He was still a car mechanic at the age of 18, but he inherited Maradona s No. 10 at the age of 28. Geniuses still need Bole.

At the request of my friends, talk about a relatively unpopular player: Archibald. I believe that many new fans have never heard of his name. However, this does not mean that his strength is not strong enough. On the contrary, this is a ruthless man who inherited Maradona's No. 10 jersey: On September 27, 1956, Steve Archibald was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Perhaps in the impression of many fans, Scottish players are all those big and thick-bodied men. But as for the player Archibald, he not only has nothing to do with the word "male man", but he is even a little thin.

In most places, people or things that go against the mainstream will suffer more or less, and Archibald is no exception. Although he showed delicate footwork and a keen sense of smell in front of the door when he was a teenager, he still suffered a lot along the way. As a local Glasgow, he has not even entered the Glasgow Rangers, which is the most famous local team.

So much so that when he was 18 years old, he was still hanging out with a local amateur team. In order to support himself, he had to become an auto mechanic. Fortunately, Clyde was willing to give him a chance, so Archibald embarked on the path of a professional player.

Archibald suffered a lot during his days at Clyde. At that time, he lacked experience in the competition and had no strong body, and was once not very adaptable to the rhythm of the competition. Until the 1976-77 season, he was in his early 20s and only paid a data sheet of three league goals in a single season.

What is surprising is that although Archibald's goal efficiency was not high, the Aberdeen team, who was determined to compete for the championship at the time, attracted him in the summer of 1977. However, Aberdeen's positioning of Archibald is just a substitute. In the 1977-78 season, the first season of Archibald's play for Aberdeen, he only played 10 league games.

If it continues to develop according to this trend, then Archibald's future is obviously not worth looking forward to. However, the turning point of fate happened in the summer of 1978. The Aberdeen Club made the decision to change the coach and invited Ferguson, who could only be considered a rookie coach at the time.

Ferguson's coaching style is well known, and it is famous for its iron blood. But if the iron-blooded coach wants to implement his own ideas, it requires prestige. But Ferguson didn't have enough prestige at that time. When he first arrived, many old players were unwilling to accept him.

Under this background, Archibald stood on Ferguson's side without hesitation, and did not hesitate to fight against the old players in the team. On the one hand, Ferguson simply gave him a lot of opportunities to play in order to better control the locker room, and on the other hand, he appreciated Archibald's talent.

With the care of Ferguson, Bole, Archibald, who had not played the game before, felt as if he had changed someone else overnight, burst out with amazing combat power. In the 1978-79 season, the first season of the mentor-apprentice cooperation, Archibald firmly sat in the main seat under Ferguson. In the next 1979-80 season, the master and apprentice teamed up to win the league championship.

Although the Scottish League champions are not very powerful, they are incomparable to the English League champions or Serie A champions. However, after all, Archibald played in Aberdeen, rather than playing football at the Celtics or the Glasgow Rangers. It is already amazing that he can break the monopoly of these two traditional giants on the league championship.

Achbard's performance attracted the attention of the English club. This summer after winning the championship, he was recruited by Tottenham Hotspur. Archibald quickly proved his worth, and scored 20 league goals in his first season with Tottenham.

In the next few seasons, Archibald's performance has been very stable, and he is one of the star players in the English League. He was undoubtedly selected for the Scottish team's squad for the 1982 World Cup. Unfortunately, Scotland's grouping was too bad, and he went home after the group stage.

Although he encountered setbacks in the international competition, Archibald still regarded the ruthless man as a goal as a mustard after returning to the club. With his help, Tottenham won the UEFA Cup.

Achibald's stable and outstanding performance will naturally be seen by British coaches. For example, the famous Venables wanted to recruit Archibald under his command when he was coaching Crystal Palace, but he just failed to do so. By the summer of 1984, when Venables entered the Camp Nou, he would soon ask his new owner to bring in Archibald.

And this summer when Archibald joined Barcelona, ​​Camp Nou lost Argentine superstar Maradona. As we all know, Maradona wore the No. 10 jersey during her time at Barcelona. So after Maradona left the team, Barcelona had to face the problem of finding a new owner for the No. 10 jersey.

If you were looking for the heir to Maradona's No. 10 jersey based on qualifications and abilities, then German star Schuster was undoubtedly the best candidate at that time. But Schuster himself was not very concerned about this and refused Barcelona's request. On the contrary, Archibald, who was a newcomer, once caused a lot of controversy in 1984, when he was 28 years old.

Fortunately, Archibald's strength was there, and he quickly dispelled people's doubts. The first round of La Liga match in the 1984-85 season was the highly anticipated Spanish national derby. Archibald scored a goal away and helped Barcelona defeat his old enemies. In the following seasons of 1985-86, Archibald continued his strong performance and helped Barcelona reach the Champions League final..

However, just as Archibald was smooth sailing, injuries came to him. By the time he returned from injury, the main seat had been replaced by new players, Reinkell. He broke up peacefully with Barcelona and went to England again, playing until he was about 40 years old before he announced his boots.

Looking at Archibald's career as a player, it fully proves that genius still needs mentors. If he hadn't met Ferguson, he would have been gone astray.