Billy Stark

Stark asScotland under-21 head coach, in 2009
Personal information
Full name	William Stark[1]
Date of birth	(1956-12-01)1 December 1956 (age 68)[1]
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Position	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1975–1983	St Mirren	255	(60)
1983–1987	Aberdeen	112	(41)
1987–1990	Celtic	64	(17)
1990–1992	Kilmarnock	22	(6)
1992–1993	Hamilton Academical	14	(0)
1993–1994	Kilmarnock	36	(3)
Total		503	(127)
International career
1985	Scotland U21[2]	1	(0)
Managerial career
1997	Celtic (caretaker)
1997–2000	Greenock Morton
2001–2004	St Johnstone
2004–2008	Queen's Park
2008–2014	Scotland U21
2012–2013	Scotland (caretaker)
2017–2018	East Kilbride
2018–2024	Scotland U19
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

William Stark (born 1 December 1956) is a Scottish formerfootball player and coach. He made 500 league appearances in total, including successful spells at St Mirren,Aberdeen andCeltic. He then turned to management, which has seen him take caretaker charge of both Celtic and Scotland - staying unbeaten at manager of both teams in his short spells - with longer roles at smaller club sides in Scotland.

Born inGlasgow,^[1] Stark made his professional debut in 1975 in nearbyPaisley forSt Mirren. Two years later he won his first honour, aFirst Division winners medal. After 255 games for St Mirren, scoring 60 goals, he was signed byAberdeen for £80,000. During a period of success for the side, he helped Aberdeen to win aEuropean Super Cup in 1983, aPremier Division andScottish Cupdouble in 1984, another league title the following year and aLeague Cup and Scottish Cup double in 1986.

Stark was signed byCeltic in 1987, for a £100,000 transfer fee. In three seasons with the club he won two further Scottish Cups and a League Championship, before leaving forKilmarnock for two seasons. In 1992, he transferred toHamilton Academical as a player/coach, but returned to Kilmarnock the following year under manager and former Celtic colleagueTommy Burns. Stark retired from playing in 1994, having scored over 100 league goals.

After retiring as a player, Stark became assistant to Tommy Burns atCeltic. When Burns left Celtic in 1997, Stark managed the side for three matches in a caretaker capacity before leaving himself. Stark then had spells managingGreenock Morton andSt Johnstone^[3] before becomingQueen's Park manager in 2004.^[4]

Stark led Queen's to one of their greatest results of modern times in August 2006 atFirhill Stadium, when Queen's Park beat his former club Aberdeen onpenalty kicks after a 0–0 draw in the2006–07 Scottish League Cup.^[5] Stark also led the Glasgow club to promotion from theScottish Third Division and later hailed the achievement as the highlight of his football career.^[6]

Stark left Queen's Park on 1 January 2008 to work for theScottish Football Association, a role that involved managing theunder-21 national team. They reached the qualification playoffs for the2011 European championship, but they lost out toIceland.^[7]David Goodwillie,Danny Wilson andBarry Bannan were promoted from the under-21s to thefull national team selected byCraig Levein in November 2010.^[7] The team finished in second place in their qualifying group for the2013 European championship, but did not gather enough points to be eligible for the playoffs.

Stark was placed in caretaker charge of theScotland national team for a friendly againstLuxembourg in November 2012, following the departure of Craig Levein.^[8] Stark resigned from the position of Scotland under-21 manager in November 2014.^[9]

In June 2015, Stark was appointed assistant manager toDarren Young at newly promotedScottish League One sideAlbion Rovers.^[10]

In June 2017, he was appointed manager at ScottishLowland Football League sideEast Kilbride.^[11] He resigned from this position shortly before the end of the 2017–18 season.^[12] Stark then returned to the Scottish Football Association, within this role he became head coach of theunder-19 national team.

Stark retired from coaching in April 2024.^[13]

^{[17][18][19][20]}

• 1956 births
• Living people
• Scottish football managers
• Men's association football wingers
• Scottish men's footballers
• Celtic F.C. players
• St Mirren F.C. players
• Hamilton Academical F.C. players
• Greenock Morton F.C. non-playing staff
• Aberdeen F.C. players
• Kilmarnock F.C. players
• Queen's Park F.C. managers
• Greenock Morton F.C. managers
• St Johnstone F.C. managers
• Scottish Football League players
• Celtic F.C. non-playing staff
• Scottish Premier League managers
• Kilmarnock F.C. non-playing staff
• Scottish Football League managers
• Scotland men's under-21 international footballers
• Scotland national football team managers
• Scotland national under-21 football team managers
• East Kilbride F.C. managers
• Lowland Football League managers

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from February 2020