup in the 1980/81 season, beating AZ Alkmaar 5–4 on aggregate, with McCall playing an influential part in his team's victory. He joined Ipswich Town in 1978 as an apprentice, being scouted from the north-west where Town legend Kevin Beattie was also born and went on to make 329 appearances for Town, standing as a record of consecutive appearances until 2001, being beaten by Goalkeeper Richard Wright. During this time he received one B cap against New Zealand. Never a goalscorer, McCall scored 11 goals in his 9 seasons at Ipswich before he was sold for £300,000 to Yorkshire side Sheffield Wednesday.

Sheffield Wednesday

His time at Sheffield Wednesday was unfortunately not so successful, as he spent much of his 4 seasons sidelined with a range of injuries, limiting his collection of appearances to only 36, scoring only 2 goals. In the midst of an unfortunate run at Wednesday, McCall achieved a childhood dream by being loaned to his home team and lifelong supported Carlisle United, where he spent only a few months making 6 appearances without a goal. He contributed 5 appearances to Wednesday's run in the 1990–91 Football League Cup, but was not part of the match day squad as they won the final.

Plymouth Argyle

Towards the end of the 1991–92 season, McCall was sent down south, being sold to Plymouth Argyle for £25,000, where he would go on to become one of Argyle's greatest ever players, winning player of the season two years in a row in 1993 and 1994, only the second player in Argyle's history to achieve such a title (the other being Paul Mariner, one of McCall's ex-team mates). As if given a new lease of life, McCall enjoyed a period of rich form in his two occasions at Plymouth Argyle, making 275 appearances in a total of 6 years at the club. In 1995 McCall enjoyed a short rein as caretaker manager at Plymouth, being replaced by Neil Warnock.

Torquay United

Sandwiched between his two spells at Plymouth, McCall joined Torquay United for free from 12 July 1996 to 24 June 1998, joining former Plymouth team mate and manager Kevin Hodges as Torquay United's management team. In the 1997–98 season, McCall lived another childhood ambition – to play at Wembley, when Torquay played out a close fought match against Colchester United. The dream of playoff glory was short lived however, as the favourites for promotion were beaten 1–0 by a Colchester penalty. The close season saw Mick Jones – manager of Plymouth lose his job, and Hodges and McCall took the position at their former club, in a reign that lasted a further two years.

Return to Plymouth Argyle

McCall's playing career ended in 2000 at Plymouth Argyle, also seeing him lose his job at the hands of a low league position, which turned out to be another turn in his career. He appeared in the famous Jimmy Glass game against his hometown club Carlisle, in which the goalkeeper scored in the 94th minute to keep Carlisle United in the Football League.

In 2001, McCall hooked up with former team mate and close friend George Burley as European scouting Co-Ordinator at Ipswich Town, and progressed through the ranks as initially Scout, and when Joe Royle took over, became Reserve Team Manager and First Team Coach. He currently works as chief scout for Colchester United.

In 2006 he took part in Masters football.

International

As a player

Ipswich Town

• UEFA Cup: 1981

Sheffield Wednesday

• Football League Cup: 1991

Individual

• Plymouth Argyle Player of the Year: 1992–93, 1993–94