Shanks’ snub led to Phil making history in Holland
SCOTLAND’S teenage striking sensation, Oliver Burke, experienced the highs and lows of football last week.
The 19-year-old was given a starting role against Lithuania by Gordon Strachan, but didn’t even make the bench against Slovakia four days later.
Now he’ll be looking to rebuild his confidence by turning it on for RB Leipzig in Germany’s Bundesliga.
Phil Tinney was a young Scottish winger looking to kick-start his career when he moved to Holland in the 60s.
His short spell with Heracles saw him enter the record books as the first Scot to score in the Eredivisie.
Players from 99 different countries have now hit the net in the Dutch top flight.
Phil was the 18th nationality to grab a goal when he hit a double for Heracles against MVV Maastricht in October 1965.
But the former Liverpool apprentice only played twice more for the club.
Looking back, Phil admits that quitting Holland was a mistake.
He said: “My biggest regret was leaving Heracles on my 21st birthday and deciding I’d had enough of life in Almelo.
“The football was excellent and it was clearly a country on the way up. And the businessmen who ran the club were understandably unhappy.
“Preston were keen to sign me, but FIFA had given me a five-year ban from football for breaking my contract.
“Antwerp also made an offer but, again, they couldn’t get clearance for the move.”
Unable to sign for a club operating under FIFA regulations, Phil’s next move was to the USA.
He went on: “I had friends in Canada who recommended me to Philadelphia Spartans.
“They were playing in a rebel league that wasn’t affiliated to FIFA.
“It turned out to be a good move.
“We had a lot of South American players, including Ruben Navarro, a former captain of Argentina.
“After a season there, I spent three summers with Dallas Tornado and we won the NASL in 1971.”
Phil started his professional career with Liverpool, one of a number of young Scots arriving to be part of Bill Shankly’s revolution.
He said: “I was taken on as an apprentice with other Scottish lads, such as Alex Totten, Gordon Wallace, George Scott, Hamish MacKenzie and Bobby Graham.
“I scored three goals in the FA Youth Cup Final against West Ham and things seemed to be going well.
“In 1964, Shanks told me to make sure my passport was ready and to get measured for a club suit because I was going on tour to America.
“A couple of weeks later, he said I was being freed and that his brother, Bob, was looking for a left winger at Dundee. “That was a turning point in my career. “I signed for Dundee but only made one appearance when I scored against St Johnstone in the Summer Cup,
“It wasn’t the right move for me and I was still suffering from the blow of being released by Liverpool.
“It was then a letter arrived with an airline ticket, inviting me to go on trial in Holland!”
A broken leg sustainted while playing with Wigan brought an end to Phil’s career.
Now 71, he is retired in Merseyside after a career working in residential childcare.