BABY STEPS
Once upon a time, there was a footballer called Brian McClair, who was renowned for many things. Unusually, he combined the early part of his career with university study, reading maths, physics, chemistry and statistics at Glasgow – though it was never clear whether it was this or his accent that caused Bryan Robson to observe that “he’s meant to be funny but none of us can understand him”. McClair is also owner of Choccy, one of football’s classic nicknames – “as his last name rhymed with the delicacy ‘chocolate éclair’,” advises Wikipedia – and earned the admiration of the great Lord Ferg for his devotion to training in shorts regardless of the weather. He was also lauded for his devastating finishing in and around the goalline. Had the Puskás Award existed in 1991-92, he would surely have won it for the beauty that can be seen at 1m20s here.
