| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Maurice John Giblin Johnston | ||
| Date of birth | (1963-04-13)13 April 1963 (age 62) | ||
| Place of birth | Glasgow, Scotland | ||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[1] | ||
| Position | Forward | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Milton Battlefield | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1979–1983 | Partick Thistle | 85 | (41) |
| 1983–1984 | Watford | 38 | (23) |
| 1984–1987 | Celtic | 99 | (52) |
| 1987–1989 | Nantes | 66 | (22) |
| 1989–1991 | Rangers | 76 | (31) |
| 1991–1993 | Everton | 34 | (10) |
| 1993–1995 | Heart of Midlothian | 35 | (5) |
| 1995–1996 | Falkirk | 41 | (6) |
| 1996–2001 | Kansas City Wizards | 149 | (31) |
| Total | 623 | (221) | |
| International career | |||
| 1984–1991 | Scotland | 38 | (14) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2005–2006 | New York Red Bulls | ||
| 2007–2008 | Toronto FC | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Maurice John Giblin Johnston (born 13 April 1963) is a Scottish formerfootball player and coach. Johnston, who played as aforward, started his senior football career withPartick Thistle in 1981. He moved toWatford in 1983, where he scored 23 league goals and helped them reach the1984 FA Cup Final. In 1984 he joinedCeltic and scored 72 goals in 128 matches, won theScottish Cup in 1985 and theScottish league championship in 1986. Johnston signed forNantes in 1987. He returned toGlasgow withRangers in 1989, becoming the second player to cross theOld Firm divide sinceWorld War II (Alfie Conn was first) and the first openCatholic to play for Rangers sinceWorld War I.
Johnston won two Scottish league titles with Rangers, scoring 46 goals in 100 games. He later played forEverton,Hearts,Falkirk and AmericanMajor League Soccer (MLS) sideKansas City Wizards. Johnston received his first international cap forScotland in 1984, when he was at Watford. He scored 14 goals in 38 appearances for Scotland, including one at the1990 World Cup.
After retiring as a football player in 2001, Johnston coached in MLS. He was most recently the manager and laterDirector of Soccer at MLS clubToronto FC[2] before he parted company with them on 14 September 2010.[3]
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Johnston started his career in 1981 withPartick Thistle and scored 41 goals in two and a half seasons there.
Johnston then moved on to English clubWatford for a fee of £210,000 in November 1983, when they were struggling against relegation from the First Division a season after finishing second. His arrival revived their season as they recovered well to finish mid table, as he scored 20 goals in just 29 league games. He also helped them reach their first everFA Cup final, which theylost 2–0 toEverton. He began the1984–85 season still atVicarage Road and got three goals in nine First Division games before returning to Scotland.[4]
Johnston scored 14 league goals in 27 games during his first season at the club. In1985–86 he scored 15 goals from 32 Premier Division games as Celtic won the league title. During the1986–87 season Johnston scored 23 goals from 40 games.
Johnston moved on to French clubNantes in 1987 and scored 22 goals in two seasons there. After initially claiming he would never return to Scotland, Johnston reconsidered and appeared at a press conference to announce that he would sign for Celtic at the end of his contract with Nantes.
In July 1989, Johnston opted not to return to Celtic (who had recently sold his replacementFrank McAvennie back toWest Ham United) and instead joinedGraeme Souness's Rangers. From the early 20th century onwards,Catholics had not been knowingly signed by Rangers, nor employed in other prominent roles as an 'unwritten rule'.[5][6][7][8] Johnston was "their first major Roman Catholic signing".[9] He was the highest-profile Catholic to sign for the club since the World War I era, though other Catholics had signed for Rangers before.[5][10] The move angered both Celtic and Rangers supporters. A handful of Rangers fans burned scarves and threatened to hand in season tickets over the signing but attendances held firm while Celtic fans referred to Johnston asJudas.[11][12] Rangers' kitman Jimmy Bell protested by making Johnston arrange his own kit and withholding from him the chocolate bars dispensed to other players until he scored against Celtic.[11] He won over a lot of Rangers fans in November 1989, when he scored a late winning goal in anOld Firm derby match.
On 18 November 1991, Johnston signed toEverton for £1.5M, forming a three-man strikeforce alongsideTony Cottee andPeter Beardsley. He scored seven goals in 21 league games as Everton finished mid table in the1991–92 campaign of theFirst Division. Johnston scored three goals in 13 games as Everton finished 13th in thefirst season of the new Premier League, losing his place in the first team to new signingPaul Rideout. One of his goals in the 1992–93 season came in a 3–0 away win overManchester United in the second game of the Premier League season.
Despite the departure of Peter Beardsley toNewcastle United in the close season, Johnston remained out of the team during the1993–94 campaign as managerHoward Kendall reverted to the traditional 4–4–2 formation and partnered Tony Cottee withPaul Rideout in attack.
In October 1993, Johnston was given a free transfer when attempts to sell him failed.[citation needed]
Johnston returned to Scotland withEdinburgh clubHeart of Midlothian, making 31 appearances in his first season and scoring four goals. He found himself out of the team the following season[13][14] and was given another free transfer in February 1995 after a long dispute over the settlement of his contract.[15] JoiningFalkirk, he scored one goal in the remainder of that season and five in the next season asFalkirk were relegated from theScottish Premier Division.
In 1996, Johnston moved to the United States andMajor League Soccer, signing with theKansas City Wiz (later renamed the Wizards). He scored 31 goals in 149 games for the club, adding a goal in 15playoff games. He was part of the Wizards team that won theMLS Cup in 2000.[16]
Mo Johnston made his debut with theScotland national team in 1984 and played regularly under managerAndy Roxburgh following his appointment in July 1986.
He had been expected to make the squad for the1986 FIFA World Cup but was dropped byAlex Ferguson (caretaker manager until the end of the World Cup after the death ofJock Stein in September 1985) after a late night incident during Scotland's preparations for their play-off against Australia in November 1985, in which Johnston had disturbed a member of the coaching staff in his hotel room. In Ferguson's autobiography,Managing My Life, which was published 14 years later, Ferguson stated that he had already warned Johnston about his conduct after he and teammateFrank McAvennie had bought drinks for themselves, fellow Scotland teammates and a group of young women in the hotel bar.
He played a part in getting Scotland toItalia 90 but retired from international competition after their early elimination. He briefly returned to the national side team for several Euro qualifiers in late 1991 but got injured against Switzerland and finally, in 1992 after scoring 14 goals in 38 caps, permanently retired from the national team. He was in the starting lineup for all three of Scotland's matches in the1990 World Cup, scoring apenalty kick againstSweden.
Johnston retired after the 2001 season, and from 2003 to 2005 was an assistant coach toBob Bradley for theMetroStars.[17] After Bradley was fired with three games left in the 2005 season, Johnston was named interim head coach.[18] With a record to end the season of two wins and a tie, he led the team to the playoffs and was promoted to the full-time position[19] with re-brandedNew York Red Bulls after the season. On 27 June 2006, after a 2-3-7 start to the 2006 season, Johnston was fired.[20]
On 22 August 2006,Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE); owners of MLS clubToronto FC, announced Johnston as Head Coach beginning their inaugural2007 season.[21] Before the start of the2008 season, it was announced that Johnston was moving upstairs to fill the role ofDirector of Football, though he retained the title of manager, whileJohn Carver took over coaching duties at the time.[22] Johnston earned himself the name "Trader Mo" because in the first half of the first season alone he had traded 9 players.[23] Johnston's tenure as Director of Soccer ended when he was fired, along with head coachPreki, on 14 September 2010.[3] Johnston's regular season record as Director of Soccer Operations was 32-51-31.
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland[24] | 1984 | 6 | 4 |
| 1985 | 3 | 0 | |
| 1986 | 3 | 1 | |
| 1987 | 4 | 0 | |
| 1988 | 7 | 3 | |
| 1989 | 7 | 4 | |
| 1990 | 6 | 2 | |
| 1991 | 2 | 0 | |
| Total | 38 | 14 | |
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 28 February 1984 | Hampden Park,Glasgow, Scotland |  Wales | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1984 British Home Championship |
| 2 | 12 September 1984 | Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland |  Yugoslavia | 5–1 | 6–1 | Friendly |
| 3 | 14 November 1984 | Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland |  Spain | 1–0 | 3–1 | 1986 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 4 | 2–0 | |||||
| 5 | 12 November 1986 | Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland |  Luxembourg | 3–0 | 3–0 | UEFA Euro 1988 qualifying |
| 6 | 17 February 1988 | Prince Faisal bin Fahd Stadium,Riyadh, Saudi Arabia |  Saudi Arabia | 1–1 | 2–2 | Friendly |
| 7 | 14 September 1988 | Ullevaal Stadion,Oslo, Norway |  Norway | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 8 | 19 October 1988 | Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland | Yugoslavia | 1–0 | 1–1 | 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 9 | 8 February 1989 | Tsirion Stadium,Limassol, Cyprus |  Cyprus | 1–0 | 3–2 | 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 10 | 8 March 1989 | Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland |  France | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 11 | 2–0 | |||||
| 12 | 26 April 1989 | Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland | Cyprus | 1–0 | 2–1 | 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 13 | 19 May 1990 | Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland |  Poland | 1–0 | 1–1 | Friendly |
| 14 | 16 June 1990 | Stadio Luigi Ferraris,Genoa, Italy |  Sweden | 2–0 | 2–1 | 1990 FIFA World Cup |
| Team | From | To | Record | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % | Ref. | |||
| MetroStars/NY Red Bulls | 4 October 2005[17] | 26 June 2006[20] | 16 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 21 | 23 | −2 | 031.25 | [25] |
| Toronto FC | 22 August 2006[21] | 1 February 2008[22] | 30 | 6 | 7 | 17 | 25 | 49 | −24 | 020.00 | [26] |
| Total | 46 | 11 | 14 | 21 | 46 | 72 | −26 | 023.91 | — | ||
Watford
Celtic
Rangers
Kansas City Wizards
Scotland
Individual
Historically Rangers have maintained a staunch Protestant and anti-Catholic tradition which includes a ban on signing Catholic players.
The conflict in Ireland failed to be the catalyst which swept the religious cobwebs from the Ibrox-based club's terraces and boardroom. One of its managers even had no qualms in the 1970s about urging his players to roar out the loyalist battle-cry 'No Surrender' as they ran up the tunnel at Ibrox.
For years Rangers have been pilloried for what the majority of people saw as discrimination against one section of the population. Now we have shown that this unwritten policy at Ibrox is over. It's finished. Done with.
